Homes England aims to focus on modern methods of construction, design and measuring social impact in a new strategy to be unveiled next spring.
The government’s housebuilding arm has previously come under fire for prioritising volume delivery over quality design and broader levelling up strategies.
Answering questions from the housing committee in the House of Commons on 15 November, Homes England’s new chief executive Peter Denton and chairman Peter Freeman outlined a number of key initiatives for the agency.
Last week, housing secretary Michael Gove told the committee the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities would publish a levelling up white paper this year, which would include metrics and targets.
Denton said Homes England’s own strategy would provide a mechanism for delivering policies outlined in the planning bill and levelling up white paper, among other initiatives from DLUHC.
He said: “One of the things we unquestionably need to do is ensure we have information to articulate all of these [key performance indicators]… Modern methods of construction will have a focus and a KPI, I think it’s one of the things we need to measure from day one.”
Homes England has previously struggled to measure MMC completions. However, Denton said Homes England would support “diversification and better productivity” through MMC in four ways. It aims to unlock volume, uniform standards, investment and bank accreditation and warranties.
The agency aims to increase direct investment to MMC providers, after already providing £60m in two loans to Ilke Homes. Denton said: “There is an enormous upfront investment required in creating factories. We have been supporting that already and I think that is something that we need to look at, not just for volumetric large-scale factory of the whole house, but also panel systems, timber frames.”
Homes England will introduce net zero sustainability targets in its upcoming strategic objective, alongside its commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Future Homes Standard in new-build development. It is also in the process of appointing a sub-committee to examine design and sustainability issues.
Chairman Peter Freeman said: “I really believe that if you want to get a higher number of houses, actually designing better houses will help you, because the blockage is resistance from existing residents. The better the quality of future design, the less resistance there will be.”
Homes England developed the Building for Healthy Life framework as a condition in development contracts. The agency is moving the dial on quality as a factor in site sales – where it previously made up 30% weighting against quantitative metrics, this is shifting to 50%.
Freeman also suggested the agency may take on a larger role in regeneration. He said: “Historically, it has been less in regeneration. Potentially with the levelling up agenda, it may be more.”
Alongside identifying targets to measure action against DLUHC policies, Homes England aims to capture better data around public value. Denton acknowledged that the government across various divisions has typically focused on land value uplift as a measure of success, which does not consider other societal rewards.
“We are working with the department on research projects to see how we can demonstrate the broader benefits to the public,” said Denton. “Certainly in my time at Hyde we looked at the social value work coming out of affordable housing and I think there is a richness to research and evidence-based support that we should be looking at and taking account of going forward.”
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