Affordable Housing: Construction
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will set out the liquidity tests undertaken by Homes England on strategic partners participating in the Affordable Homes Programme.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook
It is not the role of Homes England to undertake liquidity tests on strategic partners participating in the Affordable Homes Programme.
The Regulator of Social Housing considers whether Registered Providers (RPs) of social housing are delivering the outcomes set out in the regulatory standards, which include viability as well as governance.
As part of the strategic partner onboarding process, Homes England check with the Regulator of Social Housing the gradings of any given RP, including their viability to access capital funding.
Non-registered providers, as part of the Investment Partner Qualification process, are required to provide financial information, which is assessed by Homes England’s Financial Due Diligence team. This is assessed on the pass or fail basis. Guidance on Investment Partner Qualification can be found on gov.uk here.
Homes England also conduct Anti-Money Laundering and Sanctions checks. The information they ask for in relation to this can be found on gov.uk here.
As part of their Programme Management processes, Homes England monitor all homes delivered by Strategic Partners. Their compliance audit processes are set out in the Capital Funding Guide on gov.uk here.
No checks are undertaken on the off-balance sheet liabilities. As a grant programme the Affordable Homes Programme does not carry hard credit risk exposure, such as debt provision, so a purposely high-level review is undertaken.
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