Circle Housing Group and Affinity Sutton have completed their merger to form Clarion Housing Group, with plans to build 50,000 homes in the next 10 years.
The new company will be England’s largest housing association and one of the country’s biggest house builders.
The group will comprise a charitable housing association, a charitable foundation and a newly created commercial company to be called Latimer. Circle and Affinity will continue to operate under their existing names until they are merged into the combined association in 2017.
Clarion will not be reliant on any government subsidy and will aim to prioritise affordable housing with around two-thirds of its programme for affordable rent and low-cost home ownership.
Keith Exford, who was chief executive of Affinity Sutton, becomes group chief executive of Clarion, with Circle chief Mark Rogers acting as deputy chief executive.
Exford said: “We have created Clarion Housing Group in response to the acute need to deliver more affordable housing. We are significantly increasing our capacity to deliver the homes our country so desperately needs as well as our ability to transform lives.”
Elsewhere in housing, the government has pledged £45m of funding to help spur on regional private rented sector projects.
Projects in Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester will receive the money, which is from the government’s new £3bn Home Building Fund. The aim is to build 25,000 homes over the next four years.
The housing will be split with Manchester receiving 995 new homes, 744 in Leeds and 323 in Birmingham.
The projects are being led by developer Dandara Group, with backing from HSBC.
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