Strategy & Brand
Web design for housing associations
Accessible, mobile-first websites shaped around the people and purpose of your organisation
A housing association website carries your mission to the people who depend on it, so we scope and build it around your organisation rather than dropping you into a template. We build it around the residents reporting a repair or checking a balance, prospective tenants weighing up an application, board members and partners who expect the organisation to look as capable as it is.
From £4,000
Most projects 8 to 14 weeks
WCAG 2.2 AA as standard
Several audiences, one website
The people who use your website most are often the ones with the most riding on it. A resident reporting a leak, checking a balance, or trying to reach the right person needs to get there fast, in plain language, on a phone. That group shapes the design before anyone else.
Around them sit prospective tenants looking at availability, and board members, partners and local authority contacts who each arrive with a different question. We map those journeys at the start and build the structure around them, so the site holds up for the resident in a hurry and the partner doing due diligence.
What brings housing associations to us
Most associations we speak to describe the same handful of problems. The website has grown over years into a hundred or more pages, a lot of it out of date, and nobody has the hours to keep on top of it.
There is usually pressure to move more resident contact online too, both to ease the load on a small team and to support the Tenant Satisfaction Measures the regulator now reports on.
Legislation keeps moving, so advice on things like damp and mould has to stay current, and a stale page is a real risk when you are sending residents to it. At the same time the brand and the site have started to feel older than the organisation has become.
We recently took a sprawling site of more than a hundred pages down to around ten, kept what residents actually use, and built it so a small team can maintain it without a developer on call. The aim is a site that stays accurate and easy to keep current long after launch.
How we work with housing associations
Interviews first
Leadership, your team, and a clear read on what residents and other users need. The brief comes out of that.
One coherent build
Brand direction, design and build all draw from the same work, so the site reads as one piece. Photography of the team, the homes and the community is part of most projects.
Yours to run
Built on WordPress so your team handles day-to-day updates without a developer on call. We build resident tools and repairs reporting in, or connect the systems you already use, whichever fits your setup and budget.
The PHA Homes story
PHA Homes is a small charitable housing association based in Petersfield, providing affordable homes and services across Hampshire. They are members of the National Housing Federation, Placeshapers and TPAS, and run from a single office at the heart of the community they serve. They came to us with a site that had grown content-heavy and dated, and branding they had outgrown.
The brief was a cleaner, friendlier presence that put residents first and reflected what the organisation is: people-led, local, rooted in its community. We rebuilt it around the people. A photoshoot captured real staff and tenants in place of stock imagery, and the design moved to a lighter, more legible style.
Residents can now reach the tenant portal to report a repair, check their rent or raise a complaint from any device, and the site carries the news, events and community noticeboard that hold the area together.
Linda Wallace
Chief Exec, PHA Homes
"We now have a website that really speaks to our mission."
I can’t really tell you how pleased I am with the website. I think you have done an incredible job for us – whilst being absolutely lovely to work with. It means so much to us to have a website that really speaks to our mission and allows us to start to use it as a tool to serve our residents and the community more widely. Thank you!
Read the full case study
Some of the organisations we work with
Accessibility built in from the start
Accessibility is a baseline expectation in housing, and residents need a site every one of them can use. Most associations are private registered providers, so the duty comes from the Equality Act 2010 and the Regulator of Social Housing's consumer standards rather than the public sector accessibility regulations. WCAG 2.2 AA is the recognised benchmark either way, and every site we build meets it: proper heading structure, keyboard navigation, labelled form fields, sufficient colour contrast and alt text throughout. We design to it from the outset, so it is part of the build long before launch.
There is a second reason to take it seriously. AI tools are starting to act on websites for people: reporting a repair, finding a phone number, working through an application. A site with clean, semantic HTML works for those tools for the same reason it works for screen readers. Building it properly once covers assistive technology, search, and the agents that are coming.
Help beyond the website
A good website is one part of the job, so we help with the systems and support around it. That can run from setting up Google Workspace to off-site automations that join your tools up and take repetitive admin off a stretched team. Where your association is a registered charity, the Google Ad Grant can also put free search advertising behind recruitment and awareness campaigns.
What it costs
Housing association websites are scoped to what the organisation actually needs, so the range reflects the work involved rather than a fixed package. A focused, accessible site covering the core resident and stakeholder journeys sits at the lower end. A full project with brand work, photography, video and integrated tools sits higher.
We do not take on sub-£4,000 projects, because we cannot do them well at that budget. You will have a clear figure early, and you can get an indication now with our website price estimator.
After launch, most clients move onto a Growth Partner retainer for security, updates, content and SEO. It suits teams who do not have the hours to keep on top of the site alone.
Most projects from
£4,000
to £20,000 depending on scope
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Accessible build to WCAG 2.2 AA
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Resident and stakeholder journey mapping
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Brand-led design around your organisation
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Photography of your team, homes and community
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Resident portal and repairs reporting
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Content support and team training
Start an intro call
Who this works for
Most of our social housing work is with regional, mission-led associations. If you are a larger group with enterprise systems or a bespoke platform in the mix, we can scope that too, usually alongside your IT team, so the website and the brand still pull in one direction.
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Regional, mission-led associations
You want a site that reflects your culture and the people you house.
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Rebrands and mergers
You are bringing brands together or refreshing an identity, and the website needs to follow.
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Smaller registered providers
You are replacing a site that has fallen behind, without enterprise-scale overheads.
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Design and compliance together
You need accessibility and design quality from the same build.
