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Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP welcomed Homes England Strategic Plan published today (30 October 2018) describing the vision as pivotal to helping deliver the homes that communities need.

Since their launch in January, Homes England has a remit to adopt a more commercial approach to acquiring, preparing, managing and developing land in areas of high demand.

Their strategic plan sets out how they will use these powers together with their expertise and significant government investment to drive forward key programmes and play a major role in making the housing market work for everyone.

Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said:

This government is committed to delivering 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s and help more people get on the housing ladder. Homes England is at the heart of these plans.

I welcome their comprehensive vision that sets out how through their powers and expertise they will maximise government investment to deliver the homes communities need.

The plan, which runs up to 2022/23, outlines Homes England’s ambitious new mission and the steps the national housing agency will take, in partnership with all parts of the housing industry sector, to respond to the long-term housing challenges facing the country.

The new plan sets out far-reaching delivery objectives:

• Unlock public and private land where the market will not, to get more homes built where they are needed
• Ensure a range of investment products are available to support housebuilding and infrastructure, including more affordable housing and homes for rent, where the market is not acting
• Improve construction productivity
• Create a more resilient and competitive market by supporting smaller builders and new entrants, and promoting better design and higher quality homes
• Offer expert support for priority locations, helping to create and deliver more ambitious plans to get more homes built
• Effectively deliver home ownership products, providing an industry standard service to consumers

Communities Secretary Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP said:

This government is committed to delivering 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s and help more people get on the housing ladder. Homes England is at the heart of these plans.

I welcome their comprehensive vision that sets out how through their powers and expertise they will maximise Government investment to deliver the homes communities need.

Sir Edward Lister, Homes England Chairman, said:

Ultimately, we need to disrupt the housing market. Homes England plans to be bold, creative and think big. We hope the whole of the housing sector – big and small, up and down the country – will join us for the next five years and beyond.

Nick Walkley, Homes England Chief Executive, said:

The new Homes England is all about making homes happen – and our new 5-year plan sets out our ambitious new approach. We are committing to boosting housing supply, productivity, innovation, quality, skills and modern methods of construction to help make a more diverse and resilient market. In return, we are calling for partners and the wider industry who share our ambition to challenge traditional norms and build better homes faster.

Homes England is already making significant progress. High-profile deals forged in recent months include: major land acquisitions in Sussex and Plymouth; a £1bn lending alliance with Barclays to support smaller builders; a new joint venture with Kier’s residential arm; and infrastructure-led developments at Ebbsfleet and Northstowe.

The five-year Strategic Plan follows the Budget announcement yesterday of seven more strategic partnerships with housing associations, which will deliver an additional 13,475 affordable homes by March 2022.

The new partnerships will secure a total of £653m in funding from the Affordable Homes Programme, delivered through Homes England, including homes for social rent in areas of high affordability pressures.

This is in addition to the first eight strategic partnership deals announced in early July, bringing the total number of additional affordable homes that will be delivered to 27,755.

Ends

For further media information please contact: Homes England press office on 0207 393 2201 or Patsy Cusworth on 0796772328 patsy.cusworth@homesengland.gov.uk.

Notes to Editors:

Homes England Five Year Strategic Plan

• The five-year strategic plan is available on GOV.UK

Strategic Partnerships

• The housing associations involved in the second wave of strategic partnerships are: Platform Housing Group; Guinness and Stonewater partnership; Optivo; Southern Housing Group; Orbit; Thirteen and Vivid.

About Homes England

• Homes England is the Government’s housing accelerator. We have the appetite, influence, expertise and resources to drive positive market change. By releasing more land to developers who want to make a difference, and investing in places of greatest need, to deliver new homes. Homes England welcomes partners who share their ambition to challenge the traditional norms and build better homes faster.

For more information visit Homes England on GOV.UK.

The Treasury will also fund the cost of building a new prison at Glen Parva in Leicestershire. This significant investment will allow us to get started on construction sooner since planning permission was granted in the summer.

The new Glen Parva will accommodate around 1,680 prisoners which, along with an equivalently-sized new prison at Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, is an important step towards delivering on our commitment to building up to 10,000 decent new prison places.

