The plan will “power a step change across the country in the delivery of high-quality, safe and sustainable homes and vibrant, inclusive communities”.
The six strategic objectives are:
- Significantly increase new housing supply and accelerate housing delivery across all tenures.
- Deliver the biggest increase in social and affordable homes in a generation.
- Unlock new institutional investment for housing and mixed-use schemes and deliver financial returns.
- Collaborate with partners and local leaders to enable development and regeneration that boosts local economic growth.
- Foster innovation and create market conditions to support a dynamic, diverse, and sustainable built environment and housing sector.
- Ensure homes are safe, secure and decent, and residents safeguarded.
Homes England said this plan would “offer more tailored support, more flexibility, longer-term funding and the ability to support delivery at scale”.
More land, investment and infrastructure needed to boost housebuilding
On the first point, the report said that to boost housing supply and housing delivery, “more land needs to be released for development, further investment is needed in site-enabling infrastructure, and to close viability gaps, and greater diversity in the housing sector is needed so that more organisations can build the right homes in the right places”.
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Key parts of this point will be a significant increase in the availability of land for housing and mixed-use schemes by “proactively acquiring, preparing and enabling land that the market is unable to bring forward”, investing in infrastructure and continuing its work through the New Homes Accelerator.
To support the diversification of housebuilding, Homes England will work on scaling support for SMEs, expanding public and private sector master development activity and promoting mixed tenure by default.
It added that it would “make stronger and more targeted use” of its statutory powers and delivery expertise, such as using compulsory purchase orders and leveraging its Advisory Team for Large Applications for complex schemes.
Investment has been ‘persistent barrier to housing delivery’
Regarding institutional investment, the firm said access to capital has been a “persistent barrier to housing delivery”, as “investment levels [are] trailing behind institutional benchmarks”.
It pointed to the creation of the National Housing Bank, which would deploy a wide range of finance, including debt, equity and guarantees, to support public and private partners to “unlock sites and tackle viability issues, attract new capital and accelerate the delivery of new homes and communities at greater scale”.
Homes England said it would support over 200,000 customers to “manage their Help to Buy Loans”.
It added that over the next five years, it would “continue to improve customer support we provide” and ensure that the £15bn Help to Buy loan book is “effectively managed”.
The investment roadmap sets out “investment themes and priorities that will drive its decision-making, alongside more details on the types of interventions it expects to make”.
Some key events include a national Housing Delivery Fund ramping up from January next year, the publication of its investment prospective early next year, and the formal launch of the National Housing Bank in March.
Plan marks ‘start of a new chapter’
Steve Reed, Housing Secretary, said Homes England is “playing a key role in building more new homes by bringing in essential private investment and supporting the biggest boost to social and affordable housing in a generation”.
He said: “The launch of their new plan today kicks off a new phase of working together to invest in housebuilding at scale that will help us bring the housing crisis to an end.”
Pat Ritchie CBE, chair of Homes England, added that the plan “marks the start of a new chapter of strengthened collaboration, innovation, and delivery at scale”.
“Through partnership and a deep understanding of local needs, we can create a much-needed step change in the delivery of new homes, including social housing, and affordable communities – directly addressing the needs of current and future generations and ensuring everyone can have a safe place to live and thrive,” he noted.
Amy Rees CB, chief executive of Homes England, said: “I am proud to lead this organisation as we build on previous successes, embark on delivering our new strategic plan and continue our preparations to launch our new funds and the National Housing Bank by April 2026.
“Our team will work with focus, pride, dedication and skill in equal measure, alongside thousands of partners across the country, to accelerate the delivery of homes, infrastructure and places that communities want and need.
“Alongside our commitment to national expertise and the creation of a specialist National Housing Bank, we are significantly strengthening our regional teams to ensure support is tailored to the needs of places and partner organisations. This includes the imminent appointment of experienced leaders to head up each team, working hand in glove with mayors, local leaders and the wider housing and regeneration sector.”
