Legal & General (L&G) has secured four housing schemes consisting of 278 properties across the UK as part of its plan to deliver 3,000 affordable homes annually over the next four years.
The firm, through its Legal & General Affordable Homes business, has also secured a further pipeline of more than 40 sites that would provide 1,500 affordable homes in the next two years.
“The UK continues to suffer a growing crisis as 1.1 million households remain on waiting lists for affordable homes,” L&G said in a statement.
“With one in three low income earners having to borrow money to pay their rent, the steep decline in social housing has led to huge rises in government welfare costs as well as rising homelessness.”
In 2017, the financial services company welcomed its first residents to a build-to-rent scheme with investment from Dutch pension scheme PGGM, offering a lifestyle that renters “would not otherwise have access to”.
L&G has been an active player in the build-to-rent residential property sector, since launching its first UK scheme in Manchester.
With these latest schemes, L&G aims to deliver “social and affordable” rental homes across four sites in the UK. The first of these homes, located in Croydon, south of London, will be available from June this year.
This particular scheme in Leon House is made up of 50 shared ownership apartments a 15-minute walk away from East Croydon train station.
“Social housing plays a vital role in meeting the housing needs of ordinary people, giving millions the quality, dignity, safety and security that they need,” L&G said.
According to the firm, the social housing sector needs long-term capital to increase development activity. Affordable housing, it said, provides a “long-term stable return”, making it a “mutually beneficial fit” to tackle the needs of social housing.
The four affordable housing schemes are located in the south of the UK – in Croydon, Cornwall (south-western England), Dunstable (to the north of London), and Shrivenham near Swindon in the west.
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