Meadow Gardens
£42m GDV GDV — 100% Affordable Housing
£42m
GDV
£8.4m
Homes England Grant
£45,400
Grant Per Unit
112 homes
Social / Affordable Rent
73 homes
Shared Ownership
£1.16m
Highway Cost Saving
Meadow Gardens is a 100% affordable housing scheme of 185 homes on a council-owned site in South Bristol, developed by Horizon Housing Association. The scheme delivers a mix of affordable rent, shared ownership, and social rent tenures to meet the acute housing need in the area. Affintis was appointed to provide financial modelling, grant optimisation advice, and housing association development appraisal support throughout the procurement and delivery process.
Client
Horizon Housing Association
Sector
100% Affordable Housing
Location
Bristol
Completion
2023
Services Provided
- Grant Funding Optimisation
- Housing Association Appraisal Support
- Homes England Bid Preparation
- Infrastructure Negotiation
- Tenure Mix Analysis
100% affordable scheme requiring grant funding optimisation while meeting housing association development appraisal criteria. The site had been in council ownership for several years without progressing due to the complexity of funding and the requirement to satisfy both Homes England grant criteria and the housing association's internal development appraisal thresholds. Infrastructure contributions required by the local highway authority were threatening scheme viability.
Affintis built a detailed grant funding model to assess the optimal tenure mix that would maximise Homes England Affordable Homes Programme grant while ensuring the scheme satisfied the housing association's minimum development surplus requirements. We engaged with Homes England early to agree an enhanced grant bid based on the infrastructure cost burden, and negotiated with Bristol City Council's highways team to phase and reduce the traffic contributions.
Structured the scheme to maximise Homes England grant while maintaining viability for the registered provider. The grant bid was successful at £8.4m (£45,400 per unit), representing a significant uplift on the standard rates. Infrastructure contributions were reduced from £1.8m to £640,000 through negotiation and phasing. All 185 homes are now occupied, with 112 at social or affordable rent.