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HCA relaunches as Homes England
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has today been replaced by a new national housing agency – Homes England.
The rebranded agency will “play a major role in securing land in areas where people want to live”, as well as supporting “smaller and more innovative house builders” and helping to “resource brownfield sites” to “deliver homes for families”, a release stated.
Housing secretary Sajid Javid announced the launch of the agency. He said: “This government is determined to build the homes our country needs and help more people get on the housing ladder. Homes England will be at the heart of leading this effort.”
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A statement said the new agency would help to deliver the government’s target of an average of 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s.
The rebrand was announced in February 2017 in the government’s Housing White Paper.
Homes England will develop a “new commercial approach to acquiring, preparing, managing and developing land in areas of high demand and strategic importance” and will support SME builders, according to the statement.
The statement said £750m of the £1bn short-term fund is committed to SMEs, custom builders and developers using modern construction methods, which would build more than 25,500 homes.
The HCA was established in 2008 as the government’s housing, land and regeneration agency and as the regulator of social housing providers in England.
The regulatory department is also due to be relaunched as an independent body, dividing the investment and regulation arms of government into two separate departments.
Homes England has new land-buying powers, including the ability to issue compulsory purchase orders, and plans to use this to assist the industry with land assembly.
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “It’s clear there is growing momentum behind the government’s housing agenda and we are delighted with the continuing policy support for a multi-tenure approach to housing supply, creating great places and the remediation of land. This will be vital if the Housing White Paper and the changes to the National Planning Policy Framework have any chance of making a significant impact on volume and affordability.”
Terrie Alafat, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: “The agency promises to bring together a greater range of strategic powers and resources, which combined with its expertise will allow it to take new and innovative approaches which could make a real difference to get us building more homes at a crucial time.”
Check back this afternoon for an exclusive interview with Nick Walkley, chief executive of Homes England, and Sir Edward Lister, chair of the organisation, on the significance of the change
