I am today announcing that the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities is undertaking a routine public body review of Homes England.
Arm’s length bodies (ALBs) play an important role in delivering Government policy. There are nearly 300 ALBs, employing around 300,000 people, and they account for more than £220 billion of public spending. As required by the Cabinet Office’s public bodies review programme, Government Departments are reviewing the ALBs they sponsor. The public bodies review programme helps deliver the commitments made in the declaration on Government reform to increase both the effectiveness of public bodies and their departmental sponsorship—making Government work better in service of the public. The reviews enable us to assess ALBs’ performance and whether they are focused on the right objectives and spending taxpayers’ money efficiently.
As one of Government’s largest ALBs, Homes England has been identified for review in the first year of the Cabinet Office’s public bodies review programme. Homes England is the Government’s housing and regeneration agency and is the largest ALB of the Department. It was established as a non-departmental public body in the Homes and Communities Act 2008 and is responsible for delivering affordable, quality homes in well-designed places across England. The agency was last reviewed in 2016—as the Homes and Communities Agency—under the Government’s previous 2015 to 2020 tailored review programme and has not been formally reviewed since.
Following a number of focused internal reviews in recent years and an in-depth self-assessment, the Department has agreed with the Cabinet Office to commence a full-scale review of Homes England. Public body reviews are underpinned by broad minimum requirements covering efficiency, efficacy, accountability and governance. This review will follow guidance published in April 2022 by the Cabinet Office: “Guidance on the undertaking of Reviews of Public Bodies”, and will specifically focus on the function and form of the agency, outcomes for stakeholders and customers, the operational model, compliance, and the framework in which the agency operates.
Tony Poulter has been appointed as the independent lead reviewer. Tony is a non-executive member of the Department for Transport Board and was previously a partner at Price Waterhouse Cooper from 1990 to 2016. He was chosen to lead this review due to his expertise in finance and previous leadership roles across the private and public sector. He will work with a review team composed of officials from the Department and secondees. In conducting the review, officials will engage with a broad range of stakeholders across the UK from the housing sector and beyond.
As set out by the Cabinet Office guidance, the review will report to the Government, and the Government will publish the conclusions of the review alongside any Departmental response in due course.