Lewisham and The Hill Group commit to a decade-long drive for affordable homes

More than 10,000 households are waiting on Lewisham's housing register, and 2,450 households are currently living in temporary accommodation. Behind each of those numbers is someone waiting for a front door of their own, which lends real weight to the council's latest announcement. Rather than running a fresh competition for every new site, Lewisham has appointed The Hill Group as its long-term strategic development partner, with a brief to accelerate the affordable homes the borough so badly needs.

The scale of the arrangement is considerable. It follows a year-long procurement process and will run for ten years, with the option to extend by a further five, and could span up to £1.5bn of construction delivery across the borough. That is a far bigger commitment than the scheme-by-scheme contracting most people associate with council housebuilding.

The thinking behind the model is speed without surrendering control. By working directly with a single developer over the long term, the council intends to cut out the delays of repeated procurement while keeping a firm grip on quality, affordability, sustainability and delivery timescales. Councillor Daniel Dream, cabinet member for inclusive regeneration, planning and housing delivery, said the partnership 'cuts red tape and gives the council greater control over quality, affordability and delivery', adding that with so many households waiting, the borough needs to build homes faster.

The partnership is also deliberately flexible in how homes are brought forward. In some cases, the council will develop and own the affordable homes itself; in others, Hill will invest in the development, with the council given first choice to buy the affordable homes. That dual approach gives Lewisham room to shape its pipeline to suit each site rather than forcing every project into the same mould.

Two schemes are already underway under the new arrangement. Thomas' Lane Yard in Catford will deliver 113 affordable homes, split between 39 for social rent and 74 for shared ownership. Meanwhile, the regeneration of the Achilles Street Estate in New Cross will bring 278 new homes, including 122 for social rent, with a minimum of 62% of homes affordable overall. Encouragingly, the first two phases of Achilles Street will provide 149 homes, all of them said to be affordable.

The commitment stretches beyond bricks and mortar. Hill has pledged to create local jobs, skills training and education opportunities, alongside wider investment in the community. Dream described the firm as an award-winning housebuilder with a proven track record, and Andy Hill OBE, its founder and chief executive, said long-term partnerships of this kind create the certainty and alignment needed to unlock technically complex sites and ensure developments genuinely reflect the needs of local communities.

For renters in Lewisham, the measure of success will be whether families currently stuck in temporary accommodation move into permanent social homes any faster than before. If a decade-long partnership genuinely delivers quicker, better and more affordable housing, other councils under similar pressure may well follow Lewisham's lead. The test, as ever, will not be the signing ceremony but the finished homes.