SAHP 2026 to 2036: Bid for funding as a Strategic Partnership

Before you start

Check you are eligible to bid for funding from the Social and Affordable Homes Programme 2026 to 2036 by reading ‘Who can bid for the funding’.

Make sure your proposal meets the requirements detailed in the guidance.

You will be able to bid for funding online when the programme opens for bidding.

To receive grant funding from Homes England you must be a qualified Investment Partner.

If your organisation is already a qualified Homes England Investment Partner

Make sure your security administrator information is up to date in the Investment Management System (IMS) as this information will be used to enable access to the online application system when the programme opens for bidding.

You can make changes to your existing security administrator or administrators now.

If your organisation is not a qualified Homes England Investment Partner

Email provider.onboarding@homesengland.gov.uk for information on how to access the online application system. You should do this before the programme opens for bids so that you do not experience a delay in submitting your bid.

If you do not already hold Investment Partner status, you must apply for Investment Partner qualification alongside your funding application before bidding closes.

Find out how to apply for Investment Partner status for the SAHP.

Strategic Partnership entry routes 

Your proposal must state which entry route you are applying for.

There are 4 routes to becoming a Strategic Partner.

Land-led Registered Provider (RP)

This route is based on the existing model and is targeted at registered providers delivering at scale, typically across multiple regions, where you are taking or sharing in development risk.

Local authorities 

This route supports local authorities, working alone or in partnership with registered providers, to deliver projects in a single region, where you are taking or sharing development risk.

Specialist and supported housing 

This route is targeted at registered providers where you are delivering the majority of your homes via supported, high design, or complex housing schemes where you are taking or sharing development risk.

Developer delivery 

This route is targeted at either developers where you are planning to sell homes to registered providers for additional affordable housing over and above planning requirements, or registered providers where you are contracting with developers to acquire additional affordable housing at scale, predominantly on a turnkey basis, at practical completion.

All routes except for Developer delivery will see grant funding paid quarterly in arrears based on eligible development expenditure incurred. In the case of the Developer delivery route, grant payment will be based on applicable delivery milestones achieved which must be supported by any eligible development expenditure incurred and will be paid quarterly in arrears.

The minimum number of homes you’ll deliver and the maximum amount of initial funding you can apply for 

When you apply, you must:

• confirm the number of homes you will deliver
• the amount of funding that you are applying for

The minimum number of homes you must deliver and the maximum amount of initial funding you can bid for depends on the entry route you are applying under and whether an existing Strategic Partner under the Affordable Homes Programme (AHP) 2021 to 2026 or the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme (SOAHP) 2016 to 2021.

If you contract with delivery partners to help you deliver the housing, we expect you, as the Strategic Partner, to deliver a significant proportion of the housing yourself.

Land-led RP or Developer delivery entry routes

You must deliver a minimum of 1,500 homes by 31 March 2036 and will have an initial funding cap of £250 million.

Local authority or specialist and supported housing entry routes

You must deliver a minimum of 800 homes by 31 March 2036  and will have an initial funding cap of £250 million.

Existing Strategic Partners applying under the Land-led RP or Developer delivery routes

For existing Strategic Partners under the AHP 2021 to 2026 or SAHP 2016 to 2021, you must deliver a minimum of 1,000 homes in addition to your existing commitments by 31 March 2036 and will have an initial funding cap of £350 million.

Existing Strategic Partners applying to become a Strategic Partnership Plus

For existing Strategic Partners under the AHP 2021 to 2026 or SAHP 2016 to 2021, you must deliver a minimum of 4,000 homes in addition to your existing commitments by 31 March 2036.

1,000 homes must be completed by 31 March 2029. These can be made up of homes delivered through your SAHP Strategic Partnership and, or, homes delivered with SAHP ‘bridge funding’ where an allocation has already been made.

You will be eligible for an initial funding cap of up to £700 million.

Working with delivery partners 

A delivery partner is another organisation that: 

• you as the Strategic Partner want to work with to fulfil your contractual delivery commitments

• may be a subsidiary or a company within the group structure of the Strategic Partner that will own the homes delivered

• is eligible to benefit from affordable housing grant, whether as a registered provider or local authority and is not an unregistered body

Strategic Partners delivering via the Developer delivery route, who are not unregistered bodies, are only permitted to work with delivery partners that are a subsidiary or company within the group structure of the Strategic Partner.

