I attended an excellent property mastermind / networking dinner event last night. The keynote speaker was Phil Collings, a National Senior Land Manager at Homes England. Very engaging speaker who is clearly passionate about Homes England’s goals.

Some key takeaways for me. They:

• do more than just administer the Help to Buy scheme!

• sell land to large & SME developers, preferably to build new homes

• provide equity and debt to developers to fund new build schemes

• promote land for new homes schemes – this includes working with SME developers that may be ‘over their head’ on large sites, enabling the SME developer to ‘upskill’ themselves as an organisation

• help local councils develop new homes schemes on land the local council own

• buy sites from other government bodies, such as schools, MoD and NHS Trusts to repurpose for housing use

• are running a massive recruitment drive, adding 1100 jobs to their existing 900 jobs

• are very keen to encourage SME developers, despite the inherent risks

• are keen to encourage use of MMC

Their website pitches themselves as “the government’s housing accelerator”. It says they “have the appetite, influence, expertise and resources to drive positive market charge. By releasing more land to developers who want to make a difference, [they’re] making possible the new homes England needs, helping to improve neighbourhoods and grow communities”.

Their priorities, as per their corporate plan include:

• invest over £4 billion in building new homes, helping around 70,000 families and individuals to own or rent their own home

• sell land that will be suitable for building around 6,000 more homes in the future

• build over 315,000 square metres of new business floorspace

• bring over 450 hectares of derelict land back into use for local people

• make sure their organisation continues to develop so they are ready to respond to the things government asks them to do in the future.