About Origin Housing

• Our Vision

• • Great Homes
  • Positive People
  • Strong Communities

We are a registered social landlord, managing over 7,800 homes in London and Hertfordshire. We provide affordable housing in our Communities as well as related care and support services to the People who live in them.

Origin Housing started life in 1924 as St. Pancras House Improvement Society, a charitable organisation founded by Father Basil Jellicoe because of a belief that good quality affordable housing is a foundation for a successful life.

Thanks to a subsequent series of mergers with other organisations: Humanist Housing Association, Griffin Homes, and Lee Housing Association, we now work in 14 areas across North London and Hertfordshire.

On 16 April 2024, we completed a merger to become a subsidiary of Places for People. 

About Places for People   

We are Places for People, the UK's leading Social Enterprise. We change lives by creating and supporting thriving Communities.  

Our business consists of complementary companies that are market leaders in homes and Communities, regeneration and development, investment management, property management and leisure.

We own or manage more than 240,000 properties that are homes to around 500,000 Customers right across the UK.  

We operate 100 leisure facilities that support the health and wellbeing of our Customers with an average of 1.9m visits a month. 

Using the power of partnership and working collaboratively, almost 11,600 colleagues in more than 20 specialist companies create Communities and provide People with opportunities and choices in a way that few organisations can match. 

What sets us apart from other organisations, is that beyond providing housing or leisure opportunities, we have a genuine commitment to improving people’s lives and Communities as a whole. Through our social impact work, we use our precious resources to make a real and lasting difference through schemes that offer support with employment, health and wellbeing, finances, homelessness prevention and more. In 2022, our social impact work delivered £272 million in wellbeing value to Communities and £300 million in 2023. 

Our vision

Great homes: places where people are proud to live

We want to provide homes that People are proud to live in. Housing is a long-term commitment so it is important to us that we build quality property and continue to invest in keeping homes at modern standards over many decades.

We buy land and build homes for rent and for sale. We also buy homes directly from private house-builders.

The homes are for:

• letting at a subsidised rent;
• part-rent part-buy (called shared ownership);
• outright sale – the profits from which support our charitable objectives.

We finance this by: raising loans; proceeds from sales; along with a small amount of government grant.

Positive people: responsive caring staff getting services right for customers

We strive to be a top-performing landlord, property manager and provider of care and support services. We want our Customers to be positive about the services we provide. This means it is crucial that our staff are skilled, dedicated and positive people who are committed to providing the best possible customer service.

We recognise that to do this means we must listen to our Customers, so we regularly seek feedback and work with Customers to improve services is central to the way we operate.

Strong communities: helping people and neighbourhoods thrive

Our aim is to help People and neighbourhoods to thrive. Working in partnership with Local Authorities we provide under contract a range of care and support services to People who are vulnerable due to learning disabilities, old age or other issues.

We want our Communities to be places where People feel safe and proud, and where they can aspire to reach their potential. To help achieve this, we run and support initiatives to encourage inclusion and involvement, helping People to become actively involved in building sustainable, healthy and vibrant neighbourhoods. We provide support for People to find sustainable employment, manage their money, and stay in their homes for longer.