Building communities in West Kent
23 October 2025
The ability of members to plan with ambition could be so much stronger with tweaks to funding processes – not more money but spending money smarter.
Settling into the board room at West Kent Housing Association with a warm welcome and cup of tea on a chilly morning, my eyes were drawn to colourful stickers on boards propped on the windowsill.
Brilliant in their simplicity and clarity, they were mood boards for a regeneration site at Greatness Lane. The stickers showed what mattered most to residents in terms of homes and surrounding spaces. The more stickers, the more it mattered. Crucially, stickers had been placed not just by those who might live in the homes, but the surrounding community as well.
Mood boards in West Kent's board room
It was an insight into West Kent’s ambition to build and strengthen communities. As Anabel Palmer, Director of Development and Partnerships, explained: “For us regeneration is about how we use our existing land, whether that’s changing the use of it or maximising the use of it for the benefit of our existing and future communities.”
Catherine Ryder, Charlotte Kay and I were visiting as part of our PlaceShapers programme of visits to better understand members and use that knowledge to inform our influencing, advocacy and activities.
And it could not have been more timely with Placeshapers strategic focus on regeneration as key to national renewal.
Anabel, Chief Executive Tracy Allison and Director of Property and Asset Management Neil Diddams talked us through regeneration projects in 6 priority neighbourhoods. Their geography is diverse – affluent, leafy Sevenoaks through to places with a left-behind feel that some might not think exists in the south east. Hearing the complexity and intricacy of even trying to develop a masterplan for an area like Swanley was truly enlightening.
After this we hopped into cars to visit Greatness Lane for real. West Kent will regenerate the site of a warehouse, tired housing block, garages and old housing to create 32 new homes from an existing 11.
Those mood boards made perfect sense when Development Manager Dan Clifford talked with passion about the difference their input had made to external design, internal layout and outdoor space. We learned of many examples of things being done differently – from ensuring homes respond to modern needs with working from home and storage space through to re-configuring a path to make it feel safe and secure.
As well as regenerating their existing land and communities, West Kent are building homes through land-led development. Their ambition is to build communities that are stable, integrated and resilient from the outset. Local Lettings Plans help them consider who will live in a community and ensure the right infrastructure and facilities are in place when people move in, including making sure they've built enough space for children to play.
Visiting Greatness Lane
Visiting a member in person adds real-life evidence to our work. Members are energised by the Government commitment to £39n in the Affordable Housing Programme but have told us that early confirmation that schemes will be funded will be crucial if they are to make the best use of this money to deliver for their communities. For example, they will not get confirmation of funding for Greatness Lane until planning is granted and contracts are awarded, This means West Kent are having to take on a huge amount of risk and do a huge amount of work, including in consultation with their community, without any guarantee that they will get the funding they need to make the scheme viable.
The ability of members to plan with ambition could be so much stronger with tweaks to funding processes – not more money but spending money smarter. Case studies like Greatness Lane help us to continue to make this case.
As I headed back through the beautiful Kent countryside, I reflected how good it was to to see one of PlaceShapers' founding members continue to have the place-shaping ethos at the heart of their thinking.