New Grosvenor Hart Homes boss: ‘Our door is open to the sector on partnership working’

GHH is already working with a small number of partners to help understand how it can scale its model up, and Ms Keenan says the landlord is in discussion with a few other associations.

Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster’s property company that owns swathes of London’s exclusive Mayfair and Belgravia districts, is valued at around £11.5bn.

However, Ms Keenan says the new provider will not just be relying on funding from the multibillion-pound firm. It will also look to access grant funding from Homes England.

“There’s a big commitment from Grosvenor itself, and there is £55m already earmarked for this initiative,” she says.

GHH has an initial target of delivering 750 homes. It has started with the completion of 29 refurbished private-sector homes from Grosvenor, and a dedicated community facility in Chester city centre.

These units will be transferred to the landlord once it has gone through the stage-two process of registering with the Regulator of Social Housing, which it hopes will be completed later in the year.

GHH will be looking to deliver its pipeline through its own land-led development, but it will also consider acquisitions while building on the experience and expertise of the Duke of Westminster’s firm.

Ms Keenan says: “We’re really conscious that we need additionality in this sector, and the beauty of this model is that it builds on Grosvenor’s existing relationships. The firm has been working alongside associations for many years.”

The chief executive believes the firm can set its stall out on building really high-quality homes, as GHH is not going to be saddled with ageing stock that has damp and mould issues, or blocks of flats with dangerous cladding.

Ms Keenan comes from a social enterprise background in service design for children and young people, economic development and regeneration, and she believes her experience in these areas will bring a new approach to building and allocating homes.

GHH is working on setting up a panel alongside local authorities that includes social and children’s services to help match families and individuals in receipt of this support with the housing register. 

She says: “This is an area where I have some expertise: addressing barriers in children’s services. We know that where you are under statutory support in children’s services, for example, this doesn’t always read across to the housing register.

“One of the problems with housing is transitioning out of the children’s care system into adulthood. One minute they’re getting lots of support, and then that can fall off a cliff when they move on to another home. So that’s how our matching service hopes to bring all these considerations together.”

Ms Keenan stresses that although GHH will be registered as a for-profit provider, it will have the ethos of a social enterprise.

She says: “From a user perspective, support services can be difficult to understand and engage with, especially for those who are most vulnerable or for people with language barriers.

“From a provider’s perspective, too often we see ‘service inputs’ rather than ‘effective outcomes’ driving the system. And a lack of capacity within statutory services means resources are swallowed up by the most urgent and extreme cases. The system is failing our most vulnerable people.

“We want to have a genuinely transformative impact on children and young people by integrating the most appropriate support services for them – ones that can help them thrive – alleviating the major social pressures and disadvantages we see within the communities we are part of and know best.”