There is so much positivity and creative thinking in the housing sector generally at the moment, but can housing associations and others leading with the development of affordable and social homes build on this momentum for change?

This week at UKREiiF has been an inspiration, especially when it comes to learning about innovative approaches to the funding of reducing homelessness. A speaker from the Greater Manchester Housing Partnership spoke of how the Social Impact Bond is still helping to tackle the worsening problem of rough sleeping, with more than 600 people receiving support to date. These bonds are essentially a form of payment-by-results contract, where private investors provide upfront capital to fund social services. Maybe we should still be using them?

We also heard how the Northern Housing Consortium is working with other organisations to deliver health improvements for social tenants, showing that a little cross-sector thinking could bring long-term benefits for society by reducing demand on the health and social care system and easing pressure on local authority budgets. 

In the Funding For Growth seminar, investment specialists discussed the need to unlock largescale sites for development, creating opportunities for growth. They recommended a three-pronged funding model, which involved selecting the best sites, and seeking public and institutional funding. 

Some investors believe that to unlock development activity, better planning and fairer procurement systems are required. Other changes may also be needed, for example, to succeed in securing global investment for large-scale projects, we may need to change the language used in a way that is more easily interpreted by such investors..

The high level of regulatory change and political uncertainty are making life more difficult for developers and investors, but there are still things that can be done to get more development activity started. To unlock sites for development, for example, it is important to get the funding stack right, with a mix of public and institutional funds. 

Targeted initiatives to drive investment in housing development are welcome. Speaking at UKREiiF, the Mayor of the West Midlands launched a new £3.8bn West Midlands Futures Fund, bringing public investors and government agencies together behind a shared plan for growth. Could this be a model for other regions to follow?

More good news from UKREiiF included confirmation of a £725bn funding commitment to the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA), as part of the Government’s 10-year Infrastructure Strategy. A spokesperson for NISTA shared that of the 733 multi-sector infrastructure projects to be allocated funding, 235 will also be seeking private investment. 

With so much investment opportunity becoming available, surely the development dial will be shifting more noticeably in the social housing sector soon.