Homes England nearing end of SAHP bid process but ‘question around how it translates to any new government’, chair says

In response, Ms Ritchie said: “I think we need to be quite clear about this, that we’re going through a process with the SAHP, and that’s what we’ll do.

“We’re getting towards the end of that process, and it will be for whoever the minister is to decide how they want to move forward.

“But there is a programme there that we’ve got partners ready to deliver on, and there is a question as to just how that will translate to any new government.”

Ms Richie said the SAHP – which is aiming for 60% of all new grant-funded homes to be social rent – already has a “significant element of social housing within it”.

“If it needs to shift to more, then there are implications for how we would do that,” she added.

Panel members were also asked to set out their message to whoever becomes prime minister later this summer.

Mary Parsons, regeneration and partnerships director at house builder Lovell, urged the incoming prime minister to avoid delaying the programme.

“Please don’t hold things up in the short term. You might be able to improve things in the medium and longer term, but we’ve got a platform now that could actually really start to deliver,” she said.

Ms Parsons also said: “I really hope that no matter what’s happening in Westminster, [the SAHP] doesn’t get held up in terms of announcing it and getting it going, because it would create a massive hiatus in delivery, if it’s held up.”

Similarly, Ben Still, chief executive at West Yorkshire Combined Authority, urged any new prime minister to help “engender stability and confidence”.

“Don’t mess with things, because stability and confidence are what our private developers need and ask us for all the time,” he said.

Ms Ritchie echoed these comments, saying “there is something about how we ensure that we maintain delivery”.

She continued: “I think there’s something about ensuring that if there is going to be change, it’s done in a way that ensures that you maintain delivery where it happens.

“I’ve seen that, if you think about things like the big changes that came in during the coalition [government in the 2010s], they impacted delivery, and there is something about [ensuring] you’re moving things forward while maintaining that focus.”

The session also covered how Homes England can support housing providers and developers in light of recent changes including the move to a regional model and the establishment of a National Housing Bank.

Mike Wiltshire, executive director of strategy, markets and analysis at the agency, said these changes gives Homes England the “ability to actually create new products and use interventions that can actually help our partners deliver on the ground”.

In response to viability being a “key challenge” for partners, the agency is “working at pace to develop a marginal viability grant product” within its package, Mr Wiltshire said.

In its investment prospectus, published at the start of April, Homes England said this viability gap funding product will be launched during the course of the current financial year.