Homes England launches new five-year plan
Homes England has, today, launched its new five-year strategic plan, outlining how it will support communities through delivering more good quality, affordable housing.
The updated strategy is supported by more than £16 million of government funding and is referred to as both a ‘call to arms’ and an offer to the housing and regeneration sector. There are five main objectives that underpin the new plan, with these being:
- Supporting the creation of vibrant and successful places that people can be proud of, working with local leaders and other partners to deliver housing-led mixed-use regeneration with a brownfield-first approach.
- Facilitate the creation of the homes people need, intervening where necessary to ensure places have enough homes of the right type and tenure.
- Build a housing and regeneration sector that works for everyone, driving diversification, partnership working, and innovation.
- Promote the creation of high-quality homes in well-designed places that reflect community priorities by taking an inclusive and long-term approach.
- Enable sustainable homes and places, maximising their positive contribution to the natural environment impact.
Homes England has a desire to work with every organisation across the housing and regeneration sector, with the plan committing the agency to working in a way that is more place-based. This will allow it to focus its powers, funding, expertise and technical capacity to address the more specific challenges that different parts of the country face. Homes England already has a strategic place partnership with Greater Manchester, which it will build on whilst establishing similar partnerships in other areas, such as the West Midlands.
Peter Freeman, Chair of Homes England, said:
“There is no doubt that housing plays an enormous role in the wellbeing and prosperity of our country. As an agency, we firmly believe that affordable, quality homes in well-designed places are key to improving people’s lives. And our updated strategic plan has been designed to enable us to deliver against that.
“Over the next five years, we will continue to work with housebuilders off all shapes and sizes to boost housing supply. But we will also focus on the places those homes sit, working ever more closely with local leaders and other partners to build communities as well as housing, be it through housing-led, mixed-use regeneration or new settlements.
“This is a pivotal moment for Homes England as we reaffirm our role as the Government’s housing and regeneration agency and go even further in helping to create the thriving places of the future.”
Building safety is also to be a key priority, with Homes England maintaining its close working with the government, as well as providing help and support to local leaders as they look to overcome capacity and capability barriers that are getting in the way of housing delivery.
Since 2018, the agency has a good track record of housing delivery whilst in partnership with other organisations. This will be built on, with existing delivery since 2018 seeing the creation of 152,700 new homes, the unlocking of land to support the building of more than 380,000 homes, and helping more than 228,996 households to purchase their own homes. This has been achieved in partnership with more than 5,000 organisations.
Minister for Housing, Rachel Maclean, said:
“Creating high-quality and sustainable homes that people can be proud of is an absolute priority for this government. We continue to work with partners and developers to facilitate a brownfield-first approach to meet local housing needs for local people.
“That is why we are supporting Homes England’s Strategic Plan which will help deliver the affordable, well-designed homes the country needs, in the places people want them.”
