Nice Work If You Can Get It!

The new chair of the Homes England board is offered a ‘remuneration package’ worth £95,000 a year – for a time commitment of two days a week.

A letter from Melanie Dawes, permanent secretary to Clive Betts, chair of the Commons HCLG committee, confirms the £95,000 was benchmarked against similar roles, reports 24Housing. The letter concedes that, on a full-time equivalent basis, the remuneration exceeds the threshold set by HM Treasury in relation to senior pay.

But the chief secretary of the Treasury is said in the letter to have signed off the £95,000. Premised on a time-commitment of two days a week, the role has an initial three-year term, with the option to re-appoint for a further three years.

MHCLG is ready to recruit a new board chair for Homes England, with Sir Edward Lister having resigned to be chief strategic adviser to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Simon Dudley, senior independent director on the Homes England board, is serving as interim chair. The letter confirms that the permanent role will be filled by an ‘open competition’ with the selection process supported by headhunters. There will be a focus on the diversity of candidates. Four of the current board members are women, but there are no members from an ethnic minority background.

According to their strategic plan (2018-2023), Homes England is a non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It exists to accelerate the delivery of housing across England, except in London where much of this role is devolved. It is a national agency with experts based in offices across the country. With nearly 750 full-time employees their ambition is to drive the delivery of more housing. Their role is to ensure more people in England have access to better homes in the right places.

To make this happen, they intervene in the market to get more homes built where they are needed. They accelerate delivery, tackle market failure where it occurs and help to shape a more resilient and diverse housing market. They work in collaboration with partners including local authorities, private developers, housing associations, lenders and infrastructure providers. Within the next few years, they will have invested over £27 billion across their programmes.