Dedicated to positively impacting the neighbourhoods in which it works, L&Q is much more than a housing association
As one of the UK’s leading housing associations and residential developers, L&Q houses over 250,000 people, primarily across Greater London and Greater Manchester. With an approved development pipeline of nearly 10,000 homes, L&Q delivers around 1000 of these each year through it’s in-house build team, with the remainder coming from joint ventures and development agreements.
L&Q’s vision is that everyone deserves a quality home that gives them the chance to live a better life, and it is part of the G15, a group of the largest housing associations in and around Greater London.
L&Q also supports the neighbourhoods in which it works through the L&Q Foundation, which supports the communities its residents create, awarding grants to support good causes that promote aspiration and opportunity, whilst providing free financial advice and support with employment and training opportunities.
L&Q Living provides care and support services to people with a wide range of needs. This includes older people, people with learning difficulties and mental health needs, and people affected by homelessness.
The housing associations strategy is seeing it focus on ensuring that residents have safe and decent homes, and access to services they can rely on. L&Q’s Major Works Investment Programme is the industry’s largest investment programme – almost £3 billion over 15 years – to improve the safety, comfort and environmental performance of residents’ homes.
However, L&Q remains committed to playing its part to tackle the housing crisis. Testament to this is its in-house design and build team, which enables L&Q to ensure the long-term success and maintenance of its projects, whilst having direct control over the build process.
“Our key focus remains the improvement of existing homes and services for residents, however building new homes is also a core part of how we deliver on our social mission. In terms of development and the division I lead, I would best describe L&Q as a specialist developer of dense, challenging, and complex urban sites in a not-for-profit capacity, where we self-deliver homes through land-led purchases,” opens Neil Davis, Delivery Director, Development and Sales.
A unique in-house set-up for development
Elaborating on the association’s unique in-house design and build team, Neil continues: “We have extensive in-house expertise spanning Engineering, Architectural and Services, plus both Commercial and Construction. This also gives us greater efficiency during the land and planning stages, as we do not require so much third party assurance through external consultants. This also assists greatly with their internal cost transparency, real-time reporting plus reduced management time and contractual disputes.
“Having such knowledge in-house enables collaboration between the L&Q teams, as they are working towards a common goal with shared values and culture. Our construction team regularly advises our own internal teams, but also those of our G15 colleagues, on questions such as the use of MMC, sustainability, and whole life costing,
“Our commercial team is on hand to offer cost and inflation predictions based on real-time data. Plus, our regulatory compliance experts often assist advisory boards including the MHCLG and local governments on such issues as Fire safety and the Building safety regulator.
“As noted, we shouldn’t forget that L&Q residents also benefit directly from our in-house build projects, as we ensure consistent design and quality to build homes that will last generations. We take both immediate and long-lasting responsibility for our projects, offering a soft landing period where our team stay on-site to help residents settle in, but also reducing costs managing the property long-term; we don’t build to a cost, but to very high-quality standards.
“Our in-house capabilities have been especially valuable in overcoming the downfall of many subcontractors and SMEs in recent years, as this allows us to effectively deal with any issues, particularly if the site is partially complete,” Neil shares. “We can ensure developments are safe, secure, and watertight much quicker than if we negotiated with and employed external consultants and contractors. We’ve taken on four schemes in these circumstances just this year, two of which were partially completed schemes in the North West where our teams simply stepped in and got things back on track.”
A wide range of schemes and sites across the country
The L&Q in-house build team have several exciting projects underway, spanning 12 schemes and totalling almost 3000 homes. “We’re well under way with our project at Greenwich Peninsula, right next to the O2 Arena, comprising 476 homes, of which 334 are affordable, across seven buildings including two towers of 22 and 30 storeys,” Neil explains.
“We’ve also just completed the first phase of Kodak in Harrow, where we have started to deliver the 246 high-quality affordable homes on the site of the former Kodak factory in Harrow, London.
“One of our largest ongoing projects is Barking Riverside, which is a joint development between L&Q and the Mayor of London’s Greater London Authority. Located on the iconic site of the former Barking Power Station, Barking Riverside is now a vibrant, rapidly growing neighbourhood of presently 3000 homes. L&Q are developing this strategic land in conjunction with our partners and there are plans to increase density at Barking Riverside and deliver around 20,000 new homes by 2045.
“Another challenging project is the remediation of the ex-Walthamstow Stadium site where residents are still in-situ. We’re bringing these homes up to our required safety, environmental, and policy standards and we’ve completed 165 of 294 so far.
“Also, in collaboration with Plumstead College, we’re redeveloping the Greenwich campus and adding much needed housing to the area. At present the construction of the new college is nearing completion and we will soon be demolishing the existing ones to add 258 homes to the site, with 129 being affordable.
“We’re uniquely placed to work with other local authorities, demonstrated by our collaborative agreement with the London Borough of Merton. We’ll provide development management services and also construct the borough’s first new council homes in a generation. We believe in the importance of partnerships, and we pride ourselves on being the ideal partner to work with in both the public and private sectors.”
The biggest challenge facing the sector
As our conversation continues, Neil turns his attention to the issues facing the wider UK construction industry, especially in terms of building homes. “While the Government has identified planning as its initial top priority, we’d argue planning isn’t the sole answer,” he states. “We have excellent relationships with all the planning departments, and although we welcome these being fully resourced, we must look beyond this for more solutions.
“A major challenge currently faced by housing associations is reduced financial capacity for development, given the essential need to invest in our existing homes and services. Together with other G15 members, we are asking the government for a ten-year rent convergence, innovative housing grants, and equal access to the building safety fund to enable us to continue to improve housing conditions and invest in desperately needed new homes. With only 12 per cent of the UK’s housing funding currently used to build or improve homes, we need extra financial support to build the homes this country requires.
“With greater demand on the Building Safety Regulator (BSR), developers across the country are facing delays of up to one year and we currently have around five projects waiting for final approval. We’re working with the government and attending advisory committees to help reduce this period closer to the expected time of 12 weeks.”
When we ask Neil about the future of L&Q, it’s clear that L&Q’s focus remains on improving services and existing homes, while in the meantime, its development division and in-house build team are building out the existing pipeline. “Our aim is to return to building at scale in future, focusing on affordable housing in Greater London and Greater Manchester to assist with the government’s goal of building 1.5 million homes,” he concludes. “As a self-delivery housing association, we remain flexible and can adapt our operations to suit evolving housing needs and capacity. However, we cannot grow social housing at scale unless the Government addresses the key challenges around financial capacity.”