Ahead of the Future of Housing 2019 Conference, the GovNet Events team spoke with Tom Walker, Deputy CEO at Homes England about how we can meet the demand for housing across the UK.
Homes England is doing things differently. We need to if we are to deliver the homes needed to meet demand across England. The government has a clear ambition to increase the levels of housebuilding and deliver 300,000 new homes a year on average and we’re committed to accelerating the delivery of new homes in areas of greatest demand to help to create great places.
But we need to make sure the support we provide is right for each local area and that we work with partners to understand not only the needs of a place but also the barriers that will prevent necessary development from happening, such as planning challenges and insufficient infrastructure.
We are working collaboratively with local areas to identify the right expert support for each location, to provide a tailored mix of land, money, people and powers to create and deliver more ambitious plans to get more homes built.
Through this insight and understanding we can help local areas to plan for the future and embrace new technologies including modern methods of construction to meet the changing aspirations of home owners. We want to give places the longer term certainty they need to leverage their own investment, alongside private finance, to increase affordability. We’ll partner with them and support delivery.
We are already forming new types of innovative partnerships to shake up housing delivery. These partnerships involve organisations from across the sector and will play a fundamental role in making the housing market work. From local and combined authorities and housing associations, to private developers and investors, we are asking our partners to share our ambition and work with us to deliver the homes England needs.
For example, the Strategic Partnerships we have formed with 23 housing associations since July 2018 mark the start of a new way of working between Homes England and our partners. These partnerships show our determination to combine ambition, flexibilities and the full range of our resources to change the way we deliver affordable homes.
Join us on 26th April at our Future of Housing Conference at etc. venues St Paul's in London. Future of Housing unites leadership teams, policymakers and influential figures from across UK housing to define strategy and take action on delivering the ‘levelling up’ agenda.
