Collaboration, Speed and Additionality: Lessons from our Key Worker Housing Roundtable 

Bouygues UK recently hosted a roundtable with London boroughs to explore how public-private partnership can unlock genuinely affordable homes for key workers – faster, and at greater scale. The session provided an opportunity to collaborate closely with Southwark Council and better understand their needs, with whom we are delivering 150 key worker homes at Abbey Street in SE1 at London Living Rent levels. 

The development, situated next to the Arnold Estate with excellent connections to London Bridge and Bermondsey stations, will house NHS staff, teachers, firefighters, police and social workers. It will also deliver a new community centre for the wider neighbourhood. Subject to planning, construction is targeted to begin in mid-2027, with completion in 2029. 

The roundtable brought together housing leads from across London to discuss the opportunities and challenges of delivering key worker housing in their own boroughs. Three themes defined the conversation. 

Real collaboration is the foundation 

The Abbey Street scheme exists because of a relationship built on genuine trust. Southwark Council has been an active, engaged partner throughout. They have been shaping the brief, navigating planning, consulting the community and ensuring the development reflects the borough’s priorities. The council’s emerging Affordable Housing Supplementary Planning Guidance provides a clear policy framework, but it is the working relationship that gives that framework real momentum. 

As the pilot scheme with the GLA, Abbey Street is also breaking new ground in a very practical sense. We are uncovering and unblocking issues as they arise, from policy ambiguities to site-specific challenges, and building the experience and processes that will make it faster and smoother for other boroughs to follow. Pioneering a new model means navigating the unknown, and that requires a partner with the capability and commitment to work through complexity together. 

Speed to market is possible but both sides must move together 

One of the most common concerns we hear from local authorities is pace. Can a privately-led model really deliver faster? Our experience says yes, but only when both parties are committed to removing blockers together, with aligned incentives and a shared urgency to get homes built. 

The Abbey Street timeline is evidence of what that alignment can achieve. It is not accidental. It is the product of both organisations operating as one team. Bouygues UK is also financing the development, enabling the financial viability of the scheme and giving the council confidence that delivery will not be held back by funding gaps or developer hesitancy. 

Key worker housing adds to the mix, it does not replace social rent 

This point came up repeatedly at the roundtable, and it is worth stating clearly. Key worker housing at London Living Rent is a distinct and additional product. It addresses the chronic difficulty boroughs face in recruiting and retaining the workforce their communities need whilst also addressing the issue of unused or difficult sites. 

It does not compete with social rent. Both are needed. The boroughs best placed to thrive will be those ambitious enough to deliver both. 

Central to our product offer is a model shaped by the people it is designed to serve. We held a workshop with key workers themselves to validate our approach, which led to the creation of the shared homes for key workers concept — a product innovation that has since been incorporated into GLA policy through the sharer model. This is what genuine co-design looks like: listening to key workers, testing ideas with them, and developing solutions that reflect how they actually want to live. 

Abbey Street is one example of what is possible when ambition is matched by partnership. We hope the conversations started at the roundtable help more boroughs move from intention to delivery. 

To find out more about Bouygues UK’s approach to key worker housing, or to discuss opportunities in your borough, get in touch.