The agency said that the total completions it had directly supported came to 37,632 for 2021/22 when its target was 44,275 and expected completions to rise by 27%, based on a notable number of affordable housing projects completing within the year.
However, Homes England’s total affordable completions reached 26,953 – the target was 34,349. It also underachieved on three other key performance indicators, with total completions additional to the market at 25,279, 18% below the target and total starts supported by Homes England undershooting the target by 21% at 38,562. Its unlocking housing capacity target was missed by 37% at 58,993.
Affordable Homes Programmes were a core contributor to its completions, according to the agency; over the past year its partners had cited challenges in delivering completions, mostly due to “delays and access to labour supply and materials”.
It explained that schemes nearing completion were the most directly affected by labour and material shortages, with their report stating that delays added approximately 20 weeks to delivery times, reducing the capacity to complete homes in the original timescales.
Homes England was keen to highlight that its total completions had risen 8% against 2020/21. Its total starts, which were meant to hit a target of 48,810, were 3% up on the previous year. Its starts target rested on an anticipated influx of pipeline activity post-pandemic, and its new investment programme, which was announced at 2020's Spending Review, coming forward this year.
Homes England also said that under its time-constrained Shared Ownership and Affordable Housing Programme 2016-2021, its partners had expressed “a legitimate concern” over the effect of limited access to materials and labour. It had protected this delivery by securing budget flexibility from its sponsoring department in 2022/23.
Peter Denton, Homes England’s CEO, said: “The Agency’s activity is not immune to wider market conditions. Capacity issues in the planning system, nutrient neutrality challenges and material and labour shortages with increased associated costs have caused delays to housing provisions, impacting the Agency’s delivery against its KPIs.
“These challenges have not resulted in lost delivery and across the longer term, Homes England remains on course to achieve its objectives.”
