By building homes where people want to live, and investing in the environment, we help to create long-lasting sustainable communities.
Our expert team aim to provide high quality service and homes to our customers throughout their journey with us.
We build homes at affordable price points. Positioning our sustainable developments in the areas our customers want to live, creating communities and making the property ladder accessible for all.
In 2022/23, we handed over affordable and social homes with a revenue equivalent to £116m and most recently £60m of Private Rented Sector (PRS) homes. We will continue to grow this part of our business to serve a wide range of customer requirements.
We also seek to educate our customers on the affordability benefits of our new homes. Customers could save an average of £2,200 per year on energy bills, gain access to Green Mortgages and new build only schemes to help them purchase their new home.
Our senior management team work hard to build relations with key external stakeholders such as mortgage lenders, to ensure our customers can access innovative schemes and the best new mortgage products. Our independent panel of new build specialist mortgage brokers are also available for our customers, free of charge, to help advise our customers on the best borrowing options to suit their affordability needs.
We design and build homes to improve our customers’ quality of life. That means meeting high expectations: in the quality of our homes, in the range of choice, throughout the buying journey, after moving in and beyond, providing an excellent customer experience at all touchpoints.
We put our customers at the heart of all we do. From initial enquiry through to reservation, construction, completion, and post occupation customer service, we have expert staff dedicated to deliver best in class customer experiences every time.
We understand that many of our customers are environmentally conscious. Our printing suppliers use FSC accredited paper, and we have eliminated single use plastic from all merchandise. This includes giving our customers eco-friendly hampers as a gift when they move into their new home.
We work with many small and medium sized businesses who provide trades to our developments. We always aim to support businesses local to our developments, boosting the community’s economy. We ensure we have fair and timely payment terms to support small businesses.
We aim to give our customers a high-quality home. We have a comprehensive quality checking process called the Avant Gold Mark. This allows us to certify the quality of our homes against internally developed quality standards, the NHBC standards and the New Homes Quality Code standards.
We hope that our customers enjoy every aspect of living in their new home and that there will be no issues. Our homes are constructed by many different trades in accordance with relevant Building Control requirements.
On the rare occasion, faults can happen, and sometimes there might be a minor issue that only becomes apparent once the home is occupied. Therefore, we have a comprehensive after-sales care service to resolve any concerns within 30 calendar days, and our customers receive a two-year Avant warranty, alongside a 10-year insurance warranty. We are also an active member of the New Homes Quality Code, providing reassurance that we are committed to delivering a first-class customer service.
Key workers and the military do phenomenal work and are essential to the functioning of our society and communities.
At Avant, we say thanks to key workers and armed forces personnel by giving them a contribution of up to £12,000, with eligible buyers receiving £500 back for every £25,000 spent on their home. For example, a home costing £226,000 would qualify for a contribution of £4,500.
During our design and planning process, we aim to understand our impact on local communities, listening to feedback to ensure our developments serve their needs. We often conduct health impact assessments; this allows us to understand and consider the effect of our proposed development on both the health and health inequalities of local communities so we can respond appropriately during the design and planning process.
We also engage with local people via numerous methods such as letter drops, local media, by presenting our proposals, answering community questions, and by attending exhibitions held by Parish Councils, Neighbourhood Forums and Council Members. We encourage written feedback which we can incorporate into our Statement of Community Involvement report.
We are committed to investing in the local communities in which we build our housing developments.
We fund a range of infrastructure and facilities on and around our developments through our planning agreements. These enhance our developments and the wider area.
Take a look at our upcoming Community Consultations here.Community infrastructure
- We are committed to contributing £70m to local community infrastructure via various initiatives
- 88% of our developments have directly built or contributed to new community infrastructure.
Sustainable travel
- 91% of our developments are built within 400m of public transport.
- 70% of our developments have travel plans, sustainable travel solutions or have committed to contribute to local sustainable travel initiatives e.g. £1m contribution to extend the 444 service from Leeds to Wakefield.
Local people
- We directly and indirectly support 32,057 jobs via the development of 10,341 plots on current active sites, according to the HBF.
- We give local sponsorships to community projects such as local football teams and cricket clubs.
Avant Homes North East region worked with the community close to our Allenson View development, holding an art competition with children at West Rainton Primary School.
The art competition, judged by Labour MP for City of Durham, Mary Kelly Foy, was divided into three age categories: four to six years, seven to eight years and nine to 11 years. The respective winners were Nina Hoggarth, Darcie Hoggarth, who are sisters, and Tiana Graham.
Each winner in the respective age groups was awarded a £50 Smyths voucher. The overall winner, Nina Hoggarth, was awarded an additional £100 Smyths voucher.
As part of Avant Homes’ ongoing commitment to support and enhance the communities in which it builds, we also made a donation of £1,500 to the primary school. This donation aims to enhance educational opportunities and foster continued growth for all pupils.
We work to engage with the industry in numerous ways, with our Group Head of Planning leading our relationship with the Royal Town Planning Institute. This allows us to contribute to industry policy and strategy discussions, forming part of the Institute’s response to key consultations, topics, and government proposals. Furthermore, this important relationship helps to support all our planners with Continuous Professional Development training to ensure we remain at the forefront of the industry.
All our homes are registered with either the National House-Building Council (NHBC) or Premier Guarantee, providing a 10-year construction warranty for all our customers.
We aim to support a strong, responsive, and competitive economy by utilising land of the right type, in the right places, at the right time, to support growth, innovation, and productivity. We also seek to create strong, vibrant, and healthy communities by providing a sufficient number and range of homes that meet the needs of present and future generations. We create well-designed, beautiful, and safe places, with accessible services and open spaces to reflect current and future needs, supporting community health, social and cultural wellbeing.
We work with local and national planning policies and guidance, including the National Planning Policy Framework, to help us to meet our objectives.