Unregistered bodies are not permitted to work with delivery partners.

Delivery partners must be qualified as one of our Investment Partners and a Strategic Partner will need to enter into a separate legal agreement with each of its delivery partners, which is outside of your contract with Homes England. This is known as the delivery partner contract.

Your delivery partner will also need to enter a delivery partner deed with Homes England. This can only be entered into after you, as the Strategic Partner, have entered into your contract with Homes England.

The delivery partner contract and delivery partner deed must be in place before a grant payment can be made to a Strategic Partner that relates to homes delivered by a delivery partner. 

If you are proposing to work with a delivery partner and they are not a qualified Investment Partner, an Investment Partner application does not need to be submitted by your delivery partner until we have confirmed the outcome of your proposal. However, your delivery partner must be qualified as an Investment Partner before the delivery partner deed can be put in place.

We do not expect delivery partners to join more than 1 Strategic Partnership, but delivery partners can also bid under Continuous Market Engagement (CME) outside the geographical locations covered by the Strategic Partnership. 

Telling us who your delivery partners are 

You must name your delivery partners in the proposal and the number of homes they are likely to deliver. This helps us understand the level of commitment that Strategic Partners can make in their own right. 

As a Strategic Partner you must conduct your own due diligence on delivery partners, which will be followed by our formal approval. 

Strategic Partners’ responsibilities for delivery partners 

You have full responsibility for all affordable housing delivery agreed in the contract, including homes intended to be delivered by any delivery partners. 

You should agree all mutual obligations with your delivery partners before submitting your proposal. 

The total grant amount that you advance to a delivery partner must be the same as the grant amount attributed to the homes as per the relevant fixed grant rate.

What to put in your proposal 

Your proposal must set out your development plans by tenure and region, detailing the grant rates you’re asking for by tenure, within that region.  

You can request up to 2 fixed grant rates per tenure, per region to support scheme cost variations within regions. These fixed grant rates will be applied to each home you complete and are referred to as Tier 1 and Tier 2 in the online application system. 

The tenures you can request grant rates for are: 

• Social Rent 
• Affordable Rent 
• Supported Housing for Rent 
• Rent to Buy 
• Shared Ownership 
• Older Persons Shared Ownership 

For definitions of the tenures read CFG — Chapter 16 — Glossary

Where you are delivering Supported Housing for Rent you will need to confirm how many of these homes will be let on terms for:

• Social Rent
• Affordable Rent

Your proposal must also set out the timescales for delivering the homes and when you expect to receive grant payments. 

Grant rates agreed within individual Strategic Partnerships are confidential and must not be shared.

Where you’ll build homes 

You must state which region or regions the homes will be built in by tenure. You can choose from the following regions:

• East of England 
• East Midlands 
• North East 
• North West 
• South East 
• South West 
• West Midlands 
• Yorkshire and the Humber  

You must also provide a sub-total breakdown that details how many of the homes will be delivered in each of the Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities (EMSAs) by tenure.

EMSAs are:

• Greater Manchester Combined Authority  (GMCA)
• Liverpool City Region Combined Authority  (LCRCA)
• North East Combined Authority  (NECA)
• South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) 
• West Midlands Combined Authority  (WMCA)
• West Yorkshire Combined Authority   (WYCA)

When working in an EMSA area, you will need to outline the work you are doing to align your delivery with the strategic priorities of that area, including any strategic projects that are expected to be delivered through your Strategic Partnership.  

Meeting government objectives 

All Strategic Partners should demonstrate diverse delivery to support the priorities of the programme.  

You should tell us how many homes you will deliver that will be homes for: 

• social rent 
• specialist and supported housing — any homes that will be let on Social Rent or Affordable Rent terms or sold on Older Person’s Shared Ownership (OPSO) terms
• rural areas — any social and affordable housing delivered in settlements with a population of less than 3,000
• community-led housing — housing delivered by or on behalf of communities or groups for local people

You will be expected to deliver against the numbers you’ve provided, and this will be monitored and reviewed.