An extra £30 million will be spent on prisons this financial year on top of the £40 million we announced over the summer. The money will go towards further improvements to safety, security and decency on top of those already announced such as the roll-out of body scanners and phone-blocking technology.

There is also a further £15 million to spend this year on the maintenance and security of our court buildings. Spending more this year in our courts will ensure that our ageing estate remains fit for the 21st century as we invest £1 billion in modernising services and moving more online making them easier to use, more efficient and saving taxpayers’ money.

Another £6.5 million will be invested across the wider justice system, including a further £1.5 million for the Parole Board to boost its operational capacity.

Commenting on the Budget, the Secretary of State for Justice David Gauke said:

I am pleased that the Treasury has given us this extra £52 million which will help address the acute problems facing our prisons and begin to improve the conditions of some of our courts. We have also secured a cash boost for the Parole Board to support its operations, especially the extra work associated with our transparency reforms.

This budget means that since July, we are directing an additional £70 million to tackling drugs and violence, and improving the basic conditions of our prisons. Treasury’s commitment to funding a new prison at Glen Parva is an important step to getting this built as soon as possible and will ease the pressure on our prisons.

The Budget also committed to funding a review by the Law Commission into simplifying the rules around marriage ceremonies in England and Wales and propose options for a simpler and fairer system to give couples greater choice and reduce prices in a notoriously expensive market. It will look at reducing unnecessary red tape supporting small and medium-sized businesses in the hospitality sector, like hotels and pubs, to host weddings and boost their income.

Notes to editors

• The Treasury have committed to providing the capital funding to build the new prison at Glen Parva. While we cannot comment at this stage on the anticipated cost, the newest prison in the estate, HMP Berwyn in North Wales, cost £250 million when it was built in 2015/16.
• The Ministry’s Spending Review 2015 settlement set the department on a course to reduce spend by 11% between 2015/16 and 2019/20. The figures on the Ministry of Justice from yesterday’s announcement of next year’s settlement are not new.
• We are continuing to engage with HM Treasury on ensuring that the justice system has sufficient funding in both the short and medium term, ahead of the Spending Review in 2019. The department continues to work to ensure that the department’s finances are set on a long term sustainable footing.

The UK Foreign Office Minister of State for the Commonwealth and the UN, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon is in Indonesia today (30 October) following his attendance at the ‘Our Ocean’ Conference.

Lord Ahmad led a UK delegation to the fifth ‘Our Ocean’ Conference yesterday (29 October) which aims to tackle the challenges facing the oceans, including: marine protection, marine pollution, climate change, sustainable fisheries, the blue economy and maritime security.

While in Jakarta today, Lord Ahmad has hosted an inter-faith roundtable, visited an Islamic School which has been working with the British Council to promote diversity and held bilateral meetings with the Minister of Religious Affairs Lukman Hakim Saifuddin, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs AM Fachir, parliamentarians and experts on Countering Violent Extremism.

Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon said:

The Our Oceans Conference is a crucial initiative that seeks to protect the World’s oceans and seas, critical global assets that we have all taken for granted for far too long.

In Jakarta, I have learnt how Indonesia is seeking to protect its extraordinary bio-diversity whilst balancing the needs of a developing economy and a large population spread over its vast archipelago of islands. I also discussed how “unity in diversity” in a place of extraordinary ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity can be nurtured whilst fighting divisive sectarian ideology and practice.

I explored how ongoing UK government support to Indonesia can assist in addressing these complex challenges. I also look forward to continuing the conversation around our post-Brexit relationship with ASEAN and its members, and to deepening the UK’s ties with one of the world’s most dynamic and vibrant regions.

Further information

• Follow Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon @tariqahmadbt
• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

An imam who sexually assaulted a young child over a period of 7 years had his sentence increased today after it was referred to the Court of Appeal by the Solicitor General, Robert Buckland QC MP, under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.

Mohammed Ghani, 65, was a respected imam in the local community who used professional visits to the victim’s home as an opportunity to carry out a campaign of sexual abuse. This resulted in lasting emotional repercussions for the victim.

Ghani was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court in August, where he was given 2 years imprisonment. Today, after the Solicitor General’s referral, the Court of Appeal increased his sentence to 5 years imprisonment.

