Homes England chooses eight additional partners for affordable homes plan

Homes England has agreed to a £1.7Bn funding package with 23 total partners to secure affordable homes.

The funding aims to produce around 40,000 affordable homes projects by 2020. The new partners cover different areas of England, with a focus on the Midlands and the North.

Homes England hopes to improve the housing situation in the country, with a long-term plan to improve affordability and increase the number of homes available across England. There is a focus on giving power to local authorities and removing barriers for smaller building firms.

The new partners are:

• Bromford
• Curo & Swan
• Liverpool Mutual Homes & Torus
• Longhurst & Nottingham Community Housing Association
• Together
• Walsall Housing Group
• Yorkshire
• Your Housing Group (YHG).

Sir Edward Lister, the Chairman of Homes England, said: “I welcome the new strategic partners who share our ambition to build better homes faster.”

“Our new ways of working with the sector means that housing associations can use their funding flexibly across their development programmes and respond quickly to local housing demand and a changing market.”

The UK is facing a decline in affordable housing, with the problem concentrated in London and the South East, where prices are the highest. Elsewhere in the country, the problem is a lack of demand, with places like Hartlepool and Derry City seeing a lack of buyers as young people move away.

In other places, such as Liverpool and Blackpool, the issue is the poor quality of housing with older homes falling into disrepair, particularly in the private rented sector.

The government is hoping that the new partnerships with local firms will allow them to tailor solutions to issues faced by the area in question.

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