Housing Infrastructure Fund: Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) appointment letter
Updated 18 April 2024
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Letter sent to: Cathy Francis, Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for the Housing Infrastructure Fund programme
Letter sent from: Jeremy Pocklington, Permanent Secretary, DLUHC and Nick Smallwood, Chief Executive, IPA
Date: 11 January 2022
Subject: Appointment as Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) for the Housing Infrastructure Fund Programme and Housing Investment Grant projects
Further to our discussion we are writing to confirm your appointment as Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) of the Housing Infrastructure Fund programme and Housing Investment Grant projects with effect from 6 February 2019, directly accountable to Director-General for Stronger Places, Emran Mian, with oversight from the Permanent Secretary Jeremy Pocklington and the Housing Minister Christopher Pincher.
You will carry out this role alongside your other responsibilities and must ensure that you allocate sufficient time to enable the effective delivery of the role and execute your responsibilities fully, as set out in IPA guidance on the role of the senior responsible owner. This will be periodically reviewed to ensure that an appropriate balance is maintained across your portfolio of activities.
As SRO you have personal responsibility for delivery of the Housing and Infrastructure Fund and Housing Investment Grant projects and will be held accountable for the delivery of the programme benefits and outcomes consistent with the programme’s objectives and policy intent; for securing and protecting the vision, for ensuring that the programme and projects are governed responsibly, reported honestly, escalated appropriately and for influencing constructively the context, culture and operating environment of the programme and projects. Like all civil servants, you remain accountable to Ministers, as set out in the Civil Service Code, and should deliver the programme and projects in accordance with the objectives (benefits and outcomes) and policy intent as set by Ministers.
In addition to your internal accountabilities, SROs are personally accountable to Parliamentary Select Committees. You will be expected to account for and explain the decisions and actions you have taken to deliver the programme and projects (or specific milestones). In your case this means that from the date of signature of this letter you will be held personally accountable and could be called by Select Committees to account for delivery of the programme and projects.
More information on this is set out in Giving Evidence to Select Committees – Guidance for Civil Servants, sometimes known as the Osmotherly Rules. Detailed SRO roles and responsibilities are detailed in the IPA’s guidance on the role of the Senior Responsible Owner. It is important to be clear that your accountability to Parliament relates only to implementation, within the terms agreed in this letter. It will remain for the Minister to account for the relevant policy decisions and development.
Tenure of position
You are required to undertake this role until completion of the delivery of the Housing Infrastructure Fund and Housing Investment Grant funded infrastructure, at the moment, planned for 31 May 2028. Progress towards this will be reflected in your personal objectives.
As it is vital to ensure that the appropriate succession planning is undertaken, you should agree a succession plan with the Permanent Secretary and the HIF Board by 1 April 2021.
Objectives and Performance Criteria The policy intent (benefits and outcomes) supported by this programme is delivery of physical infrastructure to unlock housing to support the governments ambition to build 300,000 homes a year. Proposed changes to the programme scope which impact on this intent or benefits realisation must be authorised by the HIF and HIG Board and may be subject to a further levels of approval.
The objectives and vision of the programme are:
- Deliver new physical infrastructure to support new and existing communities;
- Make more land available for housing in high demand areas, resulting in new additional homes that otherwise would not have been built;
- Support ambitious local authorities who want to step up their plans for growth and make a meaningful difference to overall housing supply; and
- Enable local authorities to recycle the funding for other infrastructure projects, achieving more and delivering new homes in the future.
As SRO, you are expected to run your programme in accordance with the Government Functional Standard for Project Delivery. Further detail on your role and responsibilities as SRO are set out in IPA guidance on the role of the senior responsible owner, and you are expected to follow that guidance, and other IPA guidance on the management of major projects.
Extent and limit of accountability
(1) Finance and Controls
HMT spending controls will apply on the basis set out within your department’s delegated authority letter. Where the programme exceeds the delegated authority set by HMT, the Treasury Approval Point process will apply and the details of each approval process must be agreed with your HMT spending team. You should consult departmental finance colleagues on how to go about this.
You should also note that where expenditure is considered novel, contentious, repercussive or likely to result in costs to other parts of the public sector, HMT approval will be required, regardless of whether the programme expenditure exceeds the delegated authority set by HMT. If in doubt about whether approval is required you should, in the first instance, consult departmental finance colleagues before raising with the relevant HMT spending team.
The current overall budget for the programme and projects is £4.34 billion.
You should operate at all times within the rules set out in Managing Public Money. In addition, you must be mindful of, and act in accordance with, the specific Treasury delegated limits and Cabinet Office controls relevant to the programme and projects. Information on these controls can be found here: Cabinet Office controls.
(2) Delegated departmental/project authority
- You are authorised to agree project rescheduling for Forward Funding projects within the agreed Spending Review Period that is agreed until financial year 2024/25, but rescheduling beyond that, and rescheduling beyond financial year 203/24 for Marginal Viability Funding projects, must be agreed with HM Treasury.
- Where issues arise which you and/or the HIF and HIG Board are unable to resolve, you are responsible for escalating these issues to the Portfolio Board.
Programme Status
The Programme Status at the date of your appointment is reflected in the most recent quarterly return on the programme to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority. This is the agreed position as you assume formal ownership of the programme. The programme is post Full Business Case and in delivery, and therefore the current time commitment is 20%, although this can increase to 50% to meet the needs of the programme.
Major Projects Leadership Academy (MPLA)
As SRO of a GMPP programme, you will be required to enrol on the MPLA. You will need to enrol onto the MPLA in 2022, after you have completed the High Potential Development Scheme.
To widen experience and understanding of the role, SROs are expected to become accredited Major Project reviewers and to lead or participate in such reviews for other Government departments, the wider public sector or other areas of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. You will be required to participate in such reviews at least once every 12 months to maintain your accreditation.
We would like to take this opportunity to wish you success in your role as SRO.
Yours sincerely,
Jeremy Pocklington
Permanent Secretary
DLUHC
Date: 11/01/22
Nick Smallwood
Chief Executive Officer
Infrastructure and Projects Authority
Date: 11/01/22
Confirmation of acceptance of appointment
I confirm that I accept the appointment as Senior Responsible Owner for the Housing Infrastructure Fund programme and Housing Investment Grant projects, including my personal accountability for implementation of the project, as set out in the letter above.
Cathy Francis
Date: 19/01/2022