Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP welcomed Homes England Strategic Plan published today (30 October 2018) describing the vision as pivotal to helping deliver the homes that communities need.

Since their launch in January, Homes England has a remit to adopt a more commercial approach to acquiring, preparing, managing and developing land in areas of high demand.

Their strategic plan sets out how they will use these powers together with their expertise and significant government investment to drive forward key programmes and play a major role in making the housing market work for everyone.

Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said:

This government is committed to delivering 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s and help more people get on the housing ladder. Homes England is at the heart of these plans.

I welcome their comprehensive vision that sets out how through their powers and expertise they will maximise government investment to deliver the homes communities need.

The plan, which runs up to 2022/23, outlines Homes England’s ambitious new mission and the steps the national housing agency will take, in partnership with all parts of the housing industry sector, to respond to the long-term housing challenges facing the country.

The new plan sets out far-reaching delivery objectives:

• Unlock public and private land where the market will not, to get more homes built where they are needed
• Ensure a range of investment products are available to support housebuilding and infrastructure, including more affordable housing and homes for rent, where the market is not acting
• Improve construction productivity
• Create a more resilient and competitive market by supporting smaller builders and new entrants, and promoting better design and higher quality homes
• Offer expert support for priority locations, helping to create and deliver more ambitious plans to get more homes built
• Effectively deliver home ownership products, providing an industry standard service to consumers

Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said:

This government is committed to delivering 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s and help more people get on the housing ladder. Homes England is at the heart of these plans.

I welcome their comprehensive vision that sets out how through their powers and expertise they will maximise Government investment to deliver the homes communities need.

Sir Edward Lister, Homes England Chairman, said:

Ultimately, we need to disrupt the housing market. Homes England plans to be bold, creative and think big. We hope the whole of the housing sector – big and small, up and down the country – will join us for the next five years and beyond.

Nick Walkley, Homes England Chief Executive, said:

The new Homes England is all about making homes happen – and our new 5-year plan sets out our ambitious new approach. We are committing to boosting housing supply, productivity, innovation, quality, skills and modern methods of construction to help make a more diverse and resilient market. In return, we are calling for partners and the wider industry who share our ambition to challenge traditional norms and build better homes faster.

Homes England is already making significant progress. High-profile deals forged in recent months include: major land acquisitions in Sussex and Plymouth; a £1bn lending alliance with Barclays to support smaller builders; a new joint venture with Kier’s residential arm; and infrastructure-led developments at Ebbsfleet and Northstowe.

The five-year Strategic Plan follows the Budget announcement yesterday of seven more strategic partnerships with housing associations, which will deliver an additional 13,475 affordable homes by March 2022.

The new partnerships will secure a total of £653m in funding from the Affordable Homes Programme, delivered through Homes England, including homes for social rent in areas of high affordability pressures.

This is in addition to the first eight strategic partnership deals announced in early July, bringing the total number of additional affordable homes that will be delivered to 27,755.

Ends

For further media information please contact: Homes England press office on 0207 393 2201 or Patsy Cusworth on 0796772328 patsy.cusworth@homesengland.gov.uk.

Notes to Editors:

Homes England Five Year Strategic Plan

• The five-year strategic plan is available on GOV.UK

Strategic Partnerships

• The housing associations involved in the second wave of strategic partnerships are: Platform Housing Group; Guinness and Stonewater partnership; Optivo; Southern Housing Group; Orbit; Thirteen and Vivid.

About Homes England

• Homes England is the Government’s housing accelerator. We have the appetite, influence, expertise and resources to drive positive market change. By releasing more land to developers who want to make a difference, and investing in places of greatest need, to deliver new homes. Homes England welcomes partners who share their ambition to challenge the traditional norms and build better homes faster.

For more information visit Homes England on GOV.UK.

The Treasury will also fund the cost of building a new prison at Glen Parva in Leicestershire. This significant investment will allow us to get started on construction sooner since planning permission was granted in the summer.

The new Glen Parva will accommodate around 1,680 prisoners which, along with an equivalently-sized new prison at Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, is an important step towards delivering on our commitment to building up to 10,000 decent new prison places.

An extra £30 million will be spent on prisons this financial year on top of the £40 million we announced over the summer. The money will go towards further improvements to safety, security and decency on top of those already announced such as the roll-out of body scanners and phone-blocking technology.

There is also a further £15 million to spend this year on the maintenance and security of our court buildings. Spending more this year in our courts will ensure that our ageing estate remains fit for the 21st century as we invest £1 billion in modernising services and moving more online making them easier to use, more efficient and saving taxpayers’ money.

Another £6.5 million will be invested across the wider justice system, including a further £1.5 million for the Parole Board to boost its operational capacity.

Commenting on the Budget, the Secretary of State for Justice David Gauke said:

I am pleased that the Treasury has given us this extra £52 million which will help address the acute problems facing our prisons and begin to improve the conditions of some of our courts. We have also secured a cash boost for the Parole Board to support its operations, especially the extra work associated with our transparency reforms.

This budget means that since July, we are directing an additional £70 million to tackling drugs and violence, and improving the basic conditions of our prisons. Treasury’s commitment to funding a new prison at Glen Parva is an important step to getting this built as soon as possible and will ease the pressure on our prisons.

The Budget also committed to funding a review by the Law Commission into simplifying the rules around marriage ceremonies in England and Wales and propose options for a simpler and fairer system to give couples greater choice and reduce prices in a notoriously expensive market. It will look at reducing unnecessary red tape supporting small and medium-sized businesses in the hospitality sector, like hotels and pubs, to host weddings and boost their income.

Notes to editors

• The Treasury have committed to providing the capital funding to build the new prison at Glen Parva. While we cannot comment at this stage on the anticipated cost, the newest prison in the estate, HMP Berwyn in North Wales, cost £250 million when it was built in 2015/16.
• The Ministry’s Spending Review 2015 settlement set the department on a course to reduce spend by 11% between 2015/16 and 2019/20. The figures on the Ministry of Justice from yesterday’s announcement of next year’s settlement are not new.
• We are continuing to engage with HM Treasury on ensuring that the justice system has sufficient funding in both the short and medium term, ahead of the Spending Review in 2019. The department continues to work to ensure that the department’s finances are set on a long term sustainable footing.