The Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP) brings long-term grant funding for social and affordable housing and a new strategic-partnership model, including the first council Strategic Partners outside London. 

The funding is significant, but allocations do not build homes by themselves.  

Land, planning, infrastructure, finance, organisational capacity and delivery partnerships will determine how quickly providers can turn programme commitments into viable schemes and completions. 

Part of HQN’s Policy into Practice series, this briefing addresses one of the Burnham government’s clearest housing ambitions: building more council homes and using the £39bn programme to accelerate Social Rent, strengthen council housebuilding and move more housing investment and decision-making closer to local places. 

Who you will hear from: 

• Maurice Lange, Senior Analyst, Centre for Cities, will set the wider housebuilding and place context, exploring the system conditions that shape how quickly new investment can translate into additional homes. 

What will be covered: 

• What the £39 billion SAHP and the Strategic Partnership model change for councils, housing associations and local delivery
• What early Strategic Partners are doing to turn allocations into pipelines, including land, planning, infrastructure, finance and organisational capacity
• Where delivery constraints and partnerships could determine pace, with a post-event briefing note setting out what has changed, what it means and next steps. 

Why attend now: 

Homes England has confirmed the first 33 Strategic Partners, including Cambridge, Eastleigh and Newcastle as the first three councils awarded this status. The focus now shifts from securing funding to delivery. This high-level briefing will help delegates identify what the programme means for pipelines, capacity and partnerships. 

Who should attend? 

Aimed primarily at managers, heads of service and strategic leads in social housing and local government with responsibility for: 

• Development, regeneration and new supply 
• Housing strategy, policy and partnerships 
• Finance, HRA business planning and investment 
• Land, planning, infrastructure and programme delivery. 

Also relevant to directors and senior leaders with oversight of development and growth. 

If you would like to purchase a group ticket for different members of your team to attend all of the Policy into practice sessions or would like to book multiple members of your team onto any of the individual sessions, please contact [email protected] and we will apply a group booking discount.

9:30am Welcome and introductions 

9:35am Rewiring council housebuilding: what will make £39bn deliver? 

Maurice Lange, Senior Analyst, Centre for Cities

• How far can the investment realistically take us, and where are the biggest gaps between ambition, need and delivery? 
• Explore the wider conditions required to turn funding into homes, including land, planning, construction costs, local capacity and financial flexibility. 
• Examine the changing role of councils and mayors, and how national, regional and local government need to work together to unlock a sustained increase in social and affordable housebuilding. 

9:55am From allocation to delivery: becoming a council Strategic Partner 

Andy Smith, Director Finance, Improvement & Strategic Housing (Deputy CFO), Eastleigh Borough Council

• How Eastleigh built an investment-ready pipeline across land, planning, finance and organisational capacity.
• What the ten-year Strategic Partnership changes in practice, including funding certainty and programme-level delivery
• Lessons for other councils looking to scale up housebuilding, including what needs to be in place and where the remaining delivery challenges lie. 

10:20am Discussion & Q&A – From £39bn to homes: what will make delivery work? 

11:00am Close 

If you are unable to attend an event or public training course, please let us know in writing (email is fine) at least 48 hours before. Please email [email protected]

Otherwise, a cancellation fee of £60 plus VAT will be chargeable.

If you are using a package place to attend and do not inform us within the agreed time frame, then a place will be taken to cover your non-attendance.

Cancellations must be made in writing and will be acknowledged by HQN Limited.