Housing association merger will see 60,000 new homes built over next 30 years

The region's largest housing association is merging with one of the biggest providers of homes in the country.

Flagship Group, based in Norwich, has announced it will merge with Bromford - a Wolverhampton-based housing association with more than 47,000 homes across central and south west England.

The new organisation will be called Bromford Flagship and will deliver 2,000 homes each year for the next 30 years, with an aim of providing half of the homes at social rent.

Flagship Group has 32,000 homes across the region and employs more than 1,200 people.

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It consists of three hosing associations: Newtide Homes, Samphire Homes and Victory Homes.

Peter Hawes, chair of Flagship (Image: Supplied)

Bromford Flagship will maintain both organisation's existing commitments to local projects.

Peter Hawes, chair of Flagship, and Steve Dando, chair of Bromford, said: “The need for affordable homes, the quality of service that we provide to customers, and an absolute focus on place has never been more important.

“The need for strong housing associations that can deliver at scale has also never been greater. As forward-thinking organisations we have robustly reviewed the benefits from coming together and strongly believe that we can do more for our existing and future customers.

“Our aim is to secure significantly increased investment, to improve existing services and deliver more benefits for current and future customers. We are excited about the huge potential this opportunity offers and the difference it could make to people’s lives and local communities”.

Steve Dando, chair of Bromford (Image: Supplied)

One Flagship's largest planned projects is on the Abbey Estate in Thetford, where hundreds of homes could be demolished and rebuilt, with an additional 500 new properties constructed.

The redevelopment of the 1,100-home estate would take place in phases over 20 years and the project could cost £250m.

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An illustration of how the Abbey Estate in Thetford might look after redevelopment (Image: Flagship Group)

Both the Conservatives and Labour have pledged in their manifestos for the General Election that they will build more than 1.5 million homes in England in the next five years - 300,000 a year.

However, in the last 12 months fewer than 150,000 homes were started, and in the last decade an average of 152,000 homes have been built a year.