Successfully regaining Homes England investment partner status

We have been busy helping one of our housing association clients secure grant funding for a new development project and regain its investment partner status with Homes England. 

The task arose as the housing association had not received grant funding for development for a number of years, so its partner status had lapsed and it needed to make a formal application.

Our role was to advise and support the housing association through the entire application process and demonstrate to Homes England that our client would be a reliable delivery partner in its own right and not just as a member of a consortium group.

Using a twin-track approach, our activity involved making the bid for funding alongside the application for investment partner status. This was necessary because on the one hand Homes England could only assess the application for investment partner status once the funding allocation had been secured, while on the other hand one is only able to secure a funding allocation if one is an investment partner.

Although this sounds like a classic Catch-22, in practice the two processes run along together and, by working closely with all parties, we were able to help both Homes England and our client minimise the potential for delay and confusion.

As part of the process, we provided Homes England with information relating to:

• the housing association’s governance and company structure to demonstrate its ability to enter into an agreement with Homes England under the Affordable Homes Programme 2021 to 2026

• the housing association’s financial and commercial standing

• Askival’s technical ability to manage and deliver new build housing developments on behalf of the housing association, including managing capital budgets and managing associated risk

Askival frequently applies for grant funding to Homes England’s Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) using the Investment Management System (IMS) and to the Greater London Authority via the Open Project System (OPS).