Peterborough's Cross Keys Homes has been named as one of the UK's top 50 builders

The housing association that has just bought Peterborough’s Northminster apartments development, has been named as one of the UK’s top 50 builders.

Cross Keys Homes, in Shrewsbury Avenue, Woodston, where it employs 400 staff, has been given the accolade for the number of developments that it has in the pipeline.

The association has been ranked at number 40 by the social housing sector’s trade publication Inside Housing in its top 50 biggest builders for pending developments listing.

Cross Keys has appeared in the industry listing for the last two years.

The new accolade comes shortly after the association announced that it was buying the Northminster site from the Peterborough Investment Partnership and will now ensure the delivery of 315 high-quality homes.

Cross Keys Homes completed 286 homes in 2021/22, and is expected to complete 509 new builds this financial year with the construction taking place in Peterborough and across the east of England and the Home Counties where house prices are rising and affordable housing in desperately short supply.

Last June, it unveiled plans to raise £50 million to build homes at a rate of 500 a year.

Claire Higgins, chief executive of Cross Keys Homes, said: “Building homes for the future is a key objective for Cross Keys Homes and so to feature in this prestigious list for our pipeline developments is a great indication that we are getting it right.

"We are by no means the largest housing association and so to appear alongside some of the biggest in the sector shows we are really making our contribution to addressing the critical shortage of affordable housing in this country.

“The housing crisis is continuing to affect people greatly across the rented sector and those trying to buy their own home.

"We are determined to do all we can to help to address this by building as many affordable homes as our capacity permits.

"We are also working in several innovative Joint Ventures to enable us to build even more homes, and so balance the risk and reward to ensure we protect the interests of our current residents. These numbers do not include those homes that have been developed via our joint ventures.”