Homes England is the government’s housing and regeneration agency. Our main aim is to accelerate housing delivery and regeneration across England, in line with our belief that affordable, quality homes in welldesigned places are key to improving people’s lives.
The Self Commissioned Homes Unit (SCH) was set up on the back of The Bacon Review – which explored how self and custom build could be scaled up in the UK. It concluded that the government should create a new custom and self build housing delivery division within Homes England, to enable the creation of serviced building plots on small and large sites, and support the delivery of custom and self build housing at scale, across the country. After reviewing the state of the housing sector, the government added that they felt the unit should look at all forms of custom build and community-led housing.
To begin with, we listened to those working in the industry, to understand how best we could support them. We also ensured that colleagues within Homes England, specifically in funding and delivery departments, understood the benefits of self-commissioned homes and how we can work together. In addition, we established a collaborative relationship with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. This communication with officials has been really impactful, allowing us to provide delivery advice on policy development.