Swale Council breaks ground on 51 social rented homes at Sittingbourne car park site

It’s the first social housing Swale Borough Council has directly delivered since the 1990s. That’s worth letting sink in. While housing associations have done the heavy lifting elsewhere for decades, this council has gone back to building its own — because it had no choice. A housing association partner was sought and never found, and the alternative was losing the site and the 51 homes entirely.

The scheme has been six years in the making, with officers and members working on it since 2019. Planning permission — reference 23/503228/FULL — came through in 2025. Social rents are set by a national formula rather than the open market, which is why they come in so much lower than what landlords in the area typically charge.

Funding and delivery partners

The project wouldn’t stack up financially without outside help. Homes England’s Affordable Homes Programme is putting in £6.4 million — the council is frank that without that grant, the low rental income would have made the whole thing unviable. Swale has brought in Regiis as development partner, with Counties & Capital Group as project director and development manager.

Neill Tickle, Managing Director of Counties & Capital Group, said: “This is about much more than constructing a new building: it is about providing secure and genuinely affordable homes, regenerating an important part of Sittingbourne and ensuring the investment creates lasting value for the wider community.” He also described the council as showing “real leadership” in stepping in to deliver the homes directly when others were unable to take the scheme forward. Ryan Newberry, Managing Director of Regiis Holdings Ltd, said the firm was committed to “meaningful social value” during construction — site staff drawn from Sittingbourne and West Malling, with Kent-based subcontractors prioritised for groundworks, scaffolding and brickwork.

Design, green space and what gets built

The buildings will nod to Sittingbourne’s brick manufacturing heritage: brickwork detailing, recessed windows, herringbone panels, arches. Landscaping along St Michael’s Road will deliver a biodiversity net gain of 117% — the planning rules require 10%, so that’s not a rounding error. The homes will also be energy-efficient, using modern building techniques to cut residents’ heating and lighting bills.

Twenty-eight car parking spaces and 52 cycle spaces across two secure storage areas. Building names will pay homage to local history, Regiis says, with the design team working on that element.

Cllr Hannah Perkin, chair of the council’s Housing, Health and Communities committee, attended the groundbreaking and said she was looking forward to seeing the “high-quality designs come to life”. She described the homes as “much-needed” for residents on Swale’s housing register, where demand far outstrips supply — and the council says the development will also improve the gateway into the High Street.

But when the homes will actually be ready, and when people on the register can apply, the council hasn’t yet said.