Grand Union Housing

On Friday, I met with Phil Hardy – Executive Operations Director of Grand Union Housing Group – to discuss affordable housing in South Northants.

A housing association, Grand Union has been providing affordable housing for the last 25 years, and provide 12,000 homes for more than 27,000 people across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire. As a not-for-profit organisation, Grand Union is planning to build 1,500 more homes by the end of next year.

We discussed the supply of affordable housing more generally; Phil’s view is that local authorities should have more powers to take available land into public ownership for the purpose of supplying the community with more housing. I was sympathetic to his view that the money generated from the receipts of the sale of affordable housing should be ploughed back into building more of the same.

I will be writing to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to put these points across to him, and look forward to continuing to work with Phil on behalf of those constituents who are Grand Union customers.