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Housing minister announces national roll-out of Small Sites Aggregator with plan for 10,000 new social homes a year
The government’s Small Sites Aggregator will now be rolled out nationally following pilot schemes, and will build 10,000 social rent homes a year, the housing minister has announced.
Housing minister announces national rollout of Small Sites Aggregator with plan for 10,000 new social homes a year #UKhousingDelivering a keynote address at the annual UK Real Estate Investment and Infrastructure Forum (UKREiiF) in Leeds, Matthew Pennycook said the national roll-out follows pilots in Bristol, Sheffield and Lewisham, south London.
“The initiative will unlock dormant, unviable, small brownfield sites and, through the forging of new partnerships between public and private sector, will attract investment to use them to build 10,000 social rent homes a year,” he told attendees.
On wider social housing delivery, Mr Pennycook said bids to the Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) have been “really ambitious”.
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He said: “We almost certainly won’t be able to satisfy them all, but that is a really good sign of the appetite that’s out there amongst registered providers.”
Mr Pennycook highlighted his focus on social and affordable housing delivery, pointing to the government’s efforts to increase regulator certainty for housing associations through the 10-year rent settlement and rent convergence.
“We’ve really as a government, and I have in particular, put a big emphasis on social and affordable housing – I deliberately say social as well as affordable because I think there’s an important difference, and we’ve written that difference into the [National Planning Policy Framework] as well,” he said.
The housing minister also announced at the conference that the government is “working with 23 ambitious local authorities to co-design a patent book of standard house designs”.
This patent book, which the government intends to publish by the end of the year, will “unlock economies of scale to support investment in modern methods of construction”.
It will also remove barriers for small and medium developers and help local authorities to deliver homes on the small sites they own, Mr Pennycook added.
The minister provided an overview of his work to overhaul the planning system, with the final revised National Planning Policy Framework to be published this summer.
He also said the government will announce the outcome of its consultation on reforming the role of statutory consultees before parliament’s summer recess.
When asked about “high-performing” public-private partnerships, Mr Pennycook pointed to the importance of Homes England’s new regional operating model.
“In particular... that change in Homes England to a regional operating model where metro mayors, other players in the system, in a region, can know that they’ve got a very senior leadership team that is their first point of call, alongside the New Homes Accelerator, if they need technical support – these things are really unblocking sites,” he told attendees.
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