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The current practice is for District Council's to work with Registered Social Landlords who develop new affordable housing to meet local housing needs.
We recognise that partnership working is an essential part of our enabling role, and have successfully worked with housing associations, voluntary organisations, Suffolk County Council, parish councils, private developers, other local authorities and the Housing Corporation in order to prove the need, plan for, and deliver affordable housing of all types within Babergh.
To date we and our partners have delivered over 1400 housing association dwellings within the district. This includes 31 village schemes, built to meet the specific needs of local communities, and 14 supported housing schemes.
For information on the location and types of affordable housing available within the District, please see our Babergh Choices pages.
We are currently working with 27 parish councils to progress additional village schemes to meet the affordable housing needs of those communities.
The Council has 15 partner housing associations working in the Babergh area, and 5 of these actively develop affordable housing within the district. These developing partners are:-
- Flagship Housing Group
- Hastoe Housing Association
- Orbit Housing Association
- Orwell Housing Association
- Suffolk Housing Society
See our partner housing association pages for full information and contact details and for specific information on those with an active development function.
These housing associations have a proven record of affordable housing delivery over a considerable number of years. They meet current Housing Corporation design, build and management standards, and all have a housing management base located within a reasonable distance of the Babergh area. They are also members of our Common Housing Register ensuring that housing applicants need only register with one organisation in order to be considered for all affordable housing vacancies within the district.
For these reasons, when new affordable housing is developed within Babergh the Council prefers Parish Councils and private developers to work with one of our existing housing association partners, who would then own and manage the affordable stock in perpetuity.
However, the Council is willing to consider other methods of delivery, and stock management, providing it is proven that these are of an equal standard to the service delivered by our existing partners.
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