Places for People Group Limited, registered at 305 Gray's Inn Road in London since 2021, traces its formal origins to 1965, when four Preston men founded North British Housing Association to build affordable rented homes. It rebranded in 2000 after mergers, including with Bristol Churches Housing Association, and grew through acquisitions like 3,000 homes from Seaside and Countryside Homes in 1988 and 4,000 units from UK Housing Trust in 1990, which included London's largest homeless shelter, Arlington House.
By 1976, it managed over 2,500 properties with 2,000 under construction. Today, the social enterprise develops and manages housing across the UK, from Scotland to South Devon. Recent mergers in 2024 integrated Origin Housing—started in 1924 by Father Basil Jellicoe in London's Somers Town—and South Devon Rural.
Current projects include East Wick and Sweetwater in Hackney Wick, East London, redeveloping the 1897 Clarnico Factory site into homes and a community centre; Wolverton Park in Milton Keynes, with 300 mixed-tenure homes from old railway works; and The Engine Yard in Edinburgh, converting 1898 tram sheds into apartments. It also runs leisure sites like Tooting Bec Lido, London's largest open-air pool opened in 1906.