Homes England announce wave of housing association partnerships

Homes England has announced partnerships with eight housing associations which is hoped will deliver more affordable homes across the country.

The first wave of this new partnership approach is expected to support the building of 14,280 additional affordable homes by March 2022.

The deals include homes for social rent in areas of high affordability pressure, with the funding available boosted by the Government’s announcement of an additional £1.67bn for the £9bn affordable homes programme.

In total, Homes England will provide a funding package of just under £590m until March 2022 to support the first wave of strategic partnerships with the following housing associations: emh group, Great Places, Home Group, Hyde; L&Q, Matrix Partnership, Places for People, and Sovereign / Liverty.

Secretary of State for Communities the Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said: ‘There is no mission more urgent than making our housing market work, and we are investing £9bn in building affordable homes.

‘This £590m fund we are giving Homes England will help housing associations accelerate the delivery of affordable properties communities need.’

Nick Walkley said: ‘When we launched Homes England, I called on housing associations to work with us to develop ambitious strategic partnerships that would help them to get on and build significantly more affordable homes than they were previously planning.

‘After a huge amount of hard work, these new deals show our real determination to combine ambition, flexibilities and the full range of our resources to change the way we deliver affordable homes.

‘This is a very important day for us but we have no intention to stop here. Over the summer, we will work to expand the eight deals to become even more ambitious while agreeing a second wave of strategic partnerships with other ambitious housing associations.

‘This is a fantastic opportunity for the sector to up its game and get more affordable homes built more quickly.’

Homes England will also re-open discussions with the sector this summer on a second wave of partnerships.