UKREiiF: Bidding round for Homes England funding ‘stagnates’ developments, managing director says

“The bidding round doesn’t work,” she said. “Because of the political cycle, they want quick wins.”

“I’d like to see a much wider partnership, with investment coming out to target specific housing needs.”

On a panel the following day (22 May), the chief executive of Homes England urged registered providers to carry on their developments despite a lack of certainty over the next phase of the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP).

Peter Denton told delegates “there is an acute awareness that as you get towards the end of one programme, people start to go, ‘What happens next?’.

“Whilst it may sound flippant, it is a plea from the heart: do not stop. Do not have any sense of a lack of confidence in the things you’re progressing,” Mr Denton said.

“All I can do is reassure people that it’s uppermost in our minds.”

He added that there was cross-party support for a long-term housing plan. “There is a need for affordable housing that all political parties recognise.”

Mr Denton was speaking on a panel to discuss how councils, developers and investors can work together to build communities and increase the delivery of mixed-tenure homes.

The current AHP expires in March 2026, but no announcement of the next AHP was made in the spring Budget. Some have suggested that this uncertainty will affect the approval and progression of new developments.

Fellow panellist Geeta Nanda, outgoing chief executive of Metropolitan Thames Valley, told Mr Denton the news was “very comforting, but there’s got to be something that shows there is a programme and there is a gap that’s going to be filled”.

“One of the big challenges is keeping all this going,” Ms Nanda said, noting that while there had been “some great results”, the sector needed “short-term as well as longer-term commitments”.

“We need some of those blockages taken away, whether it’s combining money, receipts, funding in different ways – we need everything just to keep things going until we’ve got a longer-term strategy and a plan for delivery, because otherwise they won’t be there. People won’t be there, supply chains won’t be there, the contractors won’t be there,” Ms Nanda said.

Georgia Gould, chair of London Councils, flagged the need to make funding more flexible in future, so that “if interest rates do suddenly go up or there is a change, we have more flexibility around those bumps and we are able to up grant to get over them”.

Stephen Teagle, chief executive of partnerships and regeneration at Vistry Group, told delegates he had written to Mr Denton about the funding issue. Mr Denton said he had received the letter and communicated the points to the secretary of state for levelling up, housing and communities last week.

The panel met yesterday morning, before Rishi Sunak’s announcement that there will be a general election on 4 July.

In a keynote speech to property industry leaders at UKREiiF earlier in the week, deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner promised to deliver 40% affordable homes on new development as part of her party’s plan for a new generation of New Towns.