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Housing 2024: BPF publishes code of governance aimed at for-profit providers
The British Property Federation (BPF) has published a code of governance aimed at for-profit affordable housing providers.
The guidance was launched by the developers’ trade body on Thursday at the Housing 2024 conference in Manchester. It was created along with consultants Campbell Tickell and an advisory group of investors and advisors led by Rob Beiley, partner at law firm Trowers & Hamlins and chair of the BPF’s affordable housing committee.
The code, which took “almost a year” of work to complete, establishes a set of standards to promote good governance practice in the for-profit registered provider sector in England.
Institutional investment in affordable housing is increasing, largely via for-profit providers. According to Knight Frank, the number of homes owned by for-profits is set to treble to 86,000 by the end of 2028.
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There were 69 for-profit registered providers at the start of 2024, and large house builders are among the commercial players looking to enter the space.
The BPF said that good governance was needed to safeguard the interests of shareholders, customers and other stakeholders, and to protect the reputation of the sector.
The code is structured around seven themes: leadership and strategy; culture and values; board composition and effectiveness; board roles and functions; delegation of delivery; integrity and probity; and audit and risk.
Principles include embedding sustainability in for-profit plans, demonstrating a “clear and active” commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and ensuring homes and services provided by for-profits are of a high quality.
Greg Campbell, partner at Campbell Tickell, who drafted the code with colleague Ceri Victory-Rowe, said that no existing codes of governance were “quite right” for these providers in “recognising the distinct elements of these organisations while ensuring a commitment to the highest standards in governance for the regulated social housing sector”.
“This code is designed to fill that gap,” he added.
Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the BPF, said that pension funds “are a key source of new capital for delivering homes”.
The code, he believes, will “provide a framework that will enable providers to demonstrate to stakeholders the highest standards of good governance and positive stewardship of affordable housing”.
Mr Beiley, who project-managed the work, said that the code “reflects the growing maturity of the sector”.
He continued: “Given the acute need for affordable housing in England and the headwinds faced by the housing association sector in meeting that demand, institutional investment is likely to form a cornerstone of the next government’s delivery.
“This code demonstrates how the for-profit sector can not only provide the capital that is necessary but can do so in a way that embeds the principles of good governance.”
With for-profit providers poised to establish a bigger footprint and help ramp up delivery, Sir Michael Lyons said he thought that the UK’s failure to build enough housing has left a generation “betrayed”, as he addressed attendees a decade after the publication of his review of the sector.
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