Form

Social and Affordable Homes Programme investment partner application guidance

Published 7 November 2025

Applies to England

1. Introduction

You must hold investment partner qualification (IPQ) to receive funding from Homes England for the development of affordable housing through the Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) 2026 to 2036.

You must be in discussions with Homes England about a potential bid to which your IPQ application would be linked.

2. When to apply

Your application for investment partner qualification is reviewed after your linked affordable housing bid has been assessed.

Homes England will not review:

• unsolicited applications to become an investment partner
• applications where you have not identified 1 or more sites where you intend to deliver new housing

3. Who can apply

Organisations that can apply for investment partner qualification are:

• charities
• community organisations
• housing associations
• housing developers
• local authorities

Identifying the applicant organisation

You can apply directly as a single legal entity or via a consortium arrangement.

A single legal entity is a single organisation.

A consortium arrangement is a group of companies or separate legal entities acting together for a specific purpose.

In a consortium arrangement, a member of the consortium acts as an applicant organisation. The applicant organisation is responsible for:

• co-ordinating the application
• ensuring the information supplied is accurate
• providing any supporting information necessary

For Almshouse consortium applications, the applicant organisation and lead member of the consortium would be the Almshouse Consortium Limited.

To be an investment partner where the applicant is planning to be the landlord of low-cost rental homes built with affordable housing funding, by law, they must be a registered provider of social housing. This means they must have registered with the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH). Applying to become a registered provider is a separate process to becoming an investment partner with Homes England.

The Regulator of Social Housing is responsible for registering and regulating providers of social housing in England. Find out how to register and de-register as a provider of social housing.

All registered providers must comply with the regulatory standards set by the RSH to be eligible to receive affordable housing funding.

As a registered provider, at the time of your application to become an investment partner, your regulatory status must not be:

• under review by the RSH
• determined to be failing to deliver the outcomes of a regulatory standard by the RSH

As a local authority, at the time of your application to become an investment partner, you must not be subject to a:

• section 114 report (S114 report) issued under the Local Government Finance Act 1988
• section 15 direction (S15 direction) from the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, issued under Part I of the Local Government Act 1999

4. Investment partner qualification application form

The investment partner application form has 4 sections:

• section 1 — applicant information
• section 2 — statement of good standing
• section 3 — financial and commercial standing
• section 4 — managing development

You should answer all questions in each section accurately and concisely.

Registered providers and local authorities do not need to complete section 3. This is because:

• registered providers have already supplied information about financial and commercial standing to the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH)
• local authority finances are governed by the Local Government Act and Local Government Finance Act

Section 1 — applicant information

Section 1.1 should be completed by all applicants.

Section 1.2 should be completed by each consortium member, co-ordinated by the application organisation.

This section includes confirmation statements for registered providers and local authorities. All statements that apply should be completed.

Section 2 — statement of good standing

Section 2 includes a statement of good standing.

A signed letter of good standing must be received from:

• the applicant organisation
• all consortium members

Each organisation must:

• provide the statement on their organisation’s headed paper
• have a director, partner, or equivalent, sign the statement
• answer the questions relating to court cases, regulatory judgements and health and safety investigations

Section 3 — financial and commercial standing

Only unregistered bodies must complete this section.

It includes a checklist of financial information the applicant will need to supply with the completed application form. Homes England use this information to review the financial and commercial standing of the applicant.

When applying as a single organisation, complete sections 3.1 and 3.2.

Section 4 — managing development

Section 4 tests the technical ability of applicants to deliver and manager capital projects and risks. A part of this section refers to the linked bid proposal for affordable housing grant funding.

Where a chosen contractor or developing agent is to build the new development on your behalf, their experience may be included.

All questions in this section must be completed.

Section 4 asks for a maximum of 3 recent case studies which have occurred in the last 5 years. These should demonstrate your expertise and track record of development schemes or that of appointed third parties. All case studies should relate to developments that have reached practical completion.

The case studies should be referred to, to help demonstrate your experience (or that of your developing agents) in developing homes.

5. Submitting your application and supporting documents

All applications and supporting documents should be submitted by email to Homes England.

Email provider.onboarding@homesenegland.gov.uk.

Single entity applications

An organisation applying as a single entity should provide all relevant completed forms and supporting documents to Homes England.

Consortium applications

Applications on behalf of a consortium must be co-ordinated by the consortium lead as defined as the applicant organisation.

The applicant organisation should provide all relevant completed forms and supporting documents and any supplemental information to Homes England, on behalf of all consortium members.

Supporting documents

You only need to provide the information requested.

Do not make any changes to the structure, formatting or wording of the application form.

Do not include:

• a covering letter
• any other documents
• marketing materials
• any links to external sources (except where explicitly asked for)
• any statement that could be construed as contradicting or amending the evaluation criteria set out by Homes England

6. Application assessment

The information provided in your application form is used to assess your suitability for investment partner qualification.

Sections 1 and 2 are used to verify the organisation and establish a pass or fail grade. Where Homes England consider that more information is needed to assess your application or suitability we will request this from you.

Section 4 is used to assess the applicant’s technical expertise against a standard assessment methodology and evaluates the responses for each sub-section that covers:

• experience and ability to undertake new development
• appointment of consultants and contractors to help develop the homes
• approach to quality and risk management

The applicant must reach a minimum benchmark score in this section.

A pass grade and a minimum benchmark score is required to achieve IPQ.

Section 3 (required for unregistered bodies) is also assigned a pass or fail grade.

Change in circumstances

If the information in your application form has changed after submission you must tell Homes England as soon as possible.

Email provider.onboarding@homesengland.gov.uk.

