Why The Key exists, how it began, and the principles behind every decision we make.
"Truly affordable housing for key workers within a mile of their place of work."Our mission
The Key was established with a single, uncompromising purpose: to ensure that the nurses, teachers, firefighters, and transport workers who make our cities function can actually afford to live in them. We believe that proximity between a key worker and their place of work is not a luxury, it's a necessity.
There are more than 8 million key workers in England and Wales, around a third of the workforce, and in most cases they cannot afford to live in the communities they serve. Wherever rents and house prices have pulled away from public-sector pay, the nurses, teachers, carers and emergency crews a town depends on are being priced out of it.
London is the clearest example. The capital has 1.2 million key workers, and even in its most affordable boroughs the highest paid have difficulty living close to their place of work. For the lowest paid, there is little hope of living anywhere in the city.
The same pressures are now visible in cities and regions across the UK, from Birmingham and Manchester to the university towns and coastal areas where housing costs have risen fastest.
Existing "affordable" schemes, typically priced at 80–90% of market rent, remain out of reach for most key workers. A genuinely different solution is needed.
The consequences are visible across our public services. Hospitals, schools and emergency services across the country are struggling to recruit and retain staff, and the housing crisis is a direct cause.
The ongoing housing crisis is creating challenges for London's key workers, including London Ambulance and other NHS workers, to live within a reasonable distance of their workplace and the communities they serve.
The same motion warns that the NHS in London has the highest vacancy rate of any region.
Access to Housing for London's Key Workers
Motion agreed December 2025
Housing affordability is a major threat to the recruitment and retention of key workers.
Key workers make up around a third of the UK workforce, but they are finding it increasingly difficult to find a home that they can afford.
Key Worker Housing
Published Summer 2024
"If you finish at 7pm in the evening, before you get home and get yourself sorted out, it is probably 10 o'clock at night. And then you need to leave home at half past four in the morning again to start work at seven. That cuts down on your sleep time and you get progressively more tired as the week goes on."
Anthony Scantlebury
Political Officer GMB, London Ambulance Service Branch · June 2016
We are a business seeking to revolutionise an outdated and dysfunctional housing sector. We aim to be a disruptor in the market, not out of a preference for controversy, but because the status quo no longer functions.
Our mission is to provide affordable homes, strengthen communities, and build a global funding platform that channels trillions in capital into sustainable housing. The opportunity is not only to back a scalable business model, but to help redefine how the world finances homes for those who keep society running. London is where we start, but the model is designed to scale across cities, regions, and ultimately international markets.
By placing housing within a mile of key workers' workplaces, The Key dramatically reduces the need for long-distance commuting, lowering carbon emissions, reducing congestion, and improving air quality across UK cities.
When key workers live where they work, communities become more resilient. Nurses can reach hospitals faster in emergencies. Teachers are invested in their local schools. The social benefits compound across generations.
Every aspect of The Key's structure is designed for transparency and accountability, audited by KPMG and legally structured by Eversheds Sutherland, ensuring rigorous institutional oversight.
