An independent government review has found that Homes England should focus on housing delivery and regeneration and be relieved of its building safety and Help to Buy responsibilities.
While the six-month Public Bodies review suggested a number of changes to help Homes England achieve its “core mission”, the report concluded that the government’s affordable housing body was “the right vehicle for delivering housing supply, regeneration and placemaking”.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities undertook the review, which was led by Tony Poulter, a non-executive member of the Department for Transport board. It concluded that making Homes England a government department would have a negative impact on its ability to function, finding that its status as a non-departmental public body was suitable.
However, Poulter summarised in his foreword that there are ways for Homes England to perform better, stating that there is “the need to be clear on priorities; the case for taking more risk to deliver more benefits; the need for longer-term and more flexible funding arrangements from government to support delivery; and the expectation from local authorities that Homes England will work even more closely with them locally to plan investment and delivery that responds to the needs in their area.”
Michael Gove, secretary of state for levelling up, homes and communities, said: “Today’s independent report shows Homes England is the right vehicle to deliver more affordable homes and support our plans to regenerate towns and cities across the country.”
“I welcome the report and its recommendations and we will work closely with Homes England to finalise an implementation plan. This builds on our long-term plan for housing to further strengthen Homes England’s record of delivery so we can deliver more homes that are affordable, beautiful, and built in the right places.”
The report made several suggestions for the DLUHC which included:
- Determine the balance between funding for regeneration and placemaking in Priority Places and other funding programmes.
- Confirm agreement with Homes England’s Priority Places for regeneration and placemaking and agree overall criteria for prioritising places.
- Authorise Homes England to take more risk to deliver more impact; to make its programmes easily accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and to be even bolder by playing the role of master developer on more large regeneration and placemaking schemes.
- Transfer responsibilities for the Help to Buy scheme and Building Safety Programme out of Homes England in the medium term, so that it can concentrate fully on its core mission and new responsibilities for regeneration and places.
- Propose changes to Homes England’s funding arrangements in the next spending review to allow it to commit to large, long-term schemes; and grant it larger delegations.
- Design more flexibility into future programmes to allow an effective response when market conditions change.
- Set budgets and efficiency targets for Homes England that take account of the increase in its responsibilities for regeneration and placemaking; other new priorities being set by the government; its digital transformation programme and investment in systems; and the reduction in costs this will achieve.
The report also made the following three recommendations for Homes England to:
- Define clear objectives and outcome measures for each Priority Place, in discussion with local partners and agree them with the government.
- Develop its operating model to focus as much on places as on national funding programmes; build closer relationships with priority local authorities; and show how resources are being deployed around the country.
- Improve its systems and governance to strengthen performance management, forecasting and impact evaluations.
Peter Denton, Homes England chief executive, said: “I’m proud the review acknowledges the hard work, talent and passion of our staff and partners throughout a challenging time for the market and sector.”
“The report makes clear we have a crucial role to play in catalysing local regeneration and housing delivery by using our land, powers, funding and expertise – reducing risk to drive investment and harnessing the potential of private and public sector skills, capital and partnerships. Bringing all of these elements together means we are greater than the sum of our parts as a collective force to deliver effective change.”
“Place-based work is central to this mission and well underway in numerous places, from Bradford, Bristol and Birmingham to Newcastle, Liverpool and Plymouth. By 2025 we expect to have entered into six strategic place partnerships with combined authorities, serving a combined population of more than 13million people.”