How you will deliver your proposal

You will need to provide information on how you intend to deliver the homes forecast in your proposal.

Using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) 

You must confirm the number of homes:

• you will deliver using MMC and the number of homes
• that will be built using MMC categories 1 or 2 or that will achieve at least 55% Pre-manufactured value

Details of the MMC categories can be found in the MMC definition framework and the Capital Funding Guide. 

What type of sites the homes will be built on 

Our priority is that the affordable housing grant is applied to net additional new build homes. 

You will need to confirm how many homes will be built on sites that fit into 3 categories. When added together the number of homes in these 3 categories must be equal to the total number of homes in your proposal.

The categories are: 

• brownfield 
• greenfield
• other 

If your homes are categorised as ‘other’ 

If you cannot class your homes as brownfield or greenfield, then a maximum of 10% in total of the homes in the proposal can be procured through acquisitions. 

This 10% includes: 

• existing accommodation or buildings acquired from the private sector for re-modelled or re-improved supported housing 
• housing that was originally built for market sale — this is where you’re purchasing new homes off-the-shelf from developers or existing market tenure homes that were intended for sale on the open market 

Regeneration of existing social housing estates 

SAHP  funding can be used to support the regeneration of existing social housing estates through the delivery of replacement social and affordable homes, where this will unlock the delivery of additional social and affordable homes. 

A maximum of 10% of the total homes in the overall proposal can be made up of replacement social and affordable homes.  

Where you are intending to include regeneration projects for existing social housing estates in your proposal you’ll need to confirm the total number of: 

• social and affordable homes to be delivered on regeneration sites 
• existing social and affordable homes to be demolished on regeneration sites 
• existing social and affordable homes to be demolished that are decanted or are in the process of being decanted 

You must provide details of any projects at an advanced stage as part of your proposal. Where you are proposing an indicative number of replacement homes for regeneration projects you will need to provide details once your proposals are firmed up during the programme period. You will still need to provide a summary as part of your proposal of the projects these homes may comprise of.

Working with the development and construction sector, and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) 

A Small and Medium Enterprise, also known as a Low Medium Volume Builder (LMVB) is a contractor that builds less than 2,000 homes each year. 

You must tell us the number of homes that SMEs will deliver for you through a building contract in your proposal.  Homes delivered by a subsidiary or a company within your group structure or a subsidiary or a company within the group structure of a delivery partner cannot be included in this number.

Evidence of your development pipeline

You must tell us about your development pipeline. This will include information about the number of homes that will be delivered on sites that are:

• already in your ownership
• secured under contract
• under negotiation
• yet to be identified

You must include information about the planning status of homes in your development pipeline and the number of homes that:

• have an existing detailed planning consent
• have an outline planning consent
• are subject to a submitted detailed planning application not yet approved
• are subject to a pre-planning application

We expect you to be able to demonstrate a strong development pipeline that will support delivery of your proposal.

If you are applying for a Strategic Partnership Plus you will need to explain how your development pipeline will ensure delivery of 1,000 completions by 31 March 2029.

How much grant funding you’ll need and cost breakdown 

Tell us your estimated average cost per home by region, broken down by: 

• land acquisition cost
• build cost
• eligible on-costs 

CFG — Chapter 6 — Programme Management provides more details in section 3 — ‘Scheme administration and data collection’.

We expect you to provide average open market values per home by region.  

You must give this breakdown for each region you will be delivering homes in. You must also tell us the grant rates you are seeking for each type of tenure by region. You can apply for 2 grant rates per tenure per region to support grant distribution between sub-regional markets and, or, scheme cost differentials over the duration of the programme. 

Costs must relate to the average cost of building a home.  

Inflation 

Grant rates are applied across the funding period and there is no inflation to grant rates across the timeframe for the fund. 

You must provide information about your underlying financial assumptions. This includes your:

• annual inflation assumption for capital total scheme costs
• annual inflation assumption in your long-term cashflow for management and maintenance costs and major repair costs
• long-term debt interest rate assumption in your long-term cashflow

You must ensure that your grant rates remain viable to support the full delivery of your proposal.

