The sites, which are part of Legal & General’s wider plans, will deliver just under 300 new homes 

Legal & General Affordable Homes has unveiled the locations of its first four affordable housing schemes. The sites in Croydon, Cornwall, Dunstable and Shrivenham will comprise 278 new homes.

Insurance firm L&G announced the launch of new subsidiary, L&G Affordable Homes, back in April. The housing provider is aiming to deliver 3,000 homes annually within the next four years.

While Croydon, Cornwall, Dunstable and Shrivenham are the first schemes announced, L&G says it’s also secured a further pipeline of over 40 sites across the UK, facilitating their ambition to provide 1,500 homes in the next 24 months.

Across the four acquired sites, Legal & General will deliver a mix of social and affordable rental homes, grant-supported shared ownership homes and Section 106 schemes.

The first of these homes to be completed are in Leon House in Croydon and will be available from June 2019. This scheme comprises 50 shared ownership apartments in a well-linked London location.

Legal & General’s second acquisition in Cornwall is a Joint Venture with Coastline Housing Limited. L&G’s financial backing will support Coastline in its ambition to double its affordable housing completions to 600 per annum. The partnership’s first scheme in Falmouth will comprise 44 affordable homes across two building phases, available from June 2019.

The schemes in Dunstable and Shrivenham are being delivered under Section 106 agreements. Phoenix Park in Dunstable will be available to buyers from Q4 2019, comprising 23 shared ownership apartments. 

The Shrivenham development has been acquired from Legal & General’s own house building arm, Legal & General Homes. This will deliver 109 homes at affordable rents and 52 shared ownership units. Homes will be available during the first half of 2020.

Ben Denton, managing director of Legal & General Affordable Homes, says: “There is an urgent need to accelerate the delivery of new affordable homes. We have made a great start in executing our development programme, alongside building our customer service platforms. 

“[This announcement] marks the real start of our journey as we deliver our first affordable homes, working alongside high quality local providers to tackle the growing crisis.

“As demonstrated by the scope and range of our acquisitions and the significant pipeline we have secured, we remain committed to offering a choice of tenures to our future residents; deploying institutional capital at scale and pioneering new partnership models, such as the one we have set up with Coastline.

“This range of routes to market will help us meet our ambition to become a leading affordable housing provider in the UK and delivering the volume of affordable homes which the country desperately needs.”