A watershed moment for the housing industry – launching the National Housing Bank
Ben Ormsby, Senior Consultant
The time is now. Those were the words Amy Rees, chief executive of Homes England, used in March at Sheffield City Hall. Weeks later, that call to action has taken material form with the launch of the National Housing Bank, a new Public Financial Institution tasked with deploying up to £16 billion in debt, equity and guarantees to accelerate the delivery of 500,000 new homes.
Working on the launch of the National Housing Bank with Aberfield, has been a fascinating window into the level of optimism this moment has generated. Within Homes England, across the Ministry of Communities and Local Government, and crucially among the private‑sector, there is a sense that this marks a genuine shift, perhaps even a watershed, in how we deliver housing in the UK.
That enthusiasm is shared by key players in Yorkshire’s property community. James Blakey of Harrogate‑based Moda Living called the National Housing Bank “a clear message that public‑private collaboration is fundamental”. Muse managing director Phil Mayhall described the new approach as “an opportunity for us to align ambition with intent across both the public and private sectors”.
Having worked on numerous projects which included public‑private partnerships over the years, I’ve long believed that collaboration is essential to tackling the UK’s structural housing challenges. But there has always felt like a missing piece: genuine public‑sector participation in the upside. While there are examples across the country, they remain the exception. If the National Housing Bank can unlock models where councils and combined authorities take positions more akin to institutional investors, seeking both social outcomes and return on capital, we could begin to create circular solutions to budget pressures and the housing crisis.
This won’t solve everything. Local authorities face severe financial constraints, and commercial thinking can’t simply be switched on overnight. But if the public sector is empowered to take a more entrepreneurial approach, we may finally see a new era in how projects are funded, risk‑shared and delivered.
For now, the message is clear: the conditions to build are better than the headlines suggest. Yes, the market has slowed. Yes, global uncertainty is real. But we have a government committed to housing delivery, an agency with a “can‑do” attitude, and now a government-backed Bank with the financial firepower to turn rhetoric into reality.
Simon Century, the Bank’s new CEO, put it best when speaking to Place Yorkshire at the launch: “Be brave and be ambitious. The country needs the whole sector, from SME builders to large institutional investors. The UK is a great place to invest right now. So come alongside us, let’s make it happen.”
What’s more the overwhelming reception to the National Housing Bank from the media and commentators following our launch has been positive. Headlines and op-eds much like mine above have looked optimistically to the future, and from a communications perspective the Bank has also been clever by ensuring its launch was followed by a series of deal announcements, demonstrating that momentum is already matching intention and that we are in a new era of public private partnership.
