Back to the business of building

After some years effectively stuck in the shadow of larger delivery partners, Estuary Housing Association has stepped into the limelight as a developer in its own right

In 2008, Estuary Housing secured preferred partner status with the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA), or rather the Housing Corporation as it was then, and this has opened up a significant new era for the Essex-based housing association.

Since that time, it has moved forward with gusto to plan and put into effect its new development capabilities and those labours are being rewarded with their first fruits.

The first phase of Arisdale Avenue, in South Ockenden, Thurrock, was delivered this month, providing 14 properties for local residents. The second phase will be delivered in August this year. All told, the development, built on a former factory site, will provide 80 homes – a mix of general needs, market rent, outright sale and rent to homebuy.

There’s more to Arisdale’s significance, however, than marking Estuary’s return to the business of building in its own right – the development is a prime mover for a wider regeneration programme that is expected to deliver 700 new homes.

“We are actually kickstarting this whole regeneration programme for Thurrock,” said Debbie Collins, Estuary’s head of development.

“From a starting point 18 months ago when we had virtually no new development, we really have kickstarted quickly into getting a good, sound programme together.”

Arisdale might be the ‘primer’ for the wider regeneration, but it is in itself but a small portion of the total strategy, but this is not the only new development on Estuary’s books. All told, the organisation has some 512 properties on its development programme, representing an investment of £32 million in grant funding, that is set to keep it busy for the next few years.

Estuary owns just over 3,300 properties, and its core territory is in Essex, but it also works in three outer East London boroughs as well as along the Suffolk Coastal District. The organisation’s development programme includes programmes throughout its area of operations.

A few quick examples of forthcoming schemes include Acres Lane, Epping, which will see 12 houses and bungalows built on a former garage site; Southchurch Road, Southend, will see the delivery of 65 properties of mixed tenure; Spring Gardens, Havering, will see the delivery of 48 properties for general needs and market rent; and the Kings Reach scheme in Barking will transform the site of a former working men’s club into 79 homes of mixed tenure.

In some respects the difficult current economic climate, has been advantageous for Estuary. “It’s been a window of opportunity because a lot of the larger developing associations have been cutting back. We’ve had a lot of opportunities come to us just at the time we were looking to develop.”

The transition from an organisation with virtually no development programme to one with over 500 units pencilled in for delivery in a little more than 18 months may seem rapid-fire, but reaching this position was itself the result of a long process of change for the organisation, combined with a shift in focus.

In recent years, Estuary’s corporate priorities predominately lay in service delivery and housing management, and so any involvement it had in development was working in partnership with East Thames Housing Association. A change of chief executive brought with it a change in direction; Paul Durkin, the current chief, wanted the organisation to return to the development fold whilst still ensuring improvements in service delivery.

A change of direction is one thing, of course, but then there are the organisational requirements of bodies such as the Audit Commission to meet before aspiration can become an active programme. For Estuary, that meant driving forward change and meeting the necessary challenges to be successful with its application to become a preferred partner with the HCA.

With Arisdale’s first phase, of course, we see that the aspiration has indeed become a firm reality – a welcome outcome to the hard work involved in the return to building in its own right.

The delivery of new affordable homes is, of course, first and foremost about adding to the ability to meet local housing needs, but Estuary – as you’d no doubt expect – is looking to gain additional benefits for the local communities – both in terms of jobs, apprenticeships and training. Contractors are also expected to play their part in fulfilling such aims too, with a provision that they provide local labour.

Diversity is also very much a focus of the programme, to ensure fair representation of, amongst others, BME groups within any jobs and training measures implemented.

The organisation also works with companies locally, to try and ensure that a local benefit is reaped on any scheme it develops. As Collins said: “There’s no point having a London consultant as an employer’s agent when we’ve got somebody here right on our doorstep, so it’s about maintaining a local working relationship.”

Estuary Housing has come a long way from a standing start in very little time, and there is plenty more where that came from.