Work to begin redeveloping our oldest building

In January 2025, we secured planning permission to redevelop and extend Fairacres, our oldest building, located in East Finchley. The development project will both extend the current 29 one-bedroom apartments and ensure they are all wheelchair user dwellings as well as adding an additional 11 apartments, including 4 two-bedroom flats for families to provide a total of 40 apartments. The project, estimated to cost in excess of £15m, was always dependent on both planning permission and funding being secured.

This week JBD has announced that the project will start on-site in late March, funded in part through donations and interest free loans from individuals, families, Trusts & Foundations as well as a multi-million-pound grant from the Greater London Authority (GLA). The grant anticipated to be in the region of £7m, has been offered because of an innovative collaboration with the Joel Emanuel Trust (JET) which is part of Jewish Care.

The GLA offers capital subsidies for the construction of affordable homes across London, though it will only provide this type of grant funding directly to a Registered Provider of Social Housing (‘RP’). Whilst JBD is not a registered provider, JET is and the two organisations have created a unique partnership agreement to enable and secure grant funding for the Fairacres project.

Marcus Sperber, Chair of Jewish Care commented;

“At Jewish Care, collaboration with communal partners is a key tenet of our new five-year strategy, Altogether Stronger, because we know we can deliver greater impact for people in our community when we work together. Our commitment to partnership is exactly why we stepped forward to support JBD on the Fairacres redevelopment, a project that is of real significance for the community’s long-term wellbeing. Through the Joel Emanuel Trust, we were able to unlock essential GLA funding that JBD could not have accessed alone, and together, we are helping to secure modern, accessible homes that will transform lives for decades to come. We are proud to play a role in making that possible.”

Marc Gordon, Chair at Jewish Blind & Disabled commented;

“We are a small community with limited resources. Having just completed an £11m new development in Mill Hill East, we knew that securing the funding required to undertake the much-needed Fairacres project from the community alone was going to be a huge challenge. We identified an opportunity to partner with a registered housing provider to secure government funding which would enable this project to proceed. Jewish Care was the obvious partner for us, and we are delighted that they have agreed to collaborate with us for the wider good of the community.

Alongside the grant and generous donations, we have secured £5m of 5-year interest free loans from individual philanthropists from within the community. The charity will continue its fundraising efforts to repay the interest free loans and once they are repaid JBD will be able to find another development opportunity to meet the growing demand for its unique housing and support offering”.

Tom Copley, Deputy Mayor for Housing and Residential Development, said:

“We are really proud to be providing more than £7 million funding to support the redevelopment of Jewish Blind & Disabled’s Fairacres building in East Finchley. This is an exciting and significant affordable housing project which is being delivered in collaboration with the Joel Emanuel Trust, and I look forward to seeing work begin next month on the delivery of 40 high-quality, sustainable and accessible homes to benefit the local community.”

The plans for the redevelopment of Fairacres were time‑sensitive due to the need to relocate the current Fairacres tenants. With the recent completion of our new Mill Hill East development, Ephraim Court, we had a unique opportunity to relocate Fairacres tenants in one coordinated move. Tenants will then be given the opportunity to remain in Ephraim Court or to return to Fairacres once complete.

For nearly 40 years, Fairacres has provided affordable accommodation to adults of all ages living with physical disability or vision impairment. Fairacres is an old building, and it is no longer suitable for the level of complex needs of today’s tenants. With 150 households on the JBD housing waiting list the decision to undertake this project wasn’t taken lightly. However, it was deemed as being necessary and the right thing to do for the long-term provision of our tenants needs. Work on Fairacres is expected to be completed in late 2027.

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