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Homes England misses all of its housing delivery targets
Homes England failed to hit any of its housing delivery targets in 2021-22, blaming labour and material shortages and “challenges in the planning system”.
According to its annual performance report, the government’s housing agency missed its affordable homes completion target by 21.5%. It aimed to support the completion of 34,349 affordable homes in 2021-22, but only helped deliver 26,953.
The agency also missed its targets for overall completions. It aimed to support the completion of 44,275 homes, but 37,632 properties were delivered – 15% below the target.
Meanwhile, the total number of starts Homes England supported was 38,562 in 2021-22, down more than 10,000 from the target of 48,810.
The number of homes unlocked through infrastructure and land finished 38% below the intended target of 94,863 homes at 58,993.
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Writing in the report, Peter Denton, chief executive of Homes England, said the agency was “not immune to wider market conditions”.
“Capacity issues in the planning system, nutrient neutrality challenges and material and labour shortages with increased associated costs have caused delays to housing provisions, impacting the agency’s delivery against its KPIs [key performance indicators],” he added.
Homes England said the partners it works with via the Affordable Homes Programme, the majority of which are housing associations, “have reported challenges in delivering completions”.
According to the report, this “has mainly been due to delays and access to labour supply and materials”.
Schemes approaching completion “were more directly impacted by labour and materials shortages because it is at this stage where the need for resource is greatest”, the report said.
Homes England said these delays have added 20 weeks to delivery times.
The report also said Homes England’s strategic partners “raised a legitimate concern of losing delivery” because of limited access to materials and labour and no capacity to stockpile.
However, it said the agency was able to protect delivery by securing budget flexibility from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, which “helped to absorb delays to material delivery, providing housing associations with the confidence to continue delivering”.
Looking forward, Mr Denton said “continued uncertainty” could have potentially significant consequences for Homes England’s equity and loan portfolio, citing a potential slowdown in the housing market driven by the current cost of living crisis.
The report said the agency’s Help to Buy portfolio is “particularly sensitive to market risk from changing house prices”.
A spokesperson for Homes England told Inside Housing: said “We want to praise our affordable housing partners for the determination and flexibility that they have shown to get more homes built during a volatile period.”
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