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UK: Homes England has officially launched the National Housing Bank, with the aim of supporting the delivery of up to 500,000 new homes.
The National Housing Bank is a new government public financial institution with the authority and ambition to accelerate the delivery of new homes and communities, while also enabling the regeneration of towns and cities across England.
Backed by the UK government, the National Housing Bank will work with housebuilders, developers, investors and registered providers to deploy up to £16 billion of debt, equity and guarantees. The bank will also work with Mayors through Homes England’s new regional model to strengthen collaborative working with partners and leaders.
A subsidiary of Homes England, the bank is powered by the Agency’s expertise and will support the delivery of more than 500,000 homes and a raft of major regeneration and mixed-use schemes, alongside unlocking more than £53 billion of private investment over the next ten years.
The National Housing Bank’s launch on Wednesday, 1 April is supported by Homes England’s new Investment Prospectus. With the bank at its core, the Investment Prospectus brings together for the first time Homes England’s full range of capital products, land, powers and technical expertise in one public document – making it easier for local leaders and partner organisations to understand the role the Agency and the National Housing Bank can play in delivering their pipeline of housing and mixed-use schemes.
Headquartered in Leeds, the National Housing Bank will move quickly to back shovel-ready schemes. It launches with the announcement that Homes England has contracted a new £100 million partnership with Aviva. Its objective is to build up to 3,300 homes for rent in underinvested areas of cities, including an initial 300 in Liverpool and Manchester.
Housing secretary Steve Reed said: “Launching England’s first ever National Housing Bank underpins a new way of doing things as we accelerate housebuilding at scale and tackle the housing crisis head on. Now open for business, the Bank will rake in billions of pounds of essential private investment to get spades in the ground for half a million new homes. This is just one of the many levers we’re pulling to make sure we reach our 1.5 million target this Parliament.”
Homes England chair Pat Ritchie said: “The opening of the National Housing Bank and launch of the Investment Prospectus build on Homes England’s expertise at providing a wide range of finance to partners and places to unlock the delivery of new housing and mixed-use schemes. The National Housing Bank directly responds to calls from the housing sector, mayors and local leaders to increase the scale and flexibility of available public and private finance for housing and regeneration, to build the homes and communities our county needs. Our Investment Strategy puts place at the heart of how we invest, developing innovative tailored packages of support for the whole housing and regeneration system, bringing together grant, debt, equity, guarantees, land and expertise around local priorities.”
Simon Century, chief executive of the National Housing Bank, said: “The National Housing Bank will back delivery at scale and act at pace, providing government-backed finance to de-risk projects and unlock delivery the market cannot change alone. Our ambition and scale as a public financial institution creates the conditions for long-term, stable investment, focusing on delivery and giving investors confidence while enabling more innovative, scalable delivery models. With delegated authority, we will take decisions quickly and proactively, acting as an enabler, not a barrier, to the market.”
Reacting to the launch, Phil Mayall, managing director of developer Muse, said: “Today’s launch of the National Housing Bank marks a major milestone, and an opportunity for us to align ambition with intent across both the public and private sectors, when it comes to the delivery of new homes and regeneration projects across the UK. At Muse we have long worked closely with both Homes England, combined authorities and local authorities, and we understand that their collective ambition is often only held back by infrastructure deficits and funding challenges. That’s why we’re excited that the Housing Bank and its new lending products can unlock a new era of placemaking. One which not only creates homes and neighbourhoods where people want to live, but also recognises the complex and long-term process it takes to deliver large scale transformation.”
James Blakey, planning director at Moda Living, said: “The launch of the National Housing Bank marks a generational change to how new homes are delivered in this country. By bridging the gap between institutional capital and public sector ambition, it provides the long-term certainty that the build-to-rent sector has been calling for. For Moda, this is an exciting opportunity to scale our delivery of high-quality, tech-enabled rental neighbourhoods. This initiative doesn’t just unlock funding; it unlocks the ability for us to move at pace, turning stalled brownfield sites into thriving communities that prioritise social value and resident wellbeing.”
Highlights:
- Homes England has officially launched the National Housing Bank, with the aim of supporting the delivery of up to 500,000 new homes
- Backed by the UK government, the National Housing Bank will work with housebuilders, developers, investors and registered providers to deploy up to £16 billion of debt, equity and guarantees
- Headquartered in Leeds, the National Housing Bank will move quickly to back shovel-ready schemes
- It launches with the announcement that Homes England has contracted a new £100 million partnership with Aviva, aimed at delivering 3,300 homes
