Corporate report

Annual report 2020/21: Chair’s foreword, accessible version

Updated 3 February 2022

1. Chair’s foreword

Peter Freeman, Chair

I joined Homes England in October 2020 during a difficult time for many partners and the wider housing sector. After 40 years as a private sector developer and investor, I came to Homes England because of the enormous importance of housing to wellbeing and prosperity in our country and the potential to build better. I am very proud of what Homes England achieved this year in the face of the pandemic and excited by the potential to work alongside the Government and the housing sector to achieve more still.

Homes England’s mission and purpose is to help create a housing market that offers suitable homes for all needs across the country by delivering Government policy. I also believe it is vital that we ensure homes are not just built at every price point, but that they are well designed, sustainable and help foster a sense of community and place. To achieve this, the Agency works closely with over a thousand partner organisations across the country, including Local Authorities, housebuilders from the smallest to largest, public bodies and organisations, and more than 300 housing associations.

In addition to these widespread relationships, Homes England works alongside a small number of leaders in the fields of finance and investment to leverage Homes England’s own investment on behalf of the Government. Our partners include Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and M&G. In March 2020, we announced a £10m investment in M&G Investments new Shared Ownership Fund. Homes England’s early participation catalysed £177m of initial institutional investment, a first step towards the fund’s £825m target capital raise. Over the next five years the fund will develop more than 2,000 new affordable shared ownership homes in partnership with housing associations across England. This deal highlights the commitment Homes England has to supporting the growth and evolution of housing in institutional portfolios and championing public-private sector partnerships.

The Agency also looks to support innovation in the sector and in the last year has taken significant steps to achieve this through investment in Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). Most recently, Homes England announced an 1,800 homes MMC Research Commission across eight Agency sites. The six-year venture will enable us to learn lessons in this field and drive forward greater uptake of MMC in the sector.

Importantly, the Agency does not compete with the market by directly building homes. Instead, we support our partners to unlock delivery and increase supply, whether this is through enabling land to come forward, providing funding where it is otherwise not available, and brokering relationships to bring skills and capacity together.

By doing so, we have played a key role in the delivery of over 25% of the country’s homes each year.

This year we announced a major new regeneration scheme, York Central, in partnership with Network Rail, the National Railway Museum and York City Council. This will see the delivery of 2,500 homes with a focus on design and sustainability, in addition to creating a quality place with new jobs and support for York’s economy. York Central is also an important signal that Homes England is taking good design seriously, and we’re encouraging this further by putting terms into our land sales.

Affordability pressures remain a barrier to many getting a home of their own, and I am pleased that through our £7.4 billion Affordable Homes Programme and strategic partnerships Homes England is tackling this head on with the delivery of 130,000 homes over five years. This year we granted £53m to Together Housing Group to enable the delivery of 1,152 additional new homes in the North of England by March 2022.

By granting funding for entire development programmes, our long-term strategic partnerships have given housing associations the investment and flexibility to adapt to the changing housing market as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. To make the strategic partnership model more widely accessible, Homes England has now extended this offer to Local Authorities and for-profit registered providers. These changes will allow us to create a more diverse market and better support priority places.

As we look to move on from the worst of the pandemic and along a path for recovery, we also find ourselves looking to the future and the longer-term challenges facing the housing sector and wider built environment. This means thinking about how we enable attractive, practical, and sustainable design. It also means thinking about how we can support local partners respond to the issues affecting urban centres across the country. While increasing the supply of new homes remains Homes England’s core focus, a key lesson from last year is that we should approach this holistically to ensure we’re creating the homes and places that can stand up to the 21st century. As we move into the next financial year, I’m looking forward to tackling these challenges and opportunities as a sector - and in those challenges are opportunities.

I would like to thank Nick Walkley, who stepped down as Chief Executive in February 2021 after four years of immensely hard work to transform Homes England into a mature and ambitious organisation with increased capacity and capability. I am grateful to Gordon More for stepping up as Interim Chief Executive and providing strong leadership at this time.

Finally, a thank you to all Homes England staff and everyone who has worked with the Agency to make homes happen during this incredibly challenging year. Despite the difficulties, productivity has been strong, and the sector has achieved a great deal.

Looking to the year ahead and with a new Chief Executive soon to be at the helm, Homes England’s focus will be on working with our many partners to deliver more and better in a way that is open, effective and collaborative. We will continue to drive Government housing ambitions and our pride will be in the delivery of our mission through quality homes and places for communities across the country.