Legal & General becomes registered social housing provider

Financial services company Legal & General has announced its subsidiary Legal & General Affordable Homes Limited has been granted Registered Provider (RP) status.

In a statement,  the company said the registration is a ‘milestone’ for the social housing sector, highlighting the role ‘new funding streams’ will have in building social housing stock. They have previously said they hope to build 3,000 homes per year over the next four years.

They add that the registration will mean Legal & General Affordable Homes can now ‘significantly’ accelerate its business plan of developing, holding and managing a blend of affordable housing tenures and both social and affordable rent and shared ownership homes under grant-supported and Section 106 schemes.

The insurance company has made a big push into the housing sector in recent years. In December 2015, they formed a build-to-rent partnership with Dutch pension fund PGGM as a 50:50 development joint venture.

The partnership will invest over £900m into developing purpose-built rental accommodation across the UK, providing over 4,000 homes.  Legal and General also opened modular homes factory opening in Leeds in February 2018, which they hope will deliver up to 3500 homes per year.

Currently planned sites for the company includes a 78-acre site in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire with outline planning for 515 new homes, building 1,000 new homes on its 250-acre site in Crowthorne, Berkshire, called Buckler’s Park, and 1,500 new homes at its 272-acre site in Finchampstead, also in Berkshire.

Simon Century, Head of Affordable Housing at Legal & General Capital, said: ‘Affordable housing has been a classic example of where a lack of new capital has had a big impact on hampering overall provision.

‘Over 1.3 million households are on social waiting lists and the required provision is rising year on year. This is not a sustainable position. We are therefore delighted that the Regulator of Social Housing has registered Legal & General Affordable Homes, enabling us to deliver our business plan and commitment to the sector to make a genuine contribution to increasing supply whilst advancing overall service delivery.

‘We are very much looking forward to getting on with the job and working towards delivering our first sites soon.’