Chris Horn launches affordable housing developer

Chris Horn, former project director of the £2bn Elephant & Castle regeneration scheme in south London, has launched an affordable housing development company, Enter Homes.

Since leaving Southwark council in December after six years in charge of the Elephant & Castle scheme, Horn formed Chris Horn Associates, in which capacity he will be working with Enter.

The new development company plans to create partnerships with housing associations and local authorities to build high-quality sustainable and affordable homes. Backed by Glacial Properties and South Central Management, it will take sites through the planning and construction processes and into long-term management.

Enter Homes is intended to bridge the affordability gap between rented housing and the outright purchase market, which it describes as “one of the most significant challenges to meeting the mayor of London's targets for addressing the housing needs of all Londoners”.

It says its proposed delivery mechanisms, bringing forward land through partnership-working arrangements, will help unlock land banks to speed up housing delivery.

Chris Horn said: “We need to do more to meet the housing aspirations of London's essential workforce. Housing associations and councils are at the forefront of delivering on the targets for new homes in London and the South-east. With an emphasis on mixed-tenure, too many housing associations are simply picking up section 106 housing that they haven't been involved in designing and delivering.

“Enter is an approach to partnership that combines the skills and resources of associations and councils with those of a team that has a solid history of innovation, strong sales and successful cross-sector working to deliver high-quality, sustainable new homes.”