Grant enhancement rate 

As part of your overall grant request, you will be able to apply for an amount of grant that can be flexibly attributed to homes at practical completion in addition to the regional tenure grant rates. This is called the grant enhancement rate.

The grant enhancement rate will help you distribute grant across your programme so you can attribute a higher amount of grant to homes that have higher capital costs and, or, lower revenues. This grant amount will be considered when your proposal is assessed for value for money.

You will need to confirm the amount of grant you want to apply for per home and the number of homes you would like to attribute this amount of grant to.

Starts and completions of homes 

You must tell us how many grant funded affordable homes you will start and complete every year and broken down by quarter for financial year 2026 to 2027.

All homes must start by 31 March 2036 and complete by 31 March 2039 within the programme period, but we expect to see a focus on early delivery.

Applications using ‘Developer delivery’ entry route, where grant payments are linked to the value of milestones achieved, must also include the number of acquisition milestones you expect to achieve each year.

The Capital Funding Guide glossary has definitions for: 

• acquisitions 
• start on site
• practical completion 

We will monitor progress against the agreed forecast on a quarterly basis and may review a Strategic Partner’s grant allocation if delivery falls significantly short of forecast commitments, in line with the terms of the grant agreement.

Development expenditure 

You must provide an estimate of the development expenditure that will be incurred per year by the Strategic Partner and any delivery partners. Expenditure must be incurred by the Strategic Partner or your delivery partner. Read CFG — Chapter 14 — Strategic Partnerships  for an explanation of the eligible development expenditure in the grant agreement .

Milestone achievement for Developer delivery entry route

Organisations applying via the Developer delivery entry route will need to achieve milestones for each site. This will result in a cumulative milestone achievement value for each quarter and for your delivery to date.

The value of milestone achievements will be based on a blended grant rate which will be calculated as your total grant allocation divided by the total number of grant funded homes that you will deliver. Further details will be provided in CFG — Chapter 14 — Strategic Partnerships. 

For details of the percentage of the blended grant rate applicable to each milestone, read SAHP 2026 to 2036: After applying.

How much grant you will draw down

You must set out expected timescales for grant drawdown according to the grant drawdown terms for the Strategic Partnership you are applying for. 

For organisations applying via the Developer delivery route you will need to link your forecast grant drawdown each year to your milestones achievements as well as development expenditure incurred. This means the maximum amount of grant you can be in receipt of cannot exceed the cumulative value of milestones achieved, subject to development expenditure incurred being equal to or greater than this value.

For organisations that are Registered Providers or local authorities applying via all other entry routes other than Developer delivery you must ensure your grant drawdown is linked to your development expenditure incurred. The cumulative value of grant drawdown cannot exceed the cumulative value of development expenditure incurred. This includes any grant that forms part of your grant enhancement rate.  

A secure legal interest in a site is required before any development expenditure incurred can be recorded or a milestone can be achieved (where relevant). 

Grant payments are paid quarterly in arrears against development expenditure incurred and milestones achieved (where applicable) in the previous quarter.

You must provide a forecast of grant payments on a quarterly basis for the 2026 to 2027 financial year and on an annual basis from 2027 to 2028 onwards up to 2035 to 2036. When you calculate your annual total grant drawdown amount you must ensure that this is the total of grant payments that you expect to receive in:

• quarter 2  (July to September) of the relevant financial year
• quarter 3 (October to December) of the relevant financial year
• quarter 4 (January to March) of the relevant financial year
• quarter 1 (April to June) of the following financial year

All grant funding must be claimed before 30 June 2036 for expenditure incurred or milestones achieved (where relevant) up to 31 March 2036.

For organisations applying via the Developer delivery entry route forecasting completions up to 31 March 2039 any grant funding payments after 31 March 2036 will be subject to availability. 

Total funding cost and other funding 

You must show that the total funding across a range of sources required to deliver your proposal equals the total cost of developing the grant funded homes in your proposal.  

