Homes England's National Housing Bank is officially opening for
business, backed by a new Investment Prospectus that sets out the
agency's full range of funding and support.
The National Housing Bank is a new government public finance
institution with the authority and ambition to accelerate the
delivery of new homes and communities, whilst also enabling the
regeneration of towns and cities across England.
Backed by the UK government, the National Housing Bank will work
with house builders, 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, the
Agency's single, authoritative statement of how it invests to
deliver homes and regeneration. 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 Mansion House Compact signatory and Sterling 20
member, Aviva. Its lifetime objective is to build up to 3,300
well designed and sustainable homes for rent in underinvested
areas of cities, including an initial 300 in Liverpool and
Manchester.
The launch of the National Housing Bank and Investment Prospectus
were marked at a Homes England event attended by senior sector
stakeholders in London today (Tuesday 31 March).
Housing Secretary 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 CBE 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.
Amy Rees CB, Chief Executive of Homes England, said:
The launch of both the National Housing Bank and Homes England's
Investment Prospectus are a watershed moment and mark an
unprecedented scale of ambition and investment to deliver homes
and regeneration across the country.
Both institutions have up to £46 billion of capital to deploy
over the next decade, including £27 billion of social and
affordable housing grant, a share of £5 billion for land and
infrastructure and up to £16 billion of debt, equity and
guarantees.
The Investment Prospectus is explicit about the challenges facing
the housing system, including affordability, viability, stalled
land, constrained finance and delivery risk. Homes England and
the National Housing Bank will step in where those market
failures exist and help unlock delivery at pace.
Our message to partners and investors is a simple one: please get
in touch and talk to us. We are open for business and are
committed to shaping the right solutions for a place or project.
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 finance institution creates
the conditions for long-term, stable investment, focusing on
delivery and giving investors confidence whilst 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.
Peter Vernon, Chair of the National Housing Bank, added:
The National Housing Bank builds on Homes England's strong track
record, including long-standing investment in housing delivery
and working in partnership with investors, developers and places.
Building on this strong foundation and deploying substantial new
firepower and flexibilities the Bank will look to build deeper
and broader partnerships across the sector to accelerate early
delivery as this significant day one investment clearly
demonstrates.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Find out more about our Investment Prospectus.
