Why building new homes is so important for us and our communities:
- We're committed to increasing the supply of quality affordable housing to help ease housing waiting lists, provide more family homes and help customers who want to downsize.
In the Q&A below, we explain why building new homes is such a crucial part of what we do. These images showcase just some of our latest new build developments:
Neighbourhood Moor Lane
Bolton Town Centre
Lever Gardens Court
St Mary's Park
Penwortham
Lever Gardens Court (bungalows)
Lever Gardens Court
Lever Gardens Court (inside)
Questions and answers relating to our new build developments:
Why does Be One Homes choose to build new homes?
If we want to give more people the opportunity to live in an affordable property, we simply have to build new homes.
There are many reasons for this, but the main one is supply and demand. There are just not enough affordable homes to go around.
Our new homes can receive four to five hundred expressions of interest per property, so we’re building to a clear need.
What other reasons are there for building new homes?
Another big reason is that we lose some of our housing stock through the government’s Right to Buy and Right to Acquire schemes.
These schemes allow council and housing association tenants to buy their home in certain circumstances. Since 2011, when we took ownership of the council’s housing stock, we’ve lost almost 1,600 homes to Right to Buy.
If we don’t replace these properties with new ones, the number of affordable homes we have available for people continues to decline.
Does building new homes generate money for Be One Homes? Where does this money go?
Yes, it does generate more income and that’s really important.
Be One Homes is a charitable community benefit society. We don’t exist to make a profit.
Any money we receive through rents, or through the sale of Shared Ownership properties, is reinvested into our business plan, which includes maintaining and improving existing homes and building new ones. This is just another reason why developing new homes is important - it benefits everyone.
Why do you develop Shared Ownership homes and not just homes for rent?
People looking for a home are in varying circumstances and so we look to provide a choice.
Shared Ownership is one of the ways we do this. For example, our new build development of 47 homes at Singleton Avenue in Horwich has provided a mix of affordable rented and Shared Ownership properties to offer that choice.
The sale proceeds from Shared Ownership properties become part of our budget to be reinvested in our homes and services, including our existing homes. The people who buy Shared Ownership homes are often moving from an affordable rented property, which frees up those rented properties for other people to move into.
We also offer some homes on a Rent to Buy basis.
Shouldn’t more money be reinvested in homes that are empty instead?
Bringing empty homes back into use as quickly as possible is absolutely part of the solution and something that’s a big part of our stock investment plan.
We must also consider that a lot of our housing stock was built many decades ago. It can be hard to bring some properties back up to the required standard in an affordable way, particularly if they have structural issues and other defects that are expensive to fix.
It sometimes makes more sense to sell that asset and reinvest the money protecting and upgrading other existing homes and building new ones. This ensures our housing stock is continually being renewed.
You can tap here to find out more about what we do with our empty properties.
Could you tell us more about the numbers of new homes you are developing?
We began building new homes in 2014. We started small with developments of generally between 10 and 20 homes.
As we’ve built up a trusted network of contractors and supply chain partners, we’ve been able to build slightly larger developments to give us more affordable homes.
We set a target to deliver 1,400 new homes for five years between 2021/22 and 2025/26. These homes are a mix of properties built directly by Be One Homes and homes we buy from private housebuilders developing their own homes.
What types of homes are you building?
We want to keep building a mix of homes that help us meet people’s needs.
We work closely with local authorities to determine that need.
For example, we’ve included more apartments in our housing mix in areas where we know there’s a shortage of single person homes. We also know there’s a shortage of larger four-bedroom family homes, so we’re looking for ways to incorporate these larger homes within developments too.
How do you ensure that local people get to live in the new homes you build?
Many of our new-build developments have a local lettings policy, especially in areas with a major shortage of affordable homes where people can’t easily find a property that enables them to stay close to family, friends and local connections.
The affordable rented homes we build are made available through choice-based lettings systems which enable those registered to bid on properties that match their needs.
Each local authority area will have a different choice-based lettings system. For example, for homes in Bolton people can bid for properties on the Homes for Bolton system. You can tap here for a full list of lettings systems for the areas we serve, and quick links to them.
How does sustainability fit into your new build plans?
Sustainability is really important to us, both for new build properties and our existing housing stock.
Our new build homes come with lots of energy saving technology already installed as part of the design, such as high levels of insulation and airtightness, solar panels, and heat pumps.
On our existing homes we’re looking at how we can retrofit as part of the push towards net zero. This forms part of our wider stock investment plan.
Can you tell me more about how social housing is allocated?
Local authorities have ultimate responsibility for how social housing is allocated.
This includes council-owned homes and those owned by housing associations and social landlords like Be One Homes.
Please tap here if you'd like to learn more about how social housing is allocated.
We offer a range of tenure types to match different circumstances:
We know that people looking for a home are in many differing circumstances and so we look to provide a choice. Here are the three main tenure types we offer when we build new homes:
Affordable rent:
Affordable rent is rent that is set at up to 80% of the local market rent rate. Many of our homes are let at affordable rent rates.
As with our other properties for affordable/social rent, you need to register and bid for suitable properties on your local choice-based lettings scheme.
Rent to Buy:
Rent to Buy helps tenants in England save for a deposit to buy a home by offering properties at a discount. This is normally 20% below market rent (source: gov.uk).
Shared Ownership:
Put simply, Shared Ownership is a cross between buying and renting a home.
You buy a share of the property, usually between a quarter and three quarters, and then rent the part you don’t own at a reduced rate. You then have the option to buy a bigger share in the property in future.
Stonecross Homes is the brand name we use to market our Shared Ownership developments and properties.
Learn more about housing:
Our website also includes frequently asked questions about what we do with our empty properties and how social housing in the UK is allocated. You can:
Learn about what we do with empty properties
We know it can be frustrating to see empty properties when people need homes. Here’s what happens and why.
Learn about how social housing is allocated
The way social housing in the UK is allocated, and how those decisions are made, is often complex.
