Three East of England housing associations have become the latest to form a joint-venture developer.
Iceni Homes has been created by Colne Housing Society from Colchester, Suffolk Housing Society from Bury St Edmunds and Cotman Housing Association from Norwich. The associations have developed more than 300 homes between them. They follow in the footsteps of Flagship and Cambridge Housing Society, which formed a joint venture last November (HT 7 November 2003, page 11).

The company is responding to the Housing Corporation's call for more partnerships and aims to become one of the largest developers in the region. It will contract with each of the associations to build affordable homes, and will offer services to other associations that lack development expertise.

Mark Powell Davies, chief executive of Colne, said: "The strength of Iceni Homes is in the expertise of the existing partners and the geographic area that we cover between us.

"The local knowledge we all have means we can develop a wider range of housing potentially on a bigger scale, but without losing sight of the importance of rural, key worker and supported housing."

Source

Housing Today