Maidstone Borough Council has taken 43 new affordable-rent flats at Wilberforce House and Len Martin Court. Where they are, what they offer, what comes next.

Forty-three new affordable homes in Maidstone are finished and in the borough council’s hands. Residents are expected to move in soon.

Maidstone Borough Council announced on Thursday that it had taken handover of two new blocks of flats, both built by Skillcrown Homes (Maidstone Borough Council, 10 September 2026). Both sites were previously underused.

The two buildings

  • Len Martin Court, Corbens Place: 24 one and two bedroom flats in a five-storey building, with parking and landscaping
  • Wilberforce House, Tonbridge Road: 19 one and two bedroom flats in a four-storey building, with parking and landscaping

Skillcrown’s project pages list both as affordable rent, with Maidstone Borough Council as the client (Corbens Place; Tonbridge Road).

The flats have electric heat pumps for hot water and electric heating. The council says that should help residents cut their environmental impact and could lower their energy bills.

Councillor Simon Wales, the Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness, said: “Safe, secure and affordable housing can change people’s lives.”

More to come on the same sites

The council and Skillcrown are working on further phases at Corbens Place and at Granville Road. The council’s stated target is 1,000 affordable homes over ten years.

The announcement comes three weeks before the council is due to become a landlord again. As we reported last month, councillors are being asked to re-open a Housing Revenue Account from 1 October, starting with 56 existing homes. The officer report says four more schemes, with 83 homes between them, are due to finish by the end of 2026 and will move into that account as they complete (officer report, paragraph 1.22).

The report does not name those four schemes. So we cannot say yet whether these two blocks are among them. Cabinet takes the final decision on the account on Wednesday 16 September.

What it means for you

The announcement does not say how the 43 flats will be let, or at what rent. We will add both when the council publishes them.

The general route into council and housing association homes in the borough is the housing register (Maidstone Borough Council: the housing register). To join, you must be over 18 and eligible, and meet both tests:

  • a housing need, such as a medical need, overcrowding, unsafe housing, hardship, or a welfare reason like leaving care
  • a local connection: you have lived in Maidstone for the last three years, or work in the borough for at least 16 hours a week

Your finances are also taken into account. Once you are accepted, the council gives you a bidding number and a band, and you bid for homes through Kent Homechoice. Each adult in the household has to supply bank statements from the last two months.

Sources