Year end message from Peter Freeman
Reflections from Homes England's Chair as the agency marks year end
As will have been the case for many of you, this week marked the end of our financial year at Homes England.
It also marks the end of a year that has been a uniquely challenging one for the housing sector – indeed, for every sector and everyone, in the UK and beyond.
We’ve been in regular contact with more than 1,000 of our partners over the last 12 months – albeit from our kitchen tables and dining rooms – and we know it’s been challenging.
I want to say a huge thank you to everyone that has worked with us and helped make homes happen during this tough period.
As we’ve tried to navigate through this last year, going for our daily walk, trying to convert part of the house into an office or coping with another day of home schooling, we have all had to rely on each other’s good humour, energy and internet connection to see us through.
While there’s still much uncertainty in the year ahead, there’s hope that we’ve seen the worst of the global pandemic, and we can begin a path to recovery, taking forward lessons from this year while also contending with some of the longer-term challenges facing the sector and wider built environment.
For us, this means thinking about how we best improve the sustainability of how and what we build; how we promote beautiful, functional, and sustainable design and how we can support local partners to respond to the structural shifts affecting urban centres across the country.
Increasing the supply of new homes remains our core focus, but we want to approach this holistically to ensure we’re creating the homes and places that can stand up to the challenges of the 21st century.
As we move into the next financial year, I’m looking forward to tackling these challenges and opportunities as a sector.
The technology has been brilliant in bringing us together virtually and there will be some aspects of how we work now that we will want to keep.
However, as someone who hasn’t been able to meet many of their new colleagues in person – and I know I’m not alone in that – I’m also looking forward to a time when we can come together again face to face.
The sector has shown a huge amount of resilience during these tough times. Partnerships are at the heart of what we do, and we’re stronger, more creative and more innovative when we work together.