St Paul's Cray: 68 affordable homes rise, 3,430 waiting

The first section of ground floor slab has been poured on the Bellegrove site in St Paul’s Cray, where Bromley Council is building 68 affordable homes next to St Paul’s Cray Library. Pile foundations are progressing and reinforced concrete columns have been formed. The council says residents will see the concrete frame rise out of the ground in the coming months, with the homes expected to be delivered by late 2027 (London Borough of Bromley, 10 August 2026).

It is a £29 million development, supported by £14 million from the Greater London Authority. Bellegrove was the eighth scheme to win planning permission under the council’s Bromley Homes for Bromley People programme.

What is being built

The council’s description of the scheme covers more than the homes:

• 68 homes in a mix of one, two and three-bed
• the majority at social rent, set at around 50 per cent of local market rent
• wheelchair-accessible and supported living units within the scheme
• enhanced children’s play provision
• car and cycle parking
• a corridor of green space running through the site to Hoblingwell Wood Recreation Ground

All of it will be let to Bromley residents on the borough’s housing register. The contractor is The Hill Group, the council’s partner on the programme.

Councillor Yvonne Bear, Bromley’s Executive Councillor for Renewal, Recreation and Housing, visited the site to mark the end of the first phase of foundation work, alongside the London Assembly Member for Bromley and Bexley, Thomas Turrell. She said the scheme is “important for supporting the local housing supply in Orpington and for securing the homes we need to house our residents who are facing homelessness, which also helps to reduce costs for council taxpayers.”

The number that gives 68 its scale

Sixty-eight homes is real progress. It is also a small fraction of the need behind it.

Bromley’s own return to government put 3,430 households on its housing register at 31 March 2025. Every one of those households is recorded as being in a reasonable preference category, the statutory priority groups councils must give preference to (Local Authority Housing Statistics 2024-25, table C). The register is bigger than Bexley’s 1,640 and Sutton’s 2,870, and far smaller than Lewisham’s 11,284 or Greenwich’s 25,377.

The council adds a second figure of its own. More than 1,300 Bromley households are in expensive nightly-paid accommodation, which is the emergency end of the same problem and the cost it is trying to cut.

What those households actually need is mostly small:

Why the tenure matters more than the headline

Bromley completed 170 affordable homes in 2024-25, according to the government’s affordable housing supply data. That was a recovery from a very poor 2023-24, when just 29 were completed, and still below the 235 of 2022-23 (affordable housing supply open data).

Look at what those 170 were:

Nearly half of last year’s affordable supply in the borough was shared ownership. That is a purchase, not an allocation. A shared-ownership buyer needs a deposit and a mortgage, and buying one does not move anybody off the housing register. On that measure, a scheme that is mostly social rent does something last year’s numbers largely did not.

The council is explicit that it builds at a range of rent levels, from social rent up to affordable rent at 80 per cent of market rent or lower, partly because grant funding is often tied to particular rent levels.

What it means for you

• If you are on the register, these homes are years away. Delivery is expected late 2027, and allocation happens then, not now. Nothing about this announcement changes your position.
• If you are not on the register and think you should be, Bromley applies both a residency test and a local connection test, so check the criteria before applying.
• If you live near the site, expect the visible change over the next few months to be the concrete frame going up, with the green corridor to Hoblingwell Wood and the play provision coming at the end of the build.
• If you are tracking the programme, Bellegrove is the eighth approval under Bromley Homes for Bromley People. We covered the ninth and tenth earlier this month: 52 affordable homes approved for Orpington and Mottingham.

You can check what else is in the pipeline near you on our Bromley planning applications page, and see how the borough’s prices compare on our house prices page.

Frequently asked questions

When will the St Paul’s Cray homes be ready?

The council expects the 68 homes at Bellegrove to be delivered by late 2027. Foundation work finished in August 2026, and the concrete frame is due to go up over the following months.

Who will get the new homes?

They will be let to Bromley residents on the borough’s housing register. The majority are social rent, set at around 50 per cent of local market rent, and the scheme includes wheelchair-accessible and supported living units.

How many people are on Bromley’s housing register?

3,430 households at 31 March 2025, in the council’s own return to government. All of them were recorded in a reasonable preference category. The largest single group, 1,258 households, needs a one-bedroom home.

Where exactly is the Bellegrove site?

Next to St Paul’s Cray Library. The scheme includes a corridor of green space running through the site to Hoblingwell Wood Recreation Ground.

How much is it costing, and who is paying?

It is a £29 million development, supported by £14 million from the Greater London Authority. The contractor is The Hill Group.

Sources

• London Borough of Bromley: initial foundation works complete on new affordable housing in St Paul’s Cray, published 10 August 2026 (scheme detail, cost, GLA funding, quotes, nightly-paid accommodation figure)
• Local Authority Housing Statistics, data returns for 2024 to 2025, MHCLG, table C (housing register totals, bedrooms needed, reasonable preference, residency and local connection tests), figures at 31 March 2025
• Live tables on affordable housing supply, MHCLG open data file 1991-92 to 2024-25 (Bromley completions by tenure)

Housing register figures are the council’s own return to government at 31 March 2025, so they lag. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.