New Homes Accelerator programme

[edit] Background

The New Homes Accelerator (NHA) was first announced by the Chancellor on 8 July 2024 and is a key component of the government’s commitment to deliver 1.5 million new homes by the end of its parliament. NHA was finally launched by the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Raynor on 29 August 2024 to ‘unblock thousands of new homes’. Early analysis estimated that 200 large sites across England could deliver up to 300,000 new homes and as such its call for sites was launched inviting developers and councils to share details of large-scale housing projects. The call for evidence, was published on 29 August 2024 and closed on 31 October 2024, with the results New Homes Accelerator call for evidence: response published on 13 February 2025.

The call received responses on over 350 sites, amounting to around 700,000 homes, identifing both systemic problems with the planning and development process, and site-specific issues. Systemic issues included the role of statutory consultees (and other organisations involved in the development process), infrastructure delivery, utilities provision and environmental factors. Through collaborative engagement with other government departments and statutory consultees, NHA helped to move along more than 20,000 homes in the planning system.

On 25 May 2025 the Policy paper "Planning Reform Working Paper: Speeding Up Build Out" further discussed role of NHA in relation to changes proposed by the government for reform of the way houses are approved and built in the future. NHA will support delayed sites and sites which are progressing more slowly than they should by leveraging government resources and fostering collaboration among key stakeholders 10 sites, with combined capacity for over 35,900 homes, were announced to benefit from site-specific government support.

At the time the Deputy Prime Minister, alongside the publication of it Policy paper urged housebuilders to ‘Get on and Build', highlighting:

• That councils would get new powers to keep housebuilders on track to ensure the 1.5 million homes delivery.
• Reiterating that new housebuilding timeframes must be set before planning permission is granted.
• Fines or developers repeatedly failing to build out or using planning permissions to trade land speculatively could face new ‘Delayed Homes Penalty’ or be locked out of future permissions by councils
• Part of the government’s Plan for Change to grow the economy and deliver security for working people.

[edit] About the New Homes Accelerator

The New Homes Accelerator is a collaboration between the government, Homes England, the Greater London Authority, local authorities, developers and other key stakeholders. It aims to unblock and accelerate the delivery of housing developments that have for various reasons become delayed, or which are not progressing as quickly as they could be.

[edit] How the New Homes Accelerator works

The New Homes Accelerator will focus on selected large-scale housing developments that are encountering significant delays or obstacles.

By leveraging government resources including Homes England, working closely with local authorities, and fostering collaboration with developers and landowners, the New Homes Accelerator will:

• identify and address specific thematic issues causing delays, such as coordination failures, regulatory obstacles, and local authority capacity constraints
• deploy expert teams to provide on-the-ground support to local authorities, offering planning and enabling assistance to expedite the development process
• utilise its resources to unblock and accelerate delivery on sites that are facing delays or not progressing as quickly as they could be
• inform future reforms to housing and planning policy, where policy barriers to rapid housing delivery are identified

[edit] Call for evidence

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) launched a call for evidence on 29 August 2024.

Developers, local authorities and landowners were invited to identify large-scale housing developments that are delayed or stuck so the government can better understand the scale of the challenge and evaluate what support it can provide to help overcome barriers to development and accelerate delivery.

The New Homes Accelerator will set out next steps shortly to those who have submitted information in response to this call for evidence, which closed on 31 October 2024.

Submitting a site does not guarantee any follow up or government support.

The application process has now closed and the government is in the process of reviewing all submissions. Due to the high volume of responses, the New Homes Accelerator team may not be able to respond to all submissions.

This article is based on the informaton provided by the government at "New Homes Accelerator programme" updated 1 November 2024.

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