Building a Better London: Re-developing our Communities with United Living
At Built Open, we’re passionate about forward thinking teams changing the industry for the better. This series showcases the city’s greatest up and coming projects from leading contractors, focussing on the key social themes that are important to us — from employment and community, to sustainability and innovation.
The Housing Crisis
With a growing population, an evolving demographic and financial constraints exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic — buying and renting homes across the UK has become an increasingly difficult task.
The number of potential buyers struggling to get on the property ladder has spiked, with housing prices seeing a consistent surge in recent years. According to the ONS (Office for National Statistics), the average price for a house in London in June 2021 was £510,299. This was a £12,603 increase from May 2021’s average of £497,696.
As a result, the Government has introduced a range of measures under their Affordable Homes Programme to help tackle London’s housing crisis and meet demands, working closely with local boroughs and contractors to boost the construction of affordable homes by 2026.
Boosting Affordable Homes
Offering affordable routes to home ownership (including affordable housing and shared ownership) is vital not only to accommodate the growing population, but also to improve living standards for existing residents.
Our diverse communities are made up of expanding families, young people growing up, older residents wanting to move to smaller homes and new residents wanting to move into these boroughs. To allow these communities to continue to thrive and grow, and for members to be able to contribute back to their communities, accessible housing is a must. These initiatives also support the local workforce providing them with relevant job opportunities and helping stimulate economic growth.
With the Covid-19 pandemic having a significant impact on housing delivery, it’s now more important than ever to ensure that as an industry we’re working efficiently, effectively and sustainably to produce new homes. At Built Open, we’re working with contractors who are doing exactly that; setting up London for a better, brighter future.
In this article, we speak to United Living to talk about one of their latest redevelopment projects — Old Farm Place.
United Living’s Old Farm Place Project
Project Overview
United Living, in collaboration with BexleyCo Homes, (Bexley Council’s wholly owned development company), is supporting the council to deliver its vision for the future of housing in Bexley.
BexleyCo Homes has set out a target to deliver 1,200 homes in the borough over the next 10 years, with seven initial sites bringing forward 600 high quality new homes for Bexley residents over the next five years. As well as new homes for sale, the site offers affordable rented and shared ownership homes, a new park, enhanced protection of the environment and public realm improvements.
Through this project United Living has supported the borough of Bexley in meeting the housing demands for it’s current and future residents. This project has also invested back into the local community, giving local people opportunities for new homes in this location and enhancing surroundings for these residents.
Devon Johnson, Site Manager shared, “Not only are we delivering outstanding properties for the area, we have gone above and beyond to engage with the local community, ensuring we provide opportunities to all backgrounds, genders and ages. Thank you to BexleyCo Homes and the London borough of Bexley for the chance to contribute to this area’s landscape. We’re excited for the first installment of tenants to move into what we’ve built and we’ll continue to work hard until final completion in 2022”.
Project details
Engaging with the local community on this project, United Living has reached a number of targets it set out to achieve with their workforce including:
- 25% local labour
- 20% BAME workforce
- 6 apprentices on site, encouraging upskilling and training of young people approaching the industry.
- 4 women working on site, supporting the company’s push for diversity and women in construction initiatives.
“United Living are delighted to be able to take part in Built Open’s campaign, we’re more than happy to showcase how proud we are of the work achieved on the Old Farm project. Everyone involved has played a part in making everything run efficiently, whilst also maintaining a high standard of health and safety.” Devon Johnson, Site Manager, Old Farm Place.
Project completion is expected in early 2022.
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