Our history

We’ve been providing affordable housing since 1994, following an initial stock transfer of 2,896 homes from Mid Beds District Council on 3 October that year.

Known then as Mid Beds Housing Association, we completed our first development scheme in Marston Moretaine the following year and moved into our Ampthill office in 1996.

In 1999 we changed our name to Aragon Housing Association and 12 months later MacIntyre Housing Association joined us as a charitable subsidiary providing homes for adults with learning disabilities.

We completed a second stock transfer of 3,100 homes from Mid Beds District Council in 2001.

Fast forward to 2006 when we were chosen by South Northants Council as its partner to form a new housing association, to be called South Northants Homes (SNH) to receive the transfer of 2,900 properties from its housing stock.

Following this transfer two years later on 17 March 2008, Grand Union Housing Group was formed, consisting of Aragon, MacIntyre and SNH.

By 2012 we had moved into new offices in Towcester and Cranfield, converted Aragon to charitable status, appointed our first apprentices, and opened our pioneering dementia care scheme, Flowers House, in Bletchley. MacIntyre was officially absorbed into Aragon in 2016, and in November the same year, Rockingham Forest Housing (RFH) joined the Group.

On 1 October 2018 we officially unified, bringing Aragon, RFH and SNH together as Grand Union.

On 30 September 2019, we moved into a new, single office in Milton Keynes, bringing our staff from across the region together.

We’ve now been in business for 30 years and provide over 13,000 homes for more than 29,000 people across Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Hertfordshire. We’re a £92 million turnover social housing business with over 400 staff.

We create homes for those that need them, provide personal support, and help people to learn, work and be healthy.

We’re a financially stable and innovative not-for-profit organisation that believes in partnership and collaboration. We plan to build 900 more new homes over the next three years to play our part in ending the housing crisis.