Every policymaker promises more affordable homes. Every Section 106 agreement includes an obligation to provide them. Every developer promises to deliver them. Every person struggling to buy or rent wants one. Yet, understandably, existing communities often resist.
Like all new developments, affordable housing is a great idea — until it’s being built next door. It has, for too long, been framed as “us vs. them”— homeowners against aspiring buyers, people in safe communities against those who dream of joining them.
That divide will only grow unless we rethink this entirely. Affordable housing isn’t about creating a two-tier housing system. Nor should it ever be about low quality, clustered, poorly designed places. Done right, it can unblock the market while creating thriving, diverse, and aspirational communities. But that requires developers to see our contribution as an opportunity to make a real, positive difference, rather than a bothersome obligation to fill a quota.
Why the Resistance?
Public perception is shaped by poor planning decisions and shocking design choices that have scarred places across the UK.
People remember the Chalkhill Estate in Wembley Park and the Red Road Flats in Glasgow — both grim, high-density blocks where crime rose as buildings deteriorated. Isolated from shops, schools, and green spaces, they failed as places to live and were eventually demolished.
Yet their impact lingers, fuelling the fear that affordable housing can drag down a previously prosperous place.
Enhancing a Community
When done well, affordable housing adds value. It keeps communities mixed, ensuring key workers, younger and older people and locals aren’t priced out. It supports local businesses, integrates seamlessly into the fabric of the place, and strengthens social connections.
The Charterhouse in London or Trinity Hospital in Leicester are both beautifully designed developments that have enriched their wider areas. The elegantly curved terraces of almshouses in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, are examples of almshouses that look great and have been built to minimise residents’ energy consumption. This, quite literally, makes living in them more affordable.
We are fully committed to delivering high-quality affordable housing in Canterbury and Stamford — not as an afterthought, but as a core part of our vision.
A Smarter Way
A Place Alliance report showcases 20 successful housing developments in challenging locations across the UK. It identifies key principles, including:
– Blending developments into their surroundings
– Prioritising green spaces
– Engaging with the community
– Ensuring proactive planning
It’s not about affordable against private housing. It’s about great design against poor design.
Our Approach
We never cluster affordable homes or create distinct areas within developments. We follow tenure-blind design, ensuring all homes — affordable and private — are built to the same high standards and spread evenly throughout the site.
The requirements of any community will change as it matures and grows. At the foot of this page there is a list of the many forms affordable housing can take. We will incorporate the most relevant of these to ensure that our communities benefit in the right way over time.
Specifically, our Section 106 agreements guarantee long-term maintenance and integration. We work closely with registered housing providers, councils, and estate managers to ensure green spaces, front gardens, and shared areas are well maintained— just like private homes. On the flip side we understand that there is an optimum number of affordable homes within a new community and that balance is crucial to its future success. This ties-in with our core design ethos that all units and places should be built responsibly, with a community-focus that is curated by great design.
Crucially, we have an eye on the long-term evolution of a place, particularly to the ways people and families move through it as they age. The longest-surviving places continue to flourish when they can support all life stages, including affordable offerings for each.
Prioritising Local People
In places like Canterbury, our conversations with local residents emphasise their worries that affordable homes will go to outsiders rather than meeting local needs. That’s a valid concern, and one we are actively addressing.
Our policy ensures local residents always come first. If homes aren’t filled by locals, we expand eligibility step by step — first to neighbouring towns, then the district, and only beyond that if homes remain unoccupied.
This ensures affordable housing benefits the community it was built for. In practice, not just theory.
A Growing Understanding
The Campaign for Healthy Homes, led by the TCPA, is pushing for stronger regulations to ensure all new housing promotes health and wellbeing. Many homes, particularly those built under Permitted Development Rights, lack proper oversight, leading to substandard conditions.
The Healthy Homes Bill proposes legally binding standards to ensure housing supports quality of life. TCPA is working with councils and communities to apply these principles and resist deregulation that puts profit over people.
In Short
This is a complex issue, not helped by past planning failures that have made people sceptical—even fearful—of affordable housing.
But the real challenge is the gulf between those who can and cannot afford homes. The solution isn’t to squeeze lower-income families into isolated ghettos — it’s to integrate them into thriving, mixed communities where people of all backgrounds live side by side.
One-size-fits-all developments are not authentic and just don’t work. Our developments start with a vision of inclusion — where the people working in the local pub, café, and community centre can also live nearby.
Done right, affordable housing isn’t just about meeting quotas. It’s about creating great places to live. For people across society. And that’s exactly what we’re here to do.
Footnote: A Broader Definition
Affordable housing isn’t just “traditional social housing”. It includes a range of options:
– Social & Affordable Rent – Everyday homes with rent caps, keeping costs manageable.
– Shared Ownership – Helping buyers onto the property ladder by purchasing a share of a home (that can start from 25%)
while renting the rest.
– First Homes – Discounted homes (20% below market value) for first-time buyers.
– Almshouses – Low-cost, community-led housing for older residents, such as those we’ve
introduced in Stamford and hope to build elsewhere.
– Intermediate Housing – Bridging the gap between private and affordable housing for those who don’t qualify for mortgages.
– Key Worker Housing – Providing homes for people whose jobs are essential to the functioning of society, including health, transport and emergency service workers.
The flexibility is there — it’s about ensuring developments genuinely benefit the community through collaboration with residents and councils. To support this, rather than simply relying on the local authority’s district wide work, we undertake bespoke local market research looking at the type and tenure of affordable housing needed in the area.