Our climb in this year’s Biggest Builders ranking shows that partnerships are key to unlocking delivery

Despite this record delivery, we are all too aware of the challenges the sector is continuing to face, and we are certainly not immune to these.

Pressures on scheme viability, driven by rising construction costs, inflation in materials and labour costs, and wider geopolitical uncertainty all continue to constrain delivery across the sector. Providers are faced with the challenge of navigating these pressures while continuing to invest resources in existing homes.

“Where partnerships are strong and aligned, schemes can progress to deliver much-needed homes and support the broader regeneration of neighbourhoods”

The government’s commitment to and investment in housing since coming to power is extremely welcome and an essential intervention in the housing crisis. Yet, challenges at Homes England, including its request for bidders to the £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) to re-profile their bids to ensure the programme can be fulfilled, remind us that the fiscal landscape remains challenging.

In such a landscape, delivery is increasingly dependent on strong partnerships between housing associations, government agencies, local authorities and private sector partners. Where those partnerships are strong and aligned, schemes can progress to deliver much-needed homes and support the broader regeneration of neighbourhoods.

This year, we signed an agreement with Berkeley to deliver 426 new affordable homes at TwelveTrees Park in Newham, east London. This much-needed project, in the borough with the capital’s longest housing waiting list, couldn’t have happened without partnership working with Berkeley Homes, the Greater London Authority and the London Borough of Newham.

Our collaboration with Vistry Group is delivering the full-scale regeneration of the Clapham Park estate in south London, replacing outdated buildings with over 4,200 refurbished or new homes, and more than doubling the size of the original estate.

The headlines from government programmes are encouraging, but the next challenge is ensuring the funding system is as joined up as the partnerships on the ground. This includes the speedy deployment of SAHP funding to avoid any slowdown in delivery.

“The priority now is a funding framework that provides the certainty and flexibility needed to keep building at scale”

Greater flexibility and synchronisation will be key to maximising the impact of the SAHP, the National Housing Bank and low-interest loans. Government can help here by allowing the mixing of different types of support together more easily to make schemes work.

Grants and loans have different application processes, timelines and rules, making it difficult to combine them to fund one scheme. We are already seeing schemes deemed unviable because they can’t happen on grant alone, even though they could go ahead if funding streams were considered together.

Greater flexibility is also particularly important for regeneration projects. Under the Homes England grant rules, strategic partnership bids outside London are limited so that no more than 10% of homes in a bid can be replacements.

This risks holding back much-needed regeneration schemes like Clapham Park from happening outside London, even where such projects can both improve existing homes and build new ones at scale.

The sector has shown what is possible when strong partnerships are in place. The priority now is a funding framework that provides the certainty and flexibility needed to keep building at scale.

Chatinder Bal, director of land, planning and partnerships, MTVH