In February 2025, West Kent Housing Association celebrated the completion of 18 much needed affordable homes in Fawkham, delivered in partnership with Kent based housebuilder Fernham Homes, seeing 23 residents put down roots in their local community.

Among the locals to benefit from this latest new address were young couple, Lily and Hadley, who had been looking to secure a foothold on the property ladder of their hometown with their young family for over a year. Remaining close to their family was essential for childcare support, but high local demand for such rare shared ownership homes had seen them regularly sell out within weeks and the couples’ future of securing their own home remain uncertain.

The new development on Fawkham Road introduces 18 affordable homes to buy and rent, alongside 16 for private sale, surrounded by the North Downs just moments from the village centre. It offers a range of one, two, three and four-bedroom homes, in a selection of locally-inspired apartments, maisonettes and houses, across a mix of shared ownership, affordable rent and social rent.

Anabel Palmer, director of development and partnerships at West Kent Housing Association, explains: “Our partnership with Fernham Homes enables us to deliver the high-quality, affordable homes families in Kent need. Shared ownership, which allows people to buy a portion of their home and increase their share as their circumstances change, has become one of the most popular routes into home ownership for first-time buyers. These new homes in Fawkham offer an ideal blend of quality, flexibility and connectivity, close to rail links and local amenities that matter to residents.”

Fawkham is the first of two projects with Fernham Homes, with a subsequent partnership at its Newington development following the success of Fawkham. Due for completion this December, Newington has seen equal success with all 10 affordable homes all snapped up by local buyers through word-of-mouth alone. The new homes at Fawkham and Newington are the result of an innovative, solution-led approach to overcome the longstanding challenges of delivering affordable properties within smaller scale and create the choice of homes Kent’s towns and villages urgently need.

With many costs to bring a smaller site forward the same as larger development projects, reduced economies of scale regularly lead to issues with the financial viability of creating affordable homes within such schemes. Teamed with budget constraints of local authorities and Registered Providers, those able to procure such homes delivered through Section 106 obligations are increasingly limited. A situation that has led to many headlines this year describing the current system as ‘broken’ and widespread call for reform.

Working in partnership, West Kent Housing Association and Fernham Homes devised bespoke solutions for both the Fawkham and Newington schemes to secure the funding needed to make each scheme suitably viable.

Anabel continues: “We’re incredibly proud of our strong working relationship with Fernham Homes, which has enabled us to deliver high-quality homes on a small scale in areas that really need more affordable housing. Working with such an equally dedicated team has allowed us to overcome many of the challenges that we often face with smaller developments, along with accessing additional funding to make the projects financially viable.”

Fernham Homes’ managing director, Sean Ellis, adds: “The continued working relationship with West Kent Housing Association is hugely important to us as a local housebuilder, the collaboration enabling us to deliver much needed affordable homes for the local communities in Fawkham and Newington. West Kent is a valued partner of our business and have worked hard to help us to address the challenge of delivering affordable houses on small sites.”

Completed earlier this year, Fernham Homes Fawkham is now home to almost 50 new residents with the affordable homes fully occupied and the last two private homes awaiting their move ins.