Join us each week where we'll be taking a look at the UK housing headlines making the rounds. Breaking down the key information and giving you our thoughts!
British Property Federation releases new Code of Governance for For-Profit providers of affordable housing across the UK.
Not-for-profit membership organisation, British Property Federation, has released a new Code of Governance for For-Profit providers of affordable housing.
The aim is to provide: “a framework that will enable providers to demonstrate to stakeholders the highest standards of good governance and positive stewardship of affordable housing” according to Director of Policy at BPF, Ian Fletcher.
The new code focuses on seven key areas:
Leadership and Strategy, Culture and Values, Broad Composition and effectiveness, Board roles and functions, Delegation of delivery, Integrity and probity, and Audit and risk.
Lumensol says: "We see this as an important step forward in enabling For-Profit providers to contribute positively and appropriately to the sector, for the benefit of residents"
RBS completes £2.8B of UK social housing lending in 2024.
Royal Bank of Scotland has announced a progress update on its aim to provide £5B in new lending to the UK social housing sector.
The bank – part of Natwest Group – has passed the halfway threshold by confirming that £2.8B has been provided as of September 2024.
Recently, as part of the initiative, RBS announced a £96M loan to Grampian Housing Association to finance the development of 1,000 new sustainable homes.
RBS has also committed to improving supply chain skills in order to help drive retrofit projects across the UK, having launched a partnership with Suppy Chain Sustainability School last year to try and deliver this.
Lumensol says: "We hope that lenders show a strong commitment toward the sector to fund what we hope to become an accelerating programme of new UK affordable homes, within the art of the possible."
Housing Minister asks Homes England to maximise social housing delivery.
Matthew Pennycook has written to Homes England to ask it to maximise the number of social rent homes provided through the remaining Affordable Homes Programme funding.
The housing minister said he expects Homes England "to do everything in its power to accelerate development and increase delivery in 2024-2025".
He also said that while the details of the new government's long-term housing strategy was yet to be determined, Homes England's objectives of "boosting growth through new housing supply" and "place-based regeneration" would remain the same.
Lumensol says: "The political pressure toward building new homes, and building overall focus on housing is a great result for our sector. However, for this energy to translate into an actual acceleration in delivery, the underlying reasons why volume has fallen short of targets in the past need to be addresses first. Ultimately, our view is that Homes England rely on development working for developers, and it's a real challenge for them to address this on their own."