Saffron Housing: Independent Living and Devolution Insights
31 July 2025
Values-led leadership, a dedicated staff team and a laser-like focus on doing the right thing and helping shape the places where their customers live.
I have been in Norwich to visit Saffron. I travelled there by train from Yorkshire, and remembered on the way why I hadn’t been there much before - it took four different trains to get there! I met PlaceShapers Chief Executive Catherine Ryder at Norwich train station, who also caught four trains to get there from her home in Worthing. It is on days like this that I realise that. for a small country, we do make it harder than it should be for people to get around by public transport.
We travelled by taxi to Swallowtail Place Community Living Scheme and were met by James Francis, Chief Executive of Saffron Housing Association, and Ali Dennis, who is the Head of the Chief Executive’s Office. As we drove up to the independent living / extra care scheme, we were greeted by a large, new build three-storey building, with glass fronted private balconies along the front to most flats which made it look like an attractive holiday complex. We went into the building and found a spacious entrance and large central chandelier that could have easily been a high end hotel lobby.
James’ colleague Sarah-Lou Forrest showed us round the scheme and a couple of residents were kind enough to show us into their flats. Both were spacious, and felt like a home that anyone would be happy to live in. Catherine Ryder had a fascinating ‘paint colour’ discussion with one of the residents who had painted some of her walls with Farrow and Ball paint - who knew that stiffkey blue was even a colour!! (It’s dark blue for the uneducated like me).
The residents treated Sarah-Lou like an old friend, even though she no longer manages Swallowtail Place. There was a connectedness between staff and customer which I am repeatedly seeing in PlaceShapers organisations - this is clearly an organisation that places a high value on creating a good relationship with customers.
Saffron have quite a few extra-care (they call it independent living) schemes relative to their size, and hearing James describe their approach to the capital v revenue funding risks is illuminating. How much they are prepared to be exposed to is an ongoing discussion with the board, but their local council have identified a significant need for homes for older people and Saffron, as a key partner, want to do what they can to help. So they are actively exploring ways they can develop in a way that shares the risks equitably with partners.
Over lunch we discussed with James and some of his colleagues the challenges faced by the organisation. Saffron were one of the first housing associations to be awarded a ‘C1’ from their inspection. They were (and are) rightly proud to have been awarded that consumer standard grading. But there is no sense of complacency from anyone - James talked about customer satisfaction needing to improve, the plans in place at the time of the last inspection and the focus there is on seeing things improve.
Another area of focus is devolution. Norfolk and Suffolk are one of the six priority areas for devolution, so there is a lot of activity going on preparing to engage with the Combined Authority and regional Mayor when they are created / appointed sometime in the next 12-18 months. Part of that will include a shared resource between local housing associations, to ensure that housing is positioned (and resourced) to effectively engage with the new structure(s).
I find myself being impressed every time I visit a place-shaping housing association like Saffron. I invariably see values-led leadership, a dedicated staff team and a laser-like focus on doing the right thing and helping shape the places where their customers live. Saffron is another great example of this. For our part, PlaceShapers will create space for the approach Saffron has to be shared with members more widely – they have a lot to share.
But for now, I shall jump on three trains to get home, inspired yet again by an organisation determined to keep the main thing, the main thing.