The EG Interview: Homes England and its known unknowns

Peter Denton is rattling through a list of offerings and opportunities that Homes England, the government’s housing and regeneration agency, can give to the country’s biggest mixed-use developers as it launches its five-year plan. Then, a pause. “They probably don’t know we exist,” says Denton, a former investment banker and fund manager, who has been chief executive at Homes England since August 2021. Uttered by others, it might sound like an admission of defeat. Not by Denton. It sounds more like the thought process of a man sounding out the next prospect, conjuring up images of the scores of companies and sites that Homes England could help achieve something remarkable if only the agency shouted a little louder about what it does. Its five-year strategic plan is an attempt to do just that, a set of goals Denton hopes will “legitimise and expand” the agency’s work. The team has called it “a call-to-arms” for the real estate industry. “Having been in private equity, where a strategic plan is what you made up in the morning and did in the afternoon, this is more than that,” Denton tells EG. “We are a delivery arm of government. I am not saying that word-for-word it is what secretary of state Michael Gove is saying, but they are his policies and his desires that are expressed through us. We are an organisation to support, to nurture, to help, and so we have to convert this policy, that policy, that ambition, this ambition, into a cohesive mission that [makes] people go, ‘I’m excited by that, I get it’.” Come and talk Denton wants mixed-use developers to feel excitement about what Homes England can offer, rather than seeing the agency as exclusively focused on housebuilders. Even if those larger names know of the agency, he reasons, they may not grasp the full array of things it can do for them. “They might be doing something as a developer and the viability just got shot,” he says as he runs through a list of examples. “They want to do something but the numbers don’t work now because of cost inflation. They probably don’t know they can come and talk to us about viability gap funding.” What about a developer concerned that the resi for-sale rates have fallen and left them rethinking plans for homes in their project? “They probably don’t realise they can come and talk to us, and we could use the affordable grant programme to pre-sell, pre-place a load of the homes to the housing association market and de-risk it for them,” the chief executive says. Struggling to get loans from the normal commercial market? “They probably don’t know that we provide about £2bn in London on large-scale regeneration sites to unlock homes, [in places like] Wood Wharf, Canada Water, Earls Court.” Denton carries on. “They probably don’t know we are willing to come in as an equity partner to stimulate the creation of opportunity and place. They probably don’t know we run a guarantee scheme that supports confidence in issuing bonds to give them more liquidity. “They probably don’t know we buy land and have an unparalleled track record of unlocking it. They probably don’t know we have CPO powers. They probably don’t know we can talk to the local authority or the combined authority in a way they cannot. They probably don’t know that we engage with huge numbers of global institutional investors to bring equity in.” Taking a lead So what do they know? Well, probably just the historic image of the agency as purely residential-focused. That could now shift. Denton sees the plan as legitimising the agency’s role but also expanding it, drawing into one thread what would once have been seen as different strands from its history. “Legitimisation in that the agency, over the 40 or 50 years it has existed in one form or another, has had moments when it was predominantly focused on housing quantity, and other moments like English Partnerships 20 years ago when it was focused on regeneration,” he says. “[Now] it is both. It is there to support the levelling-up ambition and the social justice of equalising communities and giving equal opportunity to communities across the country. It’s more than just housing. But it’s expanding because it’s saying ‘and’ – we are not giving up on housing.” The plan is based around five objectives: supporting the creation of “vibrant and successful” places that people can be proud of; facilitating the creation of the homes people need; building a housing and regeneration sector that “works for everyone”, including by driving diversification; promoting the creation of high-quality homes in well-designed places that reflect community priorities; and enabling sustainable homes and places. “We are here to support the wider built environment with, over the next five years, £16bn, 9,000 hectares of land, CPO statutory powers, hundreds and hundreds of people to facilitate between private sector and public sector engagement and partnership, and so forth,” Denton says. “We are there to bring all of that to bear, to help the country, to help people.” Denton wants Homes England to be the “engine room” for regeneration schemes, the party that fires up everyone else linked to a project. “What is good about this strategic plan is the clarity of our role,” he says. “My strong belief is the state is aiming to be 20% of capital [in a project] and we are looking for the private sector to be 80%. But the crucial thing is the state is the first 20%. That is how we get comfortable, if we then add on masterplanning and infrastructure investment, we get a catalytic spark that means we instil a confidence in the private sector to come in and do the rest.” One plus one equals three The agency’s work in York at the York Central site could be a poster child for such schemes, Denton adds. The agency is putting in £130m of infrastructure – bridges, roads, cycleways, the largest park in the country – to get a project under way that will eventually have 2,500 homes and 1m sq ft of commercial space. But there are plenty of Yorks. “When you Google Map it, you see York station and this enormous, blighted area to the south of it. It is 45 hectares and has been like that for 70 years,” Denton says. “But I am not exaggerating when I say you can go to most cities and towns in the country – particularly in the Midlands and the North, but not exclusively – and you can see one of those everywhere. Everywhere.” These schemes take time, effort and commitment. “Regeneration for us is not like we have just turned a light on,” Denton says. “You create confidence in that area, you create an excitement, and the private sector will do its thing.” Land owned by Homes England in Birmingham’s Digbeth is being used to regenerate – Denton shies from using the word “gentrify” – that part of the city. Homes England was involved in efforts to encourage the BBC to move its Midlands headquarters to a scheme in Digbeth. Land opposite that scheme will see the delivery of 1,000 homes, 35% of which will be affordable, and almost 300,000 sq ft of commercial space. Get these projects right, Denton argues, and the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts. “One plus one equals three,” he says. “We have influence, money and powers that we can bring to the table to support well-meaning [schemes]. There is no sentiment here. We know they want to make a profit. But there is a kit bag here to support people in achieving their ambitions and indirectly achieve ambitions for place.” To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@eg.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke or @EGPropertyNews Main photo by Loïc Thébaud; Canada Water: FTI Consulting; MIPIM: Loïc Thébaud; BBC Digbeth: © BBC