Thirteen welcomes Homes England to Teesside

The person spearheading the national effort to address the UK’s affordable housing delivery ambition has backed our ongoing mission to build more homes across the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside.

Matt Forrest, chief executive of Thirteen, Jane Earl, chair of Thirteen and Shahi Islam, director of Homes England’s Affordable Homes Programme.

22 Aug 2024

Shahi Islam, director of Homes England’s flagship Affordable Homes Programme, visited us for the first time, and was given a tour of progress across our key affordable housing and regeneration projects in Teesside, and details of more ground-breaking work across the wider North East.

Delivering new high-quality affordable, eco-friendly housing to meet the needs of local people is at the heart of our building programme, and we are committed to supporting Homes England as it works to deliver its ambitious £7.4 billion Affordable Homes Programme (AHP).

The AHP is a five-year project that runs until 2026, supporting the creation of homes for social and affordable rent, affordable home ownership, and supported housing, alongside a renewed commitment to delivering properties using modern methods of construction.

We're investing over half a billion pounds in the North East to deliver thousands of new affordable homes – including the 1,800 already completed and underway on site across our Tees Valley developments at Gresham, Grove Hill, Kedward in Middlesbrough and Westdale in Thornaby. 

During his visit, Shahi Islam said: “Thirteen is one of our key strategic partners and we have seen great delivery from them, in particular the sites aligned with our key priorities around placemaking and regeneration.

“There are lots of great opportunities to continue to address the affordable housing challenges in Teesside, and we are looking forward to seeing Thirteen’s future plans come to life.”

Nationally, the AHP plans to deliver between 110,000 – 130,000 new homes.

Thirteen’s chief executive Matt Forrest said: “We were really pleased to welcome Shahi to Teesside and show him around some of the projects and work we’re doing, and to discuss with him further development opportunities.

“Thirteen has a large and ambitious delivery programme to build more than 2,800 homes across the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside by 2026. Without the support of Homes England, we would not be able to deliver our ambitious plans, so it’s great to be able to demonstrate our progress and share experiences with Shahi.

“Thirteen and Homes England have a long-standing successful relationship which we’re proud to continue. Shahi’s visit further strengthened this partnership and we’re grateful for his and Homes England’s support as we look forward to building on the great work underway and already delivered.”

To find out more about our developments and investment in the North East, visit: www.thirteengroup.co.uk/homes-in-development