Housing with a social conscience
Whiteley Village is owned and managed by The Whiteley Homes Trust charity. Our founder William Whiteley was a successful retail entrepreneur who on his death bequeathed £1 million to create housing for ‘the needy poor in their old age’. A visionary in his time, we believe William Whiteley’s philosophy is just as important now as it was then.
One in three babies born in the UK today will live to be 100 (ONS 2016). As more of us live longer and housing becomes increasingly unaffordable to many, poverty and homelessness in older age is increasing; impacting on health and quality of life. This makes our mission to offer a home to older people who might otherwise be homeless, so crucial.
With over 260 listed buildings on site, Whiteley Village is expensive to look after, especially for a charity of our size. Our longer-term viability is therefore underpinned by being as entrepreneurial and dedicated as our founder.
Despite the loss of our planning appeal in 2018, we are committed to increasing our provision for older people on low income, and the Trust is therefore exploring new options for developing our 225-acre estate, of which currently less than 4% has been built on.
We also plan to offer new housing options for people to purchase and for private rent, with all income reinvested back into our charity; benefiting the whole Whiteley community and helping secure its future. For more information about this, read Our Vision below.
Our Vision
Our vision is to sustain a thriving community with outstanding accommodation; to support and care for older people of limited means; to develop and share our success, so more older people can live happy and fulfilling lives.
Our plan is to provide more affordable housing for those who need it most, and to offer support that enables residents to remain independent and active for as long as possible.
To achieve this vision the Trust is currently reviewing feasibility options to unlock a future development strategy with Elmbridge Borough Council and Surrey County Council as part of the Elmbridge Local Plan and Public Policy requirements in affordable housing for older people.
Our plans are in keeping with several recommendations from The Housing Learning and Improvement Network’s (Housing LIN) report published in August 2019 with Southampton City Council: Identifying the health care system benefits of housing with care.
The report cites a growing strategic focus amongst councils to encourage independence and community-based solutions to care, decreasing local authorities’ reliance on residential care and to promote more options and choice for people with care needs in later life.
It also estimates that this approach helps save the health care economy up to £2,000 per person thanks to a reduction in the number of GP and community nursing visits, ambulance call-outs and reduced hospital stays.
Our Leadership
The Whiteley Homes Trust is managed by the Executive Leadership Team, comprised of the Chief Executive Officer and three Directors.
The executives are responsible and accountable for delivering all the services in the Village and on the long and short-term strategy for the Trust, as agreed by the Board of Trustees. The executives report to the Board on a quarterly basis.
The Trust has a board of 11 Trustees, who are not remunerated and together decide the long and short-term strategic objectives of the charity.
They are also accountable for complying with their statutory obligations as Trustees.
Our Trustees and Executives work collaboratively to sustain Whiteley’s thriving community, to provide outstanding accommodation and care and to develop and share our success, so more older people can live happy and fulfilling lives.