Homes England reserves the right to re-evaluate applications at any time without notice if there is a change in the information supplied.

Application outcome

We will email you with the outcome of your application. This takes around 8 weeks once we have received all of the required information.

7. Limited investment partner qualification status

If you are unable to satisfy all of Homes England’s requirements at the application stage we may:

• decline your application
• grant you limited investment partner qualification status

This means Homes England may limit access to grant funding in particular ways. This includes (but is not limited to):

• programme
• geographical location
• delivery agent, developer, managing agent
• scheme or schemes
• sub-product
• payment milestones
• processing route
• consortium arrangements

Why we may grant you a limited investment partner qualification status

Homes England will apply limited investment partner qualification status where it considers it appropriate to do so.

An example of where this might happen is when Homes England reviews an initial IPQ application following a continuous qualification (CQ) assessment and finds that the relevant organisation has limited development, management and, or, risk management experience.

Other examples include (but aren’t limited to) where:

• a provider is applying as a consortium member and is delivering via the consortium arrangement only
• a provider is unable to provide an adequate re-confirmation of a statement of good standing
• failings have been identified as part of the Homes England compliance audit process
• adverse regulatory judgements or notices (pre-April 2024) have been issued and, or, published by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) for registered providers
• a provider’s directing members (or equivalent) are impeding proper management of the organisation, provided audited annual and, or, management reports indicate that, in the opinion of Homes England, there are concerns about the financial health of the organisation for unregistered bodies only

If at a later stage, the issues resulting in limited investment partner status are addressed to the satisfaction of Homes England, we may reconsider the award of full investment partner status.

If the issues are not addressed then Homes England may, at its discretion:

• increase the scope of the limited investment partner status
• remove Investment partner status entirely

8. Continuous qualification

We review the performance of existing investment partners using our continuous qualification (CQ) process.

We will ask existing investment partners to respond to factors we consider appropriate as part of this assessment. This can include, but is not limited to:

• a set of confirmation statements relating to the applicant’s continued good standing and viability
• submission of a new letter of good standing if required
• updates relating to Know Your Customer requirements
• changes relating to regulatory judgements or notices (pre-April 2024) and, or, areas of non-compliance
• changes relating to the previous assessment since the last continuous qualification review or the original application

We may ask for additional information as part of the continuous qualification process.

The annual qualification is without prejudice to Homes England’s right to re-evaluate investment partner status at any time without notice. This may lead to:

• limited investment partner status being imposed
• the loss of investment partner status

9. Change in circumstances after qualification

Existing investment partners must tell us about any change in circumstances as soon as possible.

Email provider.onboarding@homesengland.gov.uk.

Changes may include, but are not limited to:

• a change in the organisation’s ownership, control, company structure or management
• a change in financial circumstances
• a change in the organisation’s regulatory status
• a change to consortium arrangements (members leaving or joining) or changes to consortium member status
• detailed examples as outlined in section 11 — ‘Homes England’s right to review or remove investment partner status’ — at Homes England’s discretion

10. Investment partner qualification withdrawal

Investment partner status may be withdrawn if investment partners are no longer active in delivering homes under the Social and Affordable Housing Programme (SAHP) 2026 to 2036. Where investment partner status has been withdrawn, Homes England will contact you by email.

You can re-apply for investment partner qualification at any time by submitting a new application.

11. Homes England’s right to review or remove investment partner qualification

Homes England reserves the right to review an organisation’s investment Partner status at any time. This right is at Homes England’s absolute discretion.

In determining whether to pursue any removal, Homes England will consider factors it considers appropriate including, but not limited to:

• a partner’s breach of the contractual terms of the grant agreement or Capital Funding Guide
• a partner’s poor performance where Homes England’s requests to remedy have not been acted upon
• where a partner is unable to provide an adequate re-confirmation of a statement of good standing
• where failings have been identified as part of Homes England’s compliance audit process
• the termination of any grant funding agreement with Homes England to which the partner is party to or contributes as a delivery partner
• failure by the partner to use the grant for the purpose or purposes for which it was paid
• an act that results, or may result, in reputational harm or damage to Homes England
• a change in control of the partner
• a breach by the partner of legislation, including in relation to bribery, fraud and discrimination
• where the partner is a local authority which has issued a Section 114 report or is subject to a Section 15 direction

In addition, where the partner is a registered provider, and any of the following apply:

• is judged by the RSH to have failed to deliver the outcomes of a regulatory standard
• is subject to a regulatory notice (pre 1 April 2024)
• a regulatory judgement, identifying failures to deliver the outcomes of any regulatory standard has been issued
• an enforcement notice has been issued
• they are named on the regulator’s ‘Grading under review list’ (GUR)
• there is express direction from the RSH in relation to that registered provider

12. Undertaking upon submission

Any false information submitted will result in exclusion from subsequent stages of the Social and Affordable Housing Programme (SAHP) 2026 to 2036 programmes.

Homes England takes a zero-tolerance approach to bribery and corruption. Our anti-bribery and corruption policy will be followed in all circumstances.

13. Freedom of Information Act

Homes England may be legally obligated to release information requested under the:

• Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA)
• Environmental Information Regulations 2000 (EIR)

Homes England will be responsible for determining, at absolute discretion, whether:

• any information is exempted or remains exempted information
• any information is to be disclosed in response to a request for information under the FOIA or EIR

Homes England may be obliged under the FOIA or EIR to disclose information:

• without consulting
• following consultation, and having taken or not taken views into account

14. Information and support

For further information about the IPQ process, email provider.onboarding@homesengland.gov.uk.

Information on how we can collect and process your data is set out in the Homes England Privacy Notice.