Frequently asked questions
Rae Walters
CEO, RWAF
The improvements in functionality and navigation are immediately noticeable, and the overall design feels much more modern with a significantly better user experience.
It's been great to incorporate new technology that makes the back-end processes much more streamlined and efficient.
Cristina Gueco
Senior Engagement & Outreach Manager, GAN Global
Our old site was outdated and a struggle to manage without a dedicated webmaster, and the new one is the opposite: modern, intuitive, and genuinely enjoyable to use. They cared as much about the back-end experience as the front, and the result is a site that looks brilliant, reflects who we are, and has already impressed our stakeholders.
Nicola Ayrton-Guest
Museum Director, Household Cavalry Museum
We had a fantastic experience working with Rubber Duckers on the redevelopment of the Household Cavalry Museum website. From the outset, they took the time to really listen to us. They wanted to understand our weak points and appreciate our key goals, particularly around driving income through the website and ensuring a mobile-first experience.
Linda Wallace
Chief Exec, PHA Homes
I’m so pleased with the website. You’ve done an incredible job and been genuinely lovely to work with. Thank you.
Philip Warr DL
Chief Executive, Purpose Homes
Ever reliable and responsive, Rubber Duckers have supported us to achieve triple digit growth by articulating both what we do and what we offer as a business.
David Vosser
Treasurer, Hampshire Athletics
Excellent team to work with, who helped us Design, Develop and Launch a new web site. Helpful and open guidance was vey much appreciated through what could have been a tricky journey. The outcome is a new web site fully supported which is just what we wanted. Thank you.
Nicola Reid
Director, Avonclyde Bespoke Labels
We got the Rubber Duckers in to fully revamp our website as well as carry out a photo and video shoot on site. They took the time to understand our business and what we were trying to achieve.
Jonathan Pierre
Founder, The Something More Club
Ross came to take photographs for our first-ever live experience, The Something More Club™.
Not only was he super easy to work with, but we also had the fully edited photos back the next morning, ready for publishing on our socials: top man and top-quality work.
I'd recommend Ross to all of my business contacts without hesitation.
Donald Young
Director, Coconut Lime
Recently helped me to migrate our company website and we've set up a yearly care plan so I don't need to worry about updates/backups anymore 🥳
Ben Vallance
Founder & CEO, AmzIncubator
Ross and Chris made everything easy to follow and nailed the project scope, delivering quickly and beyond expectations. They’ve been great to work with, and I’d happily work with them again or recommend them for any website project.
Hannah Lewis
Owner, Bridge Beauty
The photography & videos all brought the site to life. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this professional, friendly, fun & happy company to anyone! Thanks guys you’re ducking awesome 🐥
Jon Tilt
Coach, Southampton Athletic Club
We worked with Rubber Duckers to make our athletics club website the best of the best and they did a superb job. I can highly recommend this team.
Aline Boblin
Founder and CEO, Menopause Knowledge CIC
As a small organisation, we really appreciated the ease of communication and how the project was completed in a straightforward manner.
Leon Yemoh
Programme Director, Street 2 School
The energy and enthusiasm the guys at Rubber Duckers brought to the project was amazing. They've given us the best chance to stand out with a slick website and engaging content.
Tomasz Dyl
Managing Director, GottaBe! Marketing
We have worked with the Rubber Duckers for over 8 years now. They've been brilliant - very supportive, always hands-on and dedicated.
Natalie Meagher
Head of Housing, PHA Homes
It’s been a really positive experience, and I’ve genuinely enjoyed working with you. I’d never been involved in developing a new website before, but you made the process smooth and surprisingly interesting. Thank you for your amazing support in bringing our new website to life.
Desmond Moreira
Founder & CEO, Be Original
These guys are fab, amazing to deal with and produce some really good work!
Liam Charmer
Founder & CEO, Remiam
Great people worked with for many years.
Mikey Basra
CEO, City Estates
I have used Rubber Duckers for many years now and will continue to do so, as the quality of their work, from designing websites, to videography and photography, is simply fantastic.
Geoff Sim
Coach & Mentor, Coach & Mentor
Their ongoing support and personable nature made it easy for me to ask those ‘silly questions’, I cannot recommend them highly enough and look forwards to continuing working with them. You are my absolute go-to in the digital space!
Matt Ray
Entrepreneur,
The team are highly professional, skilled and dynamic. I have always appreciated the attention to detail and the ability of the team to bring a vision to life.
Chris Mills
Director, Voyage Financial Planning
The whole process from start to finish was so easy and professional. They made the whole experience calm and light hearted.
Charlotte Butler
Founder, Alfie's Wish
You really understood the brief to create a beautiful but professional charity film for us. We look forward to working with you again in the future.
Tracey Jones
Chair, Southampton Athletic Club
Rubber Duckers didn't just build us a website; they created a digital hub that truly reflects our club's spirit. The integrated functionality has transformed how we manage volunteers, records, and fixtures, making everything seamless.
Paul Sherry
Founder & CEO, MyTravatar
I found the approach very effective and efficient whilst having a solid input into the marcomms strategy that we will utilise. I would recommend Rubber Duckers to any business, and I look forward to utilising their knowledge again.
Nick Basra
Landlord, City Estates
We have worked with Rubber Duckers for the best part of 10 years now and the whole team stand out for their work and efforts to keep us happy as customers.
Kevin Stansfield
Sales Director & Head of Coaching, ActionCoach
Great company of passionate guys.
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