Reflections from New Homes New Ways Summit

Driving Systems Innovation for Social Rent Housing

Earlier this week, we had the opportunity to attend the second day of the New Homes, New Ways summit in London—an event bringing together leaders from across the public, private, and third sectors to explore bold solutions to the urgent shortage of genuinely affordable homes.

The summit opened with a powerful keynote from Lord Best, reminding us that the need is not abstract: England requires an estimated 90,000 new social homes per year. It’s clear that business as usual won’t get us there. What’s needed is systems innovation—rethinking how we fund, plan, and build housing with collaboration and long-term impact at the centre.

Cornerstone Place was invited to contribute to a panel on the challenges and opportunities of systems innovation alongside Jeremy Sweetland, Paul Jones, Zoe Metcalfe, and Sarah Chilcott—a conversation that spanned practical delivery, planning reform, health data, and modern construction.

Key insights from the panel included:

• Paul Jones (Rollalong Ltd) demonstrated the potential of modern methods of construction (MMC), with a two-bedroom home assembled in hours on-site—proving speed and quality need not be trade-offs.

• Zoe Metcalfe (AtkinsRéalis) introduced the Thriving Places framework and shared the staggering cost of inaction: Adverse Childhood Events—many linked to homelessness—cost the UK Treasury an estimated £42.8 billion annually.

• Sarah Chilcott (Housing Festival) made a passionate case for planning system reform, arguing that innovation is often blocked not by intent, but by outdated processes and unnecessary red tape.

Representing Cornerstone Place, we shared our work in transforming underutilised land into small, high-impact housing projects in partnership with local authorities. From unlocking brownfield sites with at-risk funding to using MMC and layered finance models, our focus remains on keeping housing assets in the hands of impact-makers—and creating replicable models that respond directly to local housing need.

We left the summit energised by the shared sense of purpose in the room. Systems change is not only necessary—it’s possible. But it requires cross-sector collaboration, radical transparency, and the courage to challenge legacy structures.

Thanks to all who made the day such a powerful exchange of ideas—and especially to Jeremy Sweetland for his thoughtful chairing of the session and leadership in building this emerging community of practice.

As ever, we’re committed to working together to reshape the housing system—not for profit, but for people.