Homes England Affordable Housing Programme – Information for Developers
Published: 20.01.21
Something which all of our developer clients should be aware of…
On the 15th December 2020, Homes England launched their Affordable Homes Programme which provides grant funding to support the capital costs of developing affordable housing for rent or sale.
‘Homes England will be making available £7.39 billion from April 2021, to deliver up to 130,000 affordable homes by March 2026.’
Funding is for schemes outside of London.
The funding is available to developers who are delivering homes for rent (Social and Affordable Rent), or other affordable routes to home ownership (including: Shared Ownership and Rent-to-Buy).
The programme seeks to increase the delivery of affordable housing, by enabling developers to become partners and secure funding. This is a step change in the delivery of affordable housing. Currently, most affordable housing is delivered by Registered Providers (RP’s), the programme seeks to open up funding to a much wider market.
There are two routes to access funding:
- Continues Market Engagement (CME) for scheme-by-scheme funding
- Strategic Partnerships to access grant funding for longer term schemes
CME allows providers to apply for funding for individual schemes.
‘All schemes funded through CME must have started on site by 30 September 2025 and be completed by 31 March 2026.’
CME is now open for applications, applicants are required to provide details of their organisation and details of the scheme.
Strategic Partnerships are a range of tailored, longer-term deals for organisations that have the ambition, capacity and successful track record of delivering large numbers of new homes at significant pace. Applications for Strategic Partnerships will be made through a competitive process and fixed bidding period. Proposals will be invited in early 2021.
If you would like further advice on the programme, Planning Insight are happy to assist, please call our team on 020 7993 4539.
