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How we can support the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation

March 27, 2025

Create welcomes the UK Government’s recent commitment of £2 billion to support the construction of up to 18,000 new social and affordable homes. This new funding, which comes as a down payment from the Treasury ahead of more long term investment later this year, presents a significant opportunity for developers and local authorities to address the housing crisis across our country.

Navigating the complexities of planning and development for such projects, ensuring that they can be brought forward efficiently and effectively, requires specialised expertise across a wide range of disciplines. As an award-winning, independent, engineering and environmental consultancy with national coverage, we offer a comprehensive suite of technical services tailored to support the successful delivery of social and affordable housing developments across the UK.

HOW CAN WE HELP BUILD SOCIAL AND AFFORDABLE HOMES?

Our diverse team can immediately provide effective support to landowners, land promoters, local authorities, developers and housing associations looking to navigate the intricacies associated with the purchasing or unlocking of land, and securing deliverable planning permissions for future development.

Covering ten core disciplines in-house, our experts seamlessly work together to ensure a holistic approach to project management and development, providing the specialist services needed to meet the unique challenges these social and affordable housing developments face – this includes:

  • Offering initial land development appraisals and strategic planning guidance to ensure a project aligns with local and national housing policies.
  • Utilising sustainable design solutions to enhance the long-term viability of homes and ensure they meet current and future environmental standards, whilst also positively contributing to communities and the battle against climate change.
  • Combining highway design, flood risk, earthworks, ground remediation, sustainable drainage systems, and utilities design to ensure the infrastructure of a development meets the unique demands placed on it.
  • Providing a significant range of technical assessments and monitoring services to measure the potential environmental impact of a proposed development, including the provision of practical mitigation measures, e.g. visiting a site to monitor dust, air quality, water quality, ground gas and noise levels.
  • Ensuring accessibility and connectivity are at the heart of the development, providing travel plans, transport assessments and mobility strategies, as well as highway design to seamlessly integrate new schemes into existing networks.
  • Assessing and mitigating environmental risks by carrying out site investigations and completing contamination assessments, and where appropriate, remediation strategies to prepare sites for safe and sustainable development.

WHY WORK WITH CREATE?

In short, we know exactly what it takes to propel a scheme to success.

For over 16 years, we have supported the planning, design and construction of thousands of new social housing and affordable homes, helping to meet community needs. Our experience ranges from working on small in-fill sites of 20 to 30 homes, scaling all the way up to new settlements and garden communities of 17,000 or more dwellings. We’ve worked with some of the largest national social housing providers including Clarion and L&Q, as well as a wide range of regional operators such as Crocus Homes, Flagship Homes, and Cambridge Investment Partnership.

By partnering with Create, landowners, land promoters, local authorities, developers and housing associations can leverage our expertise to efficiently navigate the purchasing, unlocking and planning process; ultimately ensuring that social and affordable housing projects are delivered effectively and in alignment with the government’s housing objectives.

For more information on how we can assist with your social and affordable housing projects, please contact us today on 01603 877010 or email us at enquiries@createce.co.uk

“This monetary commitment from the government is excellent news, particularly given the funding and viability challenges developers, housing associations and local authorities face when building social and affordable homes. With our rich history supporting residential developments, we are excited at the prospect of supporting the delivery of further much-needed new homes and are looking forward to future announcements at the Spending Review later this year.”

Jonathan Cage, Managing Director