Helping people put down roots since 1909
Affinity Sutton is an organisation rich in history, made
up of the extensive experience of our three main operating
companies, Broomleigh, Downland and William Sutton
Homes.
Our business for social purpose ethos can be traced back to
1900 when Victorian philanthropist, William
Sutton bequeathed his fortune to a charitable trust to
provide ‘model dwellings and houses for occupation by the poor
of London and other towns and populous places in England’.
In 1964, Downland was formed
by a group of local businessmen in Sussex led by engineer,
Archibald Shaw. Downland had a number of significant achievements
including being pioneers of providing keyworker accommodation to
hospital workers.
Broomleigh was formed in 1992 as the first
urban Large Scale Voluntary Transfer of homes from the London
Borough of Bromley. Broomleigh went on to introduce the sector's
first customer service centre in 1997 and was awarded the sector's
first Standard and Poor's credit rating in 2000.
Coming together
The Affinity Homes Group was created to become the parent
company of Broomleigh in 2002 and a year later, merged with
Downland.
Affinity and William Sutton merged in 2006 to form one of the
largest housing groups in the sector. This last merger brought
together all of the organisations that make up Affinity Sutton
today.
In 2009 we celebrated a century of helping people put down roots
with the 100th birthday of our first scheme, Bethnal Green, in East
London. Developed in 1909, Bethnal Green was one of Europe’s
first charitable housing developments and provided an escape from
London’s East End slums for around 400 people.
In October of the same year, Affinity Sutton started
providing housing management services to Broomleigh, Downland and
William Sutton, and all began trading as Affinity Sutton.
Affinity Sutton today
Today we are a nationwide housing association
with over 161,000 people calling an Affinity Sutton home ‘their
home’, thanks to merger and stock transfer successes as well as our
active new homes development programme. One thing hasn’t
changed though - our commitment to maximise life chances for our
residents and create places for communities to thrive.
Take a look at our timeline