Total grant funding requested 

The grant you are asking for will be automatically populated by:  

• summing up grant asks based on your grant rates and the number of homes you will deliver by tenure by region
• summing up grant ask based on your requested grant enhancement rate based on the per home rate and the number of homes you intend to apply this rate to

Other sources of funding 

You must tell us how you’ll fund the programme from sources outside of our grant.

This includes: 

• debt funding — this is borrowing that you may take out that is supported by the total net rent you’ll receive for all tenures from the homes in your application or from homes you already own
• cross subsidy from open market sales — this is your profit from housing for sale outside your grant funded delivery that you may want to use to help fund your programme 
• first tranche sales — this is the income from the first sales you achieve from shared ownership homes supplied in this programme 
• Right to Buy receipts — these are capital receipts that are the proceeds of sale when a tenant exercises their Right to Buy
• Recycled Capital Grant Funding — this is any recycled capital grant that you intend to use to deliver your programme that is currently in your fund or that you expect to generate in your fund over the programme period
• other subsidy and sources of funding — this includes other internal subsidy, other public subsidy and other sources of funding and you will need to separate these funding sources
• transfer value (unregistered bodies only) — this is the payment you will receive from organisations who you will be selling the homes you deliver to prior to first let who will own and manage the homes

Recycled capital grant funding (RCGF) 

Tell us the amount of RCGF your organisation wants to use to fund your proposal. You can include an estimate even if it has not yet all been generated. 

It must not include RCGF that any delivery partners may want to use where those delivery partners are not a subsidiary or a company within the same group as the Strategic Partner. You must indicate these amounts under ‘other sources of funding’. 

Any RCGF used to deliver your proposal must be withdrawn from the fund by 31 March 2036.

Other subsidy and sources of funding

This includes: 

• other internal subsidy — other contributions from within your organisation 
• public subsidy — for example, funding from local authorities or other public bodies 
• other sources of funding — this can include anything not mentioned in other categories, including any equity investment 

You must provide supporting information about these sources of funding where you are proposing to use them to fund your proposal. 

Transfer price 

Where you are an unregistered body and you are delivering homes:

• for Social Rent
• for Affordable Rent
• for Rent to Buy
• for Shared Ownership but are not intending to retain ownership

You must confirm the transfer price for these homes.  

The transfer price is the amount that the organisation purchasing the homes from you will be paying you for the homes. This amount must exclude the amount of associated grant liability that the purchasing organisation will be assuming when they acquire the homes from you.  

Understanding your non-grant funded development plans

We want to understand your wider development plans in addition to your grant funded delivery.

You must provide your annual delivery forecast for homes that will start and complete during the programme period including:

• homes that will be subject to a future SAHP funding request that are not included in this funding application
• nil grant affordable homes secured under Section 106 agreements via developer contribution
• nil grant affordable homes that are not secured under Section 106 agreements via developer contribution — for example homes delivered using only RCGF, Right to Buy receipts, or local authority funding
• homes delivered for market sale
• other homes (for example other non-affordable homes such as homes for market rent)

You must regularly report on delivery against your non-grant funded development plans and delivery against this activity will be reviewed when any future SAHP funding requests are considered.

Understanding your strategic ambitions 

Strategic Partnerships are designed to enable our most ambitious partners to go further. We want to understand your reasons for entering into a Strategic Partnership and the difference this approach will make to what you can achieve. 

Alongside the quantitative elements of your proposal, we will ask you to explain your strategic ambitions for your Strategic Partnership and how you will meet the government’s objectives for the fund. 

You will need to answer 9 questions which will be limited to 4,000 characters per answer. You will not be able to upload or link to any documents with your responses to these questions.

Question 1 — Strategic ambitions 

You must consider: 

• the specific outcomes you want to achieve through a Strategic Partnership you wouldn’t be able to achieve otherwise
• your expectations of us as a Strategic Partner — what do you need, aside from grant, to deliver the outcomes you expect from the partnership? 

You must explain: 

• how your proposal aligns with your development strategy, current areas of operation and plans for growth
• what problems you are trying to solve
• what markets you are trying to change

Question 2 — Working with Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities (EMSAs) 

Where you are intending to deliver new homes in an EMSA area you must outline the work you are doing to align your delivery with the strategic priorities of that EMSA area.  