Speaking after the hearing, the Solicitor General said:

“Ghani abused his position of authority and subjected a vulnerable child to a campaign of sexual assaults. I hope that the Court of Appeal’s decision today brings the victim and their family some comfort.”

High Quality Books Ltd, formerly known as Printed Books Limited, and We Print Books Ltd, formerly known as Offset Printers Limited, were wound up in the public interest in the Manchester District Registry on 18 October 2018. The Official Receiver has now been appointed as the Liquidator.

The two London-based publishers operated numerous websites offering printing services, specialising in small print runs. One of their key targets were self-publishers, who were attracted to the competitive rates.

However, the Insolvency Service received complaints about the printers and following enquiries, found evidence of wrongdoing.

Investigators found that after an order was placed, the printers demanded advanced payment of at least 50% before the job started. The companies would then claim they completed the jobs in-house but investigators found that no printing facilities were either owned or operated by them.

Instead, the print jobs were sub-contracted and mainly to suppliers in Eastern Europe who were not always paid and often failed to dispatch the work as a result.

When customers did complain to the printers they were referred to the companies’ Terms & Conditions. However, some customers claimed they had never seen these before and the T&Cs were heavily biased towards the companies.

Where complaints were accepted, refunds were often sporadic and did not cover the full amount. Investigators only found one example where a full refund was made.

Investigators also found that on many occasions, customers would initially start to contract with one company before receiving responses from the other, confusing customers as to who they were dealing with.

The Insolvency Service was unable at any point to determine the full extent of the printers’ trading activities as the companies failed to fully co-operate throughout the investigation. The names of the printers were also changed to High Quality Books Ltd and We Print Books Ltd respectively just two days before the courts shut them down.

District Judge Khan found in his judgement that both companies had traded with a lack of transparency, as well as a lack of commercial probity in that they made misrepresentations to customers, failed to handle customer data appropriately and failed to maintain and/or deliver up accounting records or co-operate with investigators.

Irshard Mohammed, Chief Investigator for the Insolvency Service, said:

Through the courts, thankfully we have been able to put a stop to these rogue printers. They used deceitful tactics to attract customers, demanded up-front payments and when customers complained having failed to receive their orders, the printers either blamed the customer or hid behind their Terms & Conditions.

These winding-up proceedings should serve as a clear warning to dishonest companies that we will use the full weight of our powers and shut down businesses that operate unscrupulously.

High Quality Books Ltd was previously known as Printed Books Limited, Litho Printing Ltd, Paper Press Limited and UK Print Ltd.

We Print Books Ltd was previously known as Offset Printers Limited and Ink Paper Ltd.

All public enquiries concerning the affairs of the company should be made to: The Official Receiver, Public Interest Unit North, PO Box 16663, Birmingham, B2 2JP. Email: piu.north@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk or farouk.vawda@insolvency.gsi.gov.uk.

Notes to Editors

High Quality Books Limited (company registration number 09303495) was incorporated on 10 November 2014, originally under the name UK Print Limited. The company’s registered office is at 3 Shortlands, London W6 8DA and previously 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ.

Offset Printers Limited (company registration number 10503706) was incorporated on 30 November 2016, originally under the name Ink Paper Limited. The company’s registered office is at 3 Shortlands, London W6 8DA and previously 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ.

The petitions to wind-up both High Quality Books Limited and We Print Books Limited were presented under s124A of the Insolvency Act 1986 on 30 August 2018. The companies were wound up on 18 October 2018 and the Official Receiver has been appointed as liquidator.

Company Investigations, part of the Insolvency Service, uses powers under the Companies Act 1985 to conduct confidential fact-finding investigations into the activities of live limited companies in the UK on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Further information about live company investigations is available here.

The Insolvency Service, an executive agency sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), administers the insolvency regime, and aims to deliver and promote a range of investigation and enforcement activities both civil and criminal in nature, to support fair and open markets. We do this by effectively enforcing the statutory company and insolvency regimes, maintaining public confidence in those regimes and reducing the harm caused to victims of fraudulent activity and to the business community, including dealing with the disqualification of directors in corporate failures.

Further information about the work of the Insolvency Service, and how to complain about financial misconduct, is available.

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