A housing association in charge of providing and managing affordable homes is moving ahead with projects across Bracknell this year.
Abri, one of the biggest housing associations in the south, is pressing ahead with projects across Bracknell this year.
It now manages roughly 71 per cent of affordable homes in Bracknell, Crowthorne and Sandhurst after completing a merger with Silva Homes in October 2023.
At a presentation to Bracknell Forest Council’s environment and communities overview and scrutiny panel on January 6, Abri said it aims to deliver a minimum of 326 affordable homes by 2031/32.
Of those homes, 48 per cent will be social rent (often up to half the market rent), 37 per cent at affordable rent levels, and 15 per cent through shared ownership.
Sam Stone, Abri’s director of land and planning, told the council the association is moving ahead with replacing the Hambleden and Hurley flats with 106 new homes, with a planning application said to be “imminent”. The existing blocks were described as ‘crumbling concrete’.
Abri also plans to create six disabled-access flats at Hambleden and Hurley in Harmans Water, and one at its Bay House development in Bullbrook. The replacement work follows disruption that has affected trade at the nearby Newtown Pippin pub as residents were moved out.
The association is also aiming to deliver 125 affordable homes in Jennetts Park. There is an extant permission for 107 flats and 12 terraced houses on the site, but Mr Stone said the scheme is currently unviable.
He explained: “It does have a planning permission in place for a very tall building.
“Essentially, build costs have outstripped residential sales values, so the planning permission that is in place is just purely not viable.”
Early designs show homes in five-storey apartment blocks and terraced houses. The project depends on ongoing talks with the site owner, and although the information is commercially sensitive it was discussed in the public meeting (councillors could have made it private but did not).
If Abri acquires the Jennetts Park site, its total affordable homes delivered in the area would rise to 451. That figure excludes 12 affordable homes finished at Bucklers Park in Crowthorne and six in Hayley Green, both completed in 2023/24.
Councillor Mike Forster (Liberal Democrats, Sandhurst) asked how effective the merger with Silva has been. Tom Mason, regional assistant director for Abri, who previously worked at Bracknell Forest Homes and Silva, said: “I can say categorically that the merger has been a success in terms of what we’ve been able to deliver.
“From a business-as-usual perspective, our repair service has improved, our customer satisfaction has improved, and what we’re able to do in terms of economies of scale is a huge difference now as a bigger organisation.
“The numbers in terms of development would never have been available under Silva, because it didn’t have access to that level of funding from Homes England.
“That’s something Abri brings to the table, so overwhelmingly it’s been a success.”
James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter
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