You must explain: 

• how you engage with the EMSA or EMSAs detailing any shared strategic projects you are expecting to deliver through your Strategic Partnership
• your forecast delivery in EMSA areas and your response to this question will be shared with the relevant EMSA

Question 3 — Housing need 

You must outline how your development strategy will deliver new homes and communities that support long term social and economic sustainability.  

You must explain: 

• how you will ensure the homes you deliver will meet identified local housing need
• how you will engage with local authorities to deliver homes that meet the housing need priorities of local authorities

Question 4 — Sustainability and design 

You must outline how sustainability is embedded in your organisation’s development strategy and operations to ensure delivery of well-designed, sustainable and energy efficient homes.

You must include the number of homes you expect to deliver as part of your proposal that will achieve an Energy Performance Certificate ‘A’ rating. 

You must explain how your development strategy aligns with:  

• The nationally described space standard 
• Building for a Healthy Life 
• Homes England’s Healthy Homes good-practice guidance 

Question 5 — Productivity 

You must outline any work you’re doing to support upskilling and capacity in the development and construction sector.  

You must explain how you will:

• work with small and medium enterprises
• support construction innovation — for example, using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC)

Question 6 — Affordability and rents setting

You must outline how you will ensure the homes you deliver will be affordable to the target market.  

You must explain your approach to rent setting (rented tenures and affordable home ownership tenures). 

Question 7 — Affordability and service charges 

You must outline the steps you will take to ensure any applicable service charges are affordable for residents and, or, purchasers, both at the point of first let or sale and for the future.  

Question 8 — Replacement homes 

You must provide details of any projects you are proposing to bring through your Strategic Partnership, where your bid includes an element of replacement of existing homes as part of any regeneration plans for existing social housing estates.

Question 9 — Deliverability 

To support your proposal, we will ask you to evidence and quantify your organisation’s development capacity, expertise and track record for delivering new homes at scale. We will be using this to inform the deliverability assessment process.

We will use existing data that we hold on your previous delivery through the SOAHP 2016 to 2021 and AHP 2021 to 2026 programmes as part of the assessment to demonstrate track record.

You must provide and explain your approach to building a development pipeline and the extent of your identified pipeline. For organisations applying for a Strategic Partnership Plus, how your development pipeline will ensure completion of 1,000 homes by 31 March 2029.

You must also provide and explain your approach to programme management to ensure delivery against quarterly and annual forecasts.

Before you submit your proposal

By submitting your proposal, you are confirming all the criteria listed here are met.

1. This is a full and final application for an SAHP 2026 to 2036 Strategic Partnership, for which the organisation has given board or cabinet approval to be submitted, and you have the authority to submit the proposal. 

2. This application for an SAHP 2026 to 2036 Strategic Partnership will not displace, duplicate or otherwise compromise delivery from any other Homes England investment programme, including existing Strategic Partnership delivery or SAHP 2026 to 2036 Continuous Market Engagement delivery, or from any other Homes England grant, debt, equity or similar related investment initiative or programme.

3. All delivery partners named in this application are unique to this application and are aware of the need to hold Investment Partner status before the first grant claim.

4. All information, all confirmations and certifications in relation to this application are correct in all material aspects and, if applicable, that delivery partners have authorised the applicant to make such confirmations and certifications.

5. You are aware that the grant recipient or recipients must be a Homes England Investment Partner before any award of grant funding can be agreed and that any award will be subject to the terms and conditions of grant (as described in the SAHP 2026 to 2036 Strategic Partnership grant agreement, Capital Funding Guide and Recovery Determination) including but not limited to: 

• grant recipient or recipients must enter into the applicable form of grant agreement with Homes England
• the intended landlord of sub-market rental homes must be a registered provider of Social Housing before first let 
• the powers of grant recovery in accordance with the grant agreement, the Recovery Determination and Capital Funding Guide

You consent that:

• if applicable, relevant financial information provided to the Regulator of Social Housing may be shared with Homes England for assessment purposes
• application information may be shared with the Regulator of Social Housing and other Strategic Authorities and Local Authorities

How we assess your bid 

The bid as submitted in your proposal is your best and final offer. We may seek clarification of the information you’ve supplied, but there is no negotiation process. We will not assess non-compliant bids. 

