Homes England has urged the Government to allow it the maximum levels of funding possible in the upcoming spending review in order to deliver the Government’s housebuilding targets.
Eamonn Boyle, who took over as interim Homes England chief executive in January, stated at the recent Build More Homes Summit that the agency wants to work with the construction sector “as flexibly as possible” in the context of the Spending Review due in late spring.
While avoiding speculation on the total funding amount, Boyle confirmed that Homes England will be making a submission to the Treasury for “the maximum level of flexibility.” He highlighted the important role the agency plays in delivery, such as “deploying grants, loans, and equity financial transactions to accelerate housing projects,” emphasising that such funding flexibility would be crucial in delivering the homes needed.
Boyle also stressed the agency’s commitment to Homes England has urged the Government to allow it the maximum levels of funding possible in the upcoming spending review swiftly with developers to help them “achieve their ambitions.”
He also acknowledged that the agency had been “a little difficult” to work with in the past but offered reassurance that “the door is open” and that Homes England was now “determined” to maintain this approach moving forward.
Challenge of the 1.5 million new homes target
Boyle stated that Homes England remains “absolutely focused” on delivering the Government’s target of 1.5 million new homes, emphasising that achieving this goal requires collaboration between the public and private sectors.
He stressed that, given the UK’s housing shortage, “it needs to be a challenging target”
Boyle added: “We know that we have a crisis in housing in this country, both in terms of availability and affordability, and it’s something that we can’t afford to not address. It is a massive challenge, and one that we need to bend our will to. It will require collaboration between the Government, public sector and private sector working in partnership and through innovation.”
He continued, “ Minister rightly has high expectations of us and we’ll continue to work tirelessly to support the delivery of the places and homes that people need.”
Attracting investment
Boyle stated that Homes England is “working very hard” to attract institutional investment into the residential sector and is adapting to diversify its approach. “We’re working with a number of investors to create funding alliances to effectively leverage whatever resource Government can make available to my team, to bring in as much private finance as we possibly can in ways to enable it to work to help delivery,” he said.
Homes England launched the second phase of the Greener Homes Alliance in partnership with Octopus Real Estate. The alliance has been formed to allocate £150m in funding, with £42m coming from the agency’s Home Building Fund, to support SME housebuilders by providing additional loan finance. Boyle also welcomed the Government’s £2bn top-up to the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP), and said he hoped “to distribute this very quickly.”
He added: “We’ve been bringing forward pipelines of sites, and we want to continue to maintain that momentum as we move forward over the next couple of years.”
Devolution
Boyle also stated that Homes England will be working collaboratively with mayors to deliver new homes, now has seven strategic place partnerships with combined authorities across England.
He said partnerships will be increasingly locally led, as mayors play a central role in decision-making and determining priority areas. However he also caveated: “That’s not to say that we will be looking to give vetoes over schemes. But we will be making certain that there’s a very, very powerful mayoral voice prioritising the investments that we’re making going forward.
He concluded that Homes England would be shifting from “a focus on product to much more of a focus on project and place,” and was looking to use its resources “as flexibly as possible to enable schemes to move forward.”