Strategic partnerships boost affordable homes delivery

Homes England has confirmed a landmark deal with eight housing associations which will boost the delivery of affordable homes across the country.

The eight ambitious housing associations have joined with Homes England to deliver 14,280 additional affordable homes by March 2022, in a deal which will make use of the additional £1.67Bn recently announced as part of the government’s affordable homes programme.

The announcement comes after CEO Nick Walkley called for a new sector partnership with Government. This new approach will also boost the wider supply contribution from the sector, with the eight partners signing up to deliver more than 23,500 additional homes across all tenures, including for market sale.

Under the new partnerships, a programme approach will be applied to delivery of the homes, with plans to explore how adopting this approach across Homes England’s land, funding and powers can further generate additional supply.

Following successful delivery, Homes England will look at expanding this approach with a second tranche of strategic partnerships.

The initial funding package of £590M will support the first wave of strategic partnerships with: emh group; Great Places; Home Group; Hyde; L&Q; Matrix Partnership; Places for People; and Sovereign / Liverty.

Secretary of State for Communities the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said: “There is no mission more urgent than making our housing market work, and we are investing £9Bn in building affordable homes.

“This £590M fund we are giving Homes England will help housing associations accelerate the delivery of affordable properties communities need.”

Nick Walkley said: “When we launched Homes England, I called on housing associations to work with us to develop ambitious strategic partnerships that would help them to get on and build significantly more affordable homes than they were previously planning. After a huge amount of hard work, these new deals show our real determination to combine ambition, flexibilities and the full range of our resources to change the way we deliver affordable homes.

“This is a very important day for us but we have no intention to stop here. Over the summer, we will work to expand the eight deals to become even more ambitious while agreeing a second wave of strategic partnerships with other ambitious housing associations. This is a fantastic opportunity for the sector to up its game and get more affordable homes built more quickly.”

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