Homes England Public Bodies Review 2023
Report outlining the findings of the 2023 Public Bodies Review into Homes England.
Applies to England
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As part of the Cabinet Office’s Public Bodies Review Programme, government departments are carrying out routine reviews of the ALBs they sponsor. This report sets out the findings of the Public Bodies Review into Homes England, led by Tony Poulter. The Terms of Reference for this Review are to assess the efficacy, efficiency, accountability and governance of the Agency.
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) commissioned a Public Body Review of Homes England, independently led by Tony Poulter, a Non-Executive Director of the Department for Transport. Homes England is the government’s housing and regeneration agency.
Over the past 5 years, Homes England has directly supported the delivery of nearly 190,000 new homes, unlocked land that will deliver up to a further 390,000 homes and helped over a quarter of a million households into home ownership. This is real delivery that has changed lives and communities.
The Review considered the effectiveness of Homes England in meeting its objectives and supporting the government’s plans to regenerate our cities and deliver new homes in the right places. The report endorses Homes England’s role as the key delivery agency for the government’s housing and regeneration ambitions, and concludes that Homes England is the right vehicle for delivering housing supply, regeneration and placemaking. The report further concludes that there is no evidence that its main functions could be delivered fully by the private sector, a different tier of government or another public body.
The Department and Homes England welcome the conclusions of the Review and particularly welcomes the recognition of the benefits of strong partnership and collaboration between the Department and Homes England.
The Review’s 10 principal recommendations are that the Department should:
1. Determine the balance between the funding for regeneration and placemaking in Priority Places and other funding programmes.
2. Confirm agreement with Homes England’s Priority Places for regeneration and placemaking and agree overall criteria for prioritising places.
3. Authorise Homes England to take more risk to deliver more impact; to make its programmes easily accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and to be even bolder by playing the role of master developer on more large regeneration and placemaking schemes.
4. Transfer responsibilities for the Help to Buy scheme and Building Safety Programme out of Homes England in the medium term, so that it can concentrate fully on its core mission and new responsibilities for regeneration and places.
5. Propose changes to Homes England’s funding arrangements in the next spending review to allow it to commit to large, long-term schemes and to grant it larger delegations.
6. Design more flexibility into future programmes to allow an effective response when market conditions change.
7. Set budgets and efficiency targets for Homes England that take account of the increase in its responsibilities for regeneration and placemaking, other new priorities being set by the government, its digital transformation programme and investment in systems, and the net reduction in costs that this will achieve.
Whilst Homes England should:
1. Define clear objectives and outcome measures for each Priority Place in discussion with local partners and agree them with the government.
2. Develop its operating model to focus its work as much on places as on national funding programmes, build closer relationships with priority local authorities, and show how resources are being deployed around the country.
3. Improve its systems and governance to strengthen performance management, forecasting and impact evaluations.
The Department welcomes all recommendations of the report and will work closely with Homes England to finalise a plan for implementing the recommendations and monitoring their progress and impact.
The Department thanks Tony Poulter, the lead reviewer, and all stakeholders and officials who supported the review.
Last updated 8 April 2024 + show all updates
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Added PDF version of the Homes England Public Bodies Review 2023.
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First published.