Creating better ways: a new partnership between Saffron and Freebridge
20 May 2026
The potential of partnership and the positive impact it could bring to the people and communities we were created to serve is significant.
Lot of things were created in 2004. Dame Kelly Homes and Mr Brightside created history. Facebook and Gmail created new ways to connect and communicate. And in Long Stratton, South Norfolk, over the road from the high school I had left a decade before, councillors decided to trust Saffron with its housing. Saffron was founded, for the benefit of the community.
At Saffron today we remain true to our founding purpose by providing the best possible home and service to as many people as we can within Norfolk and Suffolk. No doubt, stock transfer created a better way to improve affordable housing, with quality and quantity increasing by over 50% in the time that has followed. By working across organisational boundaries and funding streams, we create better ways to meet a wider range of needs.
South Norfolk Council is now one of eight local authorities which subject to potential legal challenge and parliamentary approval will become three unitary authorities. Despite the best efforts of over fifty providers of affordable housing, the proposed first Mayor for Norfolk and Suffolk will inherit over 22,000 people on housing waiting lists.
In this social and political context, the potential of partnership and the positive impact it could bring to the people and communities we were created to serve is significant.
This time last year I took a call from Anita Jones, Chief Executive at Freebridge. Like Saffron, Freebridge was a 2004 stock transfer and shares Saffron’s interests and values. Whereas Saffron has been successful in developing through partnership, section 106 agreements and acquisition of land, Freebridge has focussed on town centre regeneration in its heartlands of King’s Lynn, West Norfolk.
The call was to let me know their Development Director was about to retire, and we saw an opportunity to bring the teams together under shared leadership. We felt this would make better use of the expertise already existing in each organisation and reduce costs. This work highlighted the potential of a model that makes the very best use of resources and enables any savings to be invested in each organisations’ communities.
Over the last six months we have been working on creating a company that we will jointly own as a place for any work that makes sense to do together. This work is being led by the sharing of an existing Executive Director.
Change will be incremental. Our focus at this stage remains on making a great success of the shared development service and we will consider other activities over time, as we work methodically to unlock the potential of partnership and the positive impacts it can have on the people and communities we were created to serve.
We stand ready work alongside organisations that share our interests and the values created by colleagues in consultation with tenants last year – to make a difference, achieve more together, and create better ways.