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Homes England announces eight strategic partnerships with associations
The government’s housing delivery agency has announced eight strategic partnerships with housing associations to deliver 14,280 affordable homes.
Homes England will provide just under £590m from the affordable homes programme to the associations through to March 2022, in what it called the “first wave” of its new partnership approach.
The eight partners will deliver over 23,500 additional homes across all tenures, 61% of which will be affordable, housing secretary James Brokenshire announced at today’s Local Government Association conference.
Homes England said these homes will include some for social rent “in areas of high affordability pressure”.
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In the government’s recent announcement on the £1bn of extra borrowing headroom for local authorities, it defined these areas as places with the most difference between social rent and private rent.
Nick Walkley, chief executive of Homes England, said: “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.”
The housing associations who have signed partnerships are: EMH Group, Great Places, Home Group, Hyde, L&Q, Places for People, a joint bid between Sovereign and Liverty, and the group of five Midlands associations known as Matrix Partnership.
They have agreed to increase their development programmes in exchange for an additional year’s funding beyond the current spending review settlement.
They will also be able to use their funding flexibly across their development programme and can determine the tenure of affordable homes close to completion through negotiations with Homes England.
David Montague, chief executive of L&Q, said: “Today is the beginning of a cornerstone relationship that will enable us to deliver more genuinely affordable homes where they are needed, and explore modern methods of construction that will allow us to achieve a step-change in production without compromising on quality.”
Mark Washer, chief executive of Sovereign and Paul Crawford, chief executive of Liverty, said in a join statement: “Importantly, building the homes ourselves through land-led opportunities, rather than relying on Section 106 agreements, significantly increases the volume of new homes being delivered. We’ll also be supporting other regional associations to access capital grant, again accelerating additional growth and delivery even further.”
Strategic partnerships: housing association deals with Homes England
| Partnership | Grant | No. of additional affordable starts to March 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| EMH group | £30.5m | 748 |
| Great Places | £29.2m | 750 |
| Home Group | £85m | 2,300 |
| Hyde | £95.4m | 1,623 |
| L&Q | £85m | 1,724 |
| Matrix Partnership | £77m | 2,257 |
| Places for People | £74m | 2,603 |
| Sovereign/Liverty | £111.5m | 2,275 |
Table published by Homes England on 3 July 2018
