Clarke Willmott supports new social housing campaign

By Peter Davison

29 September 2023

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The Business Magazine article image for: Clarke Willmott supports new social housing campaign

Vicky Kells and Lindsay Felstead

Bristol law firm Clarke Willmott LLP has signed up to support a new initiative aimed at highlighting the need for new homes for social rent.

Build Social, launched by Inside Housing, the leading publication for housing professionals in the UK, is calling on political parties to commit to funding a substantial programme of homes for social rent in their manifestos for the upcoming General Election.

The campaign aims to ensure that everyone in the UK has access to a stable, affordable home with organisers saying that currently more than 100,000 households in the UK are living in temporary accommodation.

Clarke Willmott’s national team of specialist social housing solicitors is one of the largest in the UK, acting for over 100 registered providers as well as major frameworks including HALA, CHIC, SEC and ASW.

Vicky Kells (pictured left), a partner and joint head of Clarke Willmott’s social housing sector, said: “The Build Social campaign is calling on political parties to commit to building 90,000 social rented homes a year in England, 7,700 in Scotland and 4,000 in Wales. These are big numbers but the idea is putting delivery on the political map.

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“We have joined the campaign alongside some heavy hitters in the housing sector from the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) to the charity Crisis and we hope that by advocating for change, collectively we can make a difference.”

Lindsay Felstead (pictured right), also a partner and joint head of the firm’s social housing division, said: “Clarke Willmott proudly supports this campaign. Ensuring good quality homes for social rent is hugely important and our housing team is looking forward to seeing the positive impact this campaign will bring for the social housing sector in the UK.”

By Peter Davison

Peter Davison is deputy editor of The Business Magazine. He has spent his life in journalism – doing work experience in newsrooms in and around Bristol while still at school, and landing his first job on a local newspaper aged 19. By 28 he was the youngest newspaper editor in the country.

An early advocate of online news, he spent the first years of the 2000s telling his bosses that the internet posed both the biggest opportunity and greatest threat to the newspaper industry and the art of journalism. He was right on both counts.

Since 2006 he has enjoyed a career as a freelance journalist. He lives in rural Wiltshire with one wife, two children, and three cats.