Homes England have announced a new strategic partnership with Accent as part of the government’s Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) 2021-2026 with a grant total of £210.2m.
New Delivery Partners
The partnership will see Accent lead on a long-term programme of affordable homes with three delivery partners:
Habinteg has a specialism in developing accessible, inclusive housing where disabled and non-disabled people live side by side. The partnership will see Habinteg build new homes across the English regions, all of which will be designed to meet Building Regulations ‘accessible and adaptable’ standard as a minimum, and some of which will meet the higher specifications needed to meet the needs of wheelchair users.
Leeds Federated has been a partner in the Accent Group Consortium for many years delivering new affordable homes across the Leeds City Region; this new Strategic Partnership will see many more much needed affordable homes for rent and sale continue.
PA Housing has a substantial housing base across London, the South East and the Midlands which it is looking to expand further working with Accent and its partners.
Working with these delivery partners, Accent’s Strategic Partnership programme will fund over 3,300 new affordable homes of all tenures in the East of England, South East, East and West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber. The programme will include a high proportion of homes built using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) on land-led sites using SME contractors.
Speaking of the partnership, Accent Chief Executive Paul Dolan comments: “The delivery of such a substantial programme represents a step-change for Accent following the issue of its record-breaking bond in 2019 and the recruitment of a highly-experienced development team. While we have successfully led a consortium of partners for the last 15 years, the new Strategic Partnership is reflective of Accent Housing’s ambition to increase its own delivery to more than 600 new affordable homes per annum and has a focus on larger, land-led schemes in key growth areas."
"We are delighted to be working alongside three strong delivery partners to maximise our delivery success. Leeds Federated have worked with us for many years as part of the Accent Group Consortium, with Habinteg joining more recently. Following conversations which ended earlier this year about a potential partnership with PA Housing, we’re pleased to be able to unite our strengths and shared visions with this development programme to bring about greater benefits to the communities in which we work.”
Nick Apetroaie, Habinteg CEO said: “Habinteg is delighted to be part of Accent’s new and exciting strategic partnership with Homes England. There has never been a greater need for high quality accessible homes that are able to meet the changing needs of the whole population. Far too many disabled and older people are having to make do in unsuitable accommodation so we are proud to play a part in changing this by using our expertise to deliver a new generation of accessible and adaptable homes as part of the partnership.”
Speaking of Leeds Federated’s involvement, CEO Matthew Walker commented: “We are thrilled to be involved as a key development partner within the Accent Strategic Partnership. Leeds Federated has an ambitious growth target to deliver 750 affordable homes for rent and sale over the life of its next 5 year Corporate Plan. Delivery of the new homes within this Strategic Partnership will play a major role in achieving this and the goal of helping more people access affordable housing. Leeds Federated has worked successfully with Accent for many years and we look forward to this partnership growing, now joined by new partners in Habinteg and PA Housing.”
Dilip Kavi, Chief Executive, PA Housing comments: “I’m extremely pleased that PA Housing are able to work within the Accent Strategic Partnership. By giving us funding certainty, the partnership will enable us to provide significantly more affordable housing over the coming years than we would have been able to deliver on our own. We have invested heavily in our development team to support this bid, and we see this exciting announcement as part of the next stage in the wider growth of our development programme. We look forward to continuing our relationship with Accent and in helping to make a real difference in our neighbourhoods.”
For more information, contact Stacey Healey on 01274 065574 or 07436 538458.
