APPG calls for specific SME Homes England

The government or Homes England should look to set up a specific SME Homes England which understands the sector and is sympathetic to it.

That is one of the key findings of a new report launched today (March 24) by the All Party Parliamentary Group for SME House Builders which examines how Homes England can work with SME builders to deliver more new homes.

Several of the report’s conclusions and recommendations, gathered from evidence from a wide range of SME housebuilders, call for Homes England to build a team of people who understand the sector and empathise with it. These include introducing Development Managers who would help SMEs navigate the intricacies of the agency which can be “time consuming” and “impossible”.

The recommendations also calls for the structure of Homes England to be led and delivered by people who know how to deliver and build new homes – acknowledging that the new chair, Peter Freeman, is such a person.

The report, Homes England and SME housebuilders: How can the agency work with SMEs to build more homes is sponsored by SME housebuilder Larkfleet Homes. Group chairman Karl Hick writes in the report: “Homes England provides much-needed funding, innovation, …