How we score your bid 

Bids will be assessed, scored and ranked to determine the successful applications. Budget availability will also be considered.

Value for money — 50%

This will be assessed using a Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) as detailed in the  Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)  Appraisal Guide. 

Factors that affect the BCR include, but are not limited to: 

• the speed of delivery 
• the tenure of delivery 
• the timing of any grant payment 
• the level of grant funding requested 
• whether development is on brownfield or greenfield land
• land value uplift 

Meeting the strategic objectives — 50%

This will be scored against: 

• Social Rent delivery (30%) — proposals that will deliver at least 60% of homes for Social Rent will be awarded maximum points
• diverse delivery (12%) — proposals that will deliver at least 10% of homes that comprise of supported housing for rent, Older Persons Shared Ownership, housing in rural areas and, or, housing provided by community-led organisations will be awarded maximum points
• design and sustainability (8%) — proposals will be assessed based on the percentage of the proposed number of homes that will achieve an Energy Performance Certificate ‘A’ rating as well as alignment with the nationally described space standard, Building for a Healthy Life and Homes England’s Healthy Homes guidance

Deliverability 

Bids will be assessed according to their deliverability on a pass or fail basis. This will consider factors including, but not limited to: 

• previous track record, including experience of delivering at scale and in the geographies proposed
• evidence of pipeline and the planning status of that pipeline that underpins your forecast delivery, and for Strategic Partnership Plus bids evidence of pipeline to secure delivery of 1,000 completions by 31 March 2029
• delivery capacity and local relationships
• proportion of the bid that relies on other delivery partners
• proposed spend and delivery profile and link between these

After you’ve submitted your application 

We will: 

• only contact you to discuss your application if we need clarification of any detail 
• confirm the exact timescale for announcements on the awards of funding in due course 

If your application is successful 

Before you can enter into a contract with Homes England, you’ll need to meet certain requirements. 

Investment Partner qualification and customer due diligence

To receive grant funding from Homes England you and all of your delivery partners must be a qualified Investment Partner. Where you do not already hold Investment Partner status you must submit your application alongside your proposal and prior to the bidding closing date. Your Investment Partner application will be considered alongside your proposal.

We will not require existing Investment Partners already delivering in the Affordable Homes Programme 2021 to 2026 to reapply for Investment Partner qualification. Confirmation of Investment Partner status for the SAHP will be reviewed as part of our annual Continuous Qualification process to ensure your continued good standing and viability. This may include requests for additional information or further confirmations to be provided.

We will also ask you and your delivery partners to supply ‘Know Your Customer’ information for our  customer due diligence process once you’ve secured a funding allocation. This process will need to have been concluded satisfactorily before you can receive a grant funding.  

Register with the Regulator of Social Housing 

Partners who will be landlords of homes built with our funding for Social or Affordable Rent and Rent to Buy, must be registered with the Regulator of Social Housing as a registered provider. 

This requirement does not apply to homes for Shared Ownership. 

If you’re working with unregistered rural or community-led groups they must apply to register in good time so that they are registered by practical completion of the homes. 

For more information on timescales and how to apply, see the guidance for registered providers. 

Entering into a contract with Homes England 

You’ll need to enter into a standard form of grant agreement with us. Grant agreement examples have been provided with more to follow.

Where you are intending to work with delivery partners then a delivery partner deed will need to be entered into by the delivery partner before any grant payment is made that relates to any delivery partner activity. You will also need to have entered into a separate legal agreement with your delivery partner.  

Refer to the terms of the standard form of grant agreement and read CFG — Chapter 14 — Strategic Partnerships for further information. 

Applicants who are not registered providers 

For these organisations, usually referred to as unregistered bodies (URB), we will: 

• carry out due diligence checks on viability — including long term if the URB intends to retain an interest in the Shared Ownership homes 
• pay URB’s 100% of the agreed funding at practical completion of the scheme 

Earlier milestone payments may be possible if satisfactory forms of security are available. 

