Columnist

Karbon’s £95m investment in helping to meet the region’s need for more affordable housing

The UK is in the midst of a housing crisis.

Data suggests that close to 340,000 more homes are needed each year across England over the next decade to combat the chronic shortage of affordable homes.

Across the North East and Yorkshire, many communities are lacking enough good quality, affordable homes to support local people to fulfil their potential.

As a result, Northern housing association Karbon Homes has committed to growing the number of new homes that it owns and manages through an ambitious programme of affordable housing development.

Wrapping up the 22/23 financial year, Karbon has invested just over £95m in delivering new homes and is celebrating the start of 762 and the completion of 484 new homes across the region. This achievement is an important step towards Karbon’s aim to build 4,000 new homes across the North East and Yorkshire by 2028.

Charlotte Carpenter, Director of Growth and Business Development at Karbon Homes, said:

“At Karbon, one of our key aims is to provide as many good quality homes as we can, and we’ve created a development strategy that enables us to play a significant part in addressing the housing supply issues in our geography. It’s been a challenging 12 months primarily due to material and labour supply challenges and obtaining third party approvals including utility connections.

“Working with our local communities and partner organisations, each new development we bring forward is designed to meet local need, offering a range of property types and sizes, and a mix of tenures, that will meet customer needs and strengthen local communities.”

Karbon’s new homes development over the past 12 months, as well as its ambitious plans for the next five years, have been boosted by support from Homes England.

In 2021, Karbon entered into a Strategic Partnership with the government’s housing delivery agent, securing £131.5m of grant funding to support the delivery of 2,200 mixed tenure homes, just over half of its ambitious 4,000 homes target.

Charlotte added: “Our partnership with Homes England has been critical in enabling us to continue to grow our housebuilding programme, particularly through what has been one of the most challenging external environments for development delivery.

“The homes developed under this strategic partnership will be equally split into homes for affordable and social rent, including homes to meet a range of supported and specialist needs, as well as homes aimed at helping local people onto the housing ladder. We’re ensuring these homes are as energy efficient as possible to both reduce the carbon emissions they produce and to help residents save money on their energy bills.”

The shortage of affordable housing is forcing lots of families into unstable and insecure accommodation and a new report from the National Housing Federation has revealed that close to 750,000 families across the UK are living in cramped and overcrowded conditions.

Over two thirds of these families say they have experienced both poor mental and poor physical health as a direct result of overcrowding.

Charlotte said: “The affordable housing sector has proven in the past that it can build more social housing where it is needed when the political will exists. We need a commitment from Government to long-term investment in building truly affordable homes at a scale that meets the level of need across the country.

“More truly affordable homes in our communities will play a big part in combatting the issue of families living in overcrowded conditions.”

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