Homes England chief executive Peter Denton has defended a doomed \u00a360m investment into failed modular builder Ilke Homes, saying it is his agency\u2019s job to take financial risks.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Construction News<\/em> after a government-commissioned review encouraged Homes England to act more ambitiously, Denton said he thought his organisation\u2019s risk management was \u201cperfectly fine\u201d.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWe made an investment in Ilke Homes in good faith, because we were doing our job, which is to intervene when the market isn\u2019t providing.\u201d<\/p>\n In January, a House of Lords inquiry criticised the government for \u201cundirected and nonstrategic\u201d investment in modern methods of construction (MMC), specifically referencing the Ilke Homes investment.<\/p>\n Conservative peer Lord Moylan, who chaired the inquiry, told Construction News<\/em><\/a> he was \u201cunpersuaded Homes England knew what it was doing\u201d when investing in Ilke Homes and Urban Splash\u2019s modular building arm, which entered administration in May 2022.<\/a><\/p>\n But Denton said: \u201cWe were completely aware of the risk levels we were taking on. It\u2019s not that we want to lose money, but it\u2019s expected that we will lose money, because that\u2019s our job \u2013 to take risks that the market won\u2019t take.<\/p>\n \u201cWe lost \u00a360m. I don\u2019t enjoy that, but we took a risk in the full knowledge that there was a risk of loss.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that category two MMC \u2013 offsite frame construction \u2013 was \u201cabsolutely thriving at the moment\u201d.<\/p>\n Overall, Denton said he felt the review, by Tony Poulter, \u00a0a non-executive director of the Department for Transport, <\/span><\/span><\/span>was a \u201ccall to arms\u201d for the agency to make more ambitious interventions in regeneration and housebuilding.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI think when Tony is talking about taking more risk, it\u2019s not an abstract call to just do riskier things.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s about being more confident in taking on larger-scale, big, catalytic sites, and getting them going.<\/p>\n \u201cWe’ve got to take the risk of being the first to 20 per cent of something.<\/p>\n \u201cThe agency is taking more risk by intervening directly in large-scale urban regeneration that will require varying material amounts of economic activity, not least construction activity.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that he was very excited about the thrust of the report, which he said would lead to the agency driving \u201cvery material levels of [construction] activity for very extended periods of time\u201d.<\/p>\n In response to a recommendation that Homes England should encourage SMEs, Denton said he felt confident in supporting small housebuilders.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cWe already do a lot there, but we are looking at the moment at how we can do more to support the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n He added that Homes England\u2019s accounts for the year, which will be filed to Parliament in July, will show that the organisation has met or outperformed all its targets, including support for SMEs.<\/p>\n Denton also welcomed the report\u2019s recommendation to streamline funding programmes for housebuilding that are currently run by Homes England and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.<\/p>\n He said a smaller number of more flexible programmes would allow the agency to better serve individual situations.<\/p>\n He pointed to Homes England\u2019s latest grant package \u2013 the Brownfield, Infrastructure and Land Fund, which supports the remediation of unviable land \u2013 as demonstrating this approach.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cI think Tony is saying: can we think about doing that across the whole agency?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Homes England chief executive Peter Denton has defended a doomed \u00a360m investment into failed modular builder Ilke Homes, saying it is his agency\u2019s job to take financial risks. Speaking to Construction News after a government-commissioned review encouraged Homes England to act more ambitiously, Denton said he thought his organisation\u2019s risk management was \u201cperfectly fine\u201d. He …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141524,"featured_media":497158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false},"categories":[547,565,570],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n