Homes England has crucial role in delivering the government’s housing, regeneration and levelling up priorities and provides value for money, working in partnership to drive forward national, regional and local ambitions, says an independent review.
But the review has as calls for Homes England to take more risk to deliver more impact; to make its programmes easily accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and to be even bolder by playing the role of master developer on more large regeneration and placemaking schemes.
And it wants the transfer responsibilities for the Help to Buy scheme and Building Safety Programme out of Homes England in the medium term, so that it can concentrate fully on its core mission and new responsibilities for regeneration and places.
Homes England is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). It plays an important role in housing supply, regeneration and placemaking in challenging areas of the market. Over the past 5 years it has supported the development of 186,413 new homes, unlocked land that could deliver a further 392,000, helped 252,543 households into home ownership and invested £11.1 billion.
The review reaffirms the crucial role the Agency plays as a national public body of scale in place-making across the country, supporting local leaders, affordable housing providers and the private sector to turn housing and regeneration plans from a vision into reality for the benefit of communities.
In the past five years this has included:
- supporting development of more than 186,400 new homes
- unlocking land that could deliver close to 400,000 additional new homes
- helping more than 252,500 households into home ownership.
The review also recognises the unique expertise, capability and capacity Homes England is already putting to good use in driving delivery and outlines the potential to further expand its master development role in urban and new settlement areas.
Published by the Department for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities (DLUHC), the review is part of the government’s Public Bodies Review Programme, which routinely assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of all arm’s length bodies (ALBs).
Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Homes and Communities said the independent report shows Homes England is the right vehicle to deliver more affordable homes and support our plans to regenerate towns and cities across the country.
“This builds on our long-term plan for housing to further strengthen Homes England’s record of delivery so we can deliver more homes that are affordable, beautiful, and built in the right places,” he added.
Peter Freeman, Homes England Chair welcomed the recommendations and said: “Much of this work is already happening. Other recommendations will require changes in partnership with the DLUHC and Treasury, but if progressed could be transformational in how we deliver new homes and create thriving places.
“While there is much to celebrate, we are steadfast in our resolve to always improve, ensuring that we are effective and efficient in driving forward the country’s housing and regeneration ambitions.”
Further key recommendations include:
- Determine the balance between the funding for regeneration and placemaking in Priority Places and other funding programmes. (Recommendation 3).
- Confirm agreement with Homes England’s Priority Places for regeneration and placemaking and agree overall criteria for prioritising places. (Recommendation 10).
- Propose changes to Homes England’s funding arrangements in the next spending review to allow it to commit to large, long-term schemes; and grant it larger delegations (Recommendations 14 & 15).
- Design more flexibility into future programmes to allow an effective response when market conditions change (Recommendation 22).
- Set budgets and efficiency targets for Homes England that take account of the increase in its responsibilities for regeneration and placemaking, other new priorities being set by the government, its digital transformation programme and investment in systems, and the net reduction in costs that this will achieve (Recommendation 25).
Peter Denton, Homes England Chief Executive said: “The report makes clear we have a crucial role to play in catalysing local regeneration and housing delivery by using our land, powers, funding and expertise - reducing risk to drive investment and harnessing the potential of private and public sector skills, capital and partnerships. Bringing all of these elements together means we are greater than the sum of our parts as a collective force to deliver effective change.
“Place-based work is central to this mission and well underway in numerous places, from Bradford, Bristol and Birmingham to Newcastle, Liverpool and Plymouth. By 2025 we expect to have entered into six strategic place partnerships with combined authorities, serving a combined population of more than 13million people.”
