Industrial Dwellings Society (IDS) has teamed up with the L&Q Foundation, in partnership with other members of the BME London Development Group, to help kick-start a £100 million initiative aimed at delivering hundreds of new affordable homes in London.

The 1,500-home housing association, which works with Jewish and wider communities in London, is one of nine black and minority ethnic housing associations to join the L&Q Foundation and the Greater London Authority (GLA) in the ground-breaking strategic partnership, which will unlock small sites across the capital and deliver around 300 homes a year. Earlier this year, IDS launched plans to deliver 500 homes within the next 10 years, some of which it plans to develop through the new partnership.

The organisation commissioned a report by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research to examine housing need amongst Jewish communities in the capital, in order to help ensure it delivers homes where they are most needed. Entering into this strategic partnership with the L&Q Foundation and the GLA will help IDS to achieve greater economies of scale, ensure better risk management and achieve better value for money when delivering these homes. Grant funding from the GLA means that all of the homes delivered through the initiative will be genuinely affordable.

L&Q, a charitable housing association which owns more 95,000 homes in London and the South East, will be creating a specialist team to procure land and develop homes on behalf of IDS and the other partner organisations. The initiative will be funded through L&Q Foundation, which has a capital fund of £100m to invest in charitable activities that help L&Q achieve its social objectives. The other housing association partners involved in the initiative are Inquilab HA, Westway HA, Tamil HA, Imani Co-op, North London Muslim HA, Odu Dua HA, Ekaya HA and Shian HA.

Suzanne Wolfe, Chief Executive of Industrial Dwellings Society, said: “IDS is pleased to be part of this ground-breaking partnership, which will enable us to get on with delivering genuinely affordable homes to Jewish and wider communities in London. “This is a pioneering initiative, in which the GLA, a large housing association, and small, specialist organisations will be working together to deliver the homes communities across London desperately need.” Waqar Ahmed, Group Director of Finance at L&Q, said: “As part of L&Q’s ambition to build 100,000 quality new homes over ten years, we want to enable small and medium-sized organisations to deliver homes that wouldn’t otherwise be built.

“Through this exciting new partnership, we can now support smaller associations to increase their stock of high quality, social housing, by leveraging L&Q’s capacity and expertise.”

Notes to editors

• Industrial Dwellings Society (IDS) is one of the UK’s oldest housing associations, with a history that stretches back nearly 150 years.
• Founded in the late 19th Century, IDS was born out of a need to tackle badly overcrowded and insanitary housing conditions in the capital.
• Our first tenants were exclusively Jewish migrants – from Europe and beyond –fleeing persecution abroad.
• Whilst our history and heritage is important to us, today we provide homes and services to a far wider community.
• Today, we own and manage over 1,500 homes across London, working in areas of greatest housing need.
• We have an ambitious plan to continue our growth to support the communities we serve. Over the next 10 years, we will invest in new affordable homes and services across London.
• As a charitable housing association, our role goes beyond providing homes and housing services. We are a long-term partner in the neighbourhoods and communities where we work.
• We hope to build aspiration, opportunity and confidence among residents – by providing homes that cater to the needs of our residents and communities at a time of acute housing need.