Where you are an URB and you will be delivering homes for sub-market rent tenures (Social Rent, Affordable Rent or Rent to Buy) the ownership and management of these homes must be passed to a Registered provider once you have completed the homes and before they are first let.  

Where you are an URB and you are not intending to retain an interest in the Shared Ownership homes you will be delivering, or you will be delivering homes for Social Rent, Affordable Rent or Rent to Buy, a deed of adherence with the purchasing organisation purchasing the homes must be in place with Homes England before a grant payment can be made that relates to these homes.  The purchasing organisation will need to supply ‘Know Your Customer’ information for our customer due diligence process and this process will need to have been concluded satisfactorily before the deed of adherence can be entered into and you can receive a grant payment that relates to these homes.

Award of grant funding 

Any award of grant funding will be subject to the terms of the SAHP. 

In particular:

• all grant funding paid by Homes England is social housing assistance as defined in Section 32(13) of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and is subject to the provisions of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 and the Recovery Determinations
• all rent dwellings provided with the benefit of grant funding shall be deemed to have been provided with public money for the purposes of Section 180 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008 

Under Section 19(4) of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, grant funding may be given on such terms and conditions as Homes England considers appropriate and the grant agreement (incorporating the Capital Funding Guide and Recovery Determination) will set out such terms and conditions.

Monitoring and reporting on progress 

Strategic Partners are responsible for managing the contract in line with the agreed delivery profile. We will monitor the contract regularly through our Programme Management Board to enable grant payments to be made and where relevant, delivery information will be shared with relevant EMSAs. 

Our partners must report on delivery at regular intervals. This should include data and metrics relating to the strategic priorities of the Affordable Homes Programme. 

As part of our programme and contract management, we also carry out an annual procedural compliance audit on a sample of homes to ensure requirements have been met and there is an annual review of grant drawdown including a Statement of Grant Usage. 

You as the Strategic Partner will be responsible for organising and paying for the cost of the compliance audit which includes homes delivered by your delivery partners. You must ensure that homes delivered by your delivery partners comply with all contractual obligations and requirements of the CFG.

Read more in CFG — Chapter 14 — Strategic Partnerships.

Future funding requests

Successful applications for Strategic Partnerships will be subject to a rolling funding cap of £700 million. Strategic Partners will be eligible to request additional funding where they can demonstrate delivery against their existing allocation and there is headroom against the rolling funding cap. This will apply to all Strategic Partners, regardless of organisation type or entry route.

The rolling funding cap is not a maximum cap on the amount of funding a Strategic Partner can receive over the programme period.

Additional funding requests must show how they align with the strategic priorities of the programme and be deliverable. Any additional funding request will be subject to budget availability and assessment. The additional funding will remain subject to the terms of the grant agreement and the requirements set out in this guidance.

Further details about the calculation of headroom against the rolling funding cap will be set out in CFG — Chapter 14 — Strategic Partnerships.

Transparency 

Homes England publish information relating to the costs and spending of homes funded through the SAHP. As a condition of funding, there are contractual obligations for partners around the sharing and publishing of grant related information.

Strategic Partners and their delivery partners are required to adhere to the terms of the grant agreement, including supplying information when requested and adhering to publication parameters.

Regulatory requirements 

The Regulator of Social Housing will advise us on whether any proposal to award grant to any registered provider will have an adverse impact on that organisation’s governance and financial viability. 

Registered providers applying for a Strategic Partnership, who have a published regulatory judgement, must have achieved a G1 or G2 and V1 or V2 rating. 

Registered providers may be required to provide additional information to the Regulator of Social Housing to assist that assessment. 

Grant recovery 

Grant is paid under section 19 of the Housing and Regeneration Act 2008, with grant attributed to each home on completion. 

Grant rests in the home until the next relevant event where historical grant is subject to the relevant Recovery Determination. On the occurrence of a relevant event the grant recipient must recycle or repay the recoverable grant in accordance with the terms of the relevant Recovery Determination. Read CFG — Chapter 7 — Grant Recovery — Registered Provider and CFG — Chapter 8 — Grant Recovery — Unregistered Bodies.

Contact Homes England

Contact Homes England about the Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) 2026 to 2036.