October 2023 marks L&Q’s 60th anniversary. L&Q started life in little more than an empty flat in Greenwich when a group of professionals came together to create Quadrant Housing Association. Sixty years later, and we house around 250,000 people across London, the Southeast and North West.

An anniversary provides the opportunity to reflect on the story so far, but also our reason for being. Social purpose is central to everything we do, and while our scale and ambition have grown over the last six decades, our fundamental motivations remain the same.

As we enter our 61st year, the housing shortage of today bears remarkable resemblance to the levels of need seen in 1963. The number of households in private rented accommodation is similar to that of the 1960s when England’s housing crisis triggered a wave of social home building. How did we get here?