How to digitally build 1.5 million homes

This is a challenge we hear almost every day in the UK...? We don’t have enough homes. Our children can’t move out because rents are too high. We are priced out of buying our first house.? 2nd Homeowners Ugh.??

The scale of the challenge is clear: in the 2022-23 period, only 234,400 homes were completed, with projections for 2023-24 showing a steep decline to around 150,000. Yet we need well over a million more if we go by what we are being told.

So, the new government has set a target of 1.5m new homes by 2029. To reach this target, annual builds must surge to 450,000 by 2028-29. This represents an unprecedented level of housebuilding not seen in over 50 years.? If we achieve it, it will be transformational.

Of course, the industry has known this for a long time, and the government’s housing and regeneration agency that funds affordable new housing in England, Homes England, has been getting ready. So ready in fact, that it has already completed a large part of its own successful transformation that will ensure it can effectively finance and support this life-changing agenda.

Homes England has been successfully undergoing a bold transformation that will redefine how housing is developed and delivered in the UK. The mission when it started was not only to prepare to build more homes but to reshape the housing system fundamentally, with digital innovation playing a pivotal role in this achievement.? And that meant a step change in their services. The organisation saw that just scaling up current business processes and headcount was not going to deliver the capacity at the rate, nor the value for money, required. There was a need to rethink and to create true internet-age services.

With the numbers of new homes required steadily increasing as targets were missed, the organisation recognised that traditional methods would not meet the demand. They knew they needed more business process automation, data-driven decision making and as little human shepherding as possible. And they knew that needed to start with its people.

And so, over a four-year period, Homes England rolled out a comprehensive transformation program that redesigned end-to-end services for both internal operations and external partners. The intention at the outset was for the initiative to become ingrained in the organisation’s culture, ensuring that the changes were sustainable and long-lasting. Truly entering its DNA.

With leadership so critical to the success of any transformations, Homes England focussed on hiring a top leadership team covering operations, data and delivery, and bringing in some of the leading digital specialists that would be able to technically design and deliver such an initiative.? Over 50 soon joined the programme which swelled over time to over 200 interim and contract staff, 75 of which were provided by Malikshaw.

To transform services at the scale and pace needed, the team moved to agile as the primary mode of delivery and adopted cloud-based solutions and a DevSecOps model to drive efficiency and scalability. This meant that software developers, security professionals and operations professionals were able to work hand-in-glove through the development cycle and in a continuous process of improvement.?Security and operations were baked into that process all the way through.

Equally, and often an area where leaders get things wrong, there was a major investment in designing services by understanding what users wanted to achieve and how Homes England could help them. We saw this at first hand with our own provision of 6 highly targeted User Researchers who sought to understand “what does the citizen really want?”.?? This user-centered design was key to this transformation. By focusing on the needs of internal staff and external partners—ranging from local authorities to housing associations and private developers—Homes England streamlined processes and made interactions more efficient. Importantly, the team drew inspiration from the Government Digital Service’s approach to user-centered design, making sure that all stakeholders could access services with ease.

A major challenge at the outset of the transformation was dealing with legacy systems inherited from previous organisations. These fragmented systems led to inefficiencies, with different teams using various collaboration tools. Homes England successfully consolidated these into a unified platform based on Microsoft Office 365, improving communication and collaboration across the organisation.

The transformation program delivered tailored digital services for various stakeholders, including investors, developers, and citizens seeking housing support. Behind these services, a common data platform provided a unified source of information, enabling Homes England to manage its operations more effectively and make data-driven decisions.

Drawing from leadership’s extensive experience in government and the private sector, Homes England implemented a robust digital architecture and governance framework. This strategic approach avoided the common pitfalls of reactive, short-term solutions, ensuring the transformation has a lasting impact.

So, what were the biggest challenges??

Well firstly, it was the complexity that we have already highlighted. The multitude of stakeholders and the bitty evolution that had occurred over time creating a cornucopia of collaboration tools. The effect being to create “collaboration ghettoes” with different teams using different tools.?? This was addressed by leadership getting right under the skin of what they really trying to achieve. Sticking to the basics always with an eye on ‘what is this process here to deliver?’”

Secondly, and probably the greatest challenge of all throughout the process was the pace of delivery and scaling up digital capacity quickly with the right skills. This is where Malikshaw and other partners came in. To do this effectively, we needed to understand the programme in detail and build trusted relationships with managers, almost second guessing what might be needed and when.? Talent pools were developed, and qualification processes refined to not only identify the right skills but also, crucially, the right behaviours, integrating people effectively into the organisation’s new way of working.

And thirdly, the challenge was about creating the right strategy and approach that would achieve the goals.? It was about a journey that didn’t have a finishing line. Recognising that the business and its products are continuously improving and iterating.

And it was about belief. Belief in people that they could deliver such a transformation, and they needn’t worry about taking steps. Belief held them back for a while, but that’s where transformational leadership came in. It gave the team belief. Just Do It, as Nike says.

Now that major elements of the transformation are complete, Homes England stands as a model of how digital innovation can transform the housing sector. The organisation’s ability to manage large financial transactions and deliver efficient services will now set a new standard for public sector financial services. Homes England’s work has not only improved the housing market but has also demonstrated how digital solutions can drive positive change across the public sector.