Delivering fast, delivering well: Three ways to strengthen your SAHP bid

As housing providers begin bidding for the £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme (SAHP), I’ve been reflecting on what works, and what doesn’t, when it comes to accelerating delivery. 

For the past 25 years, I’ve worked in public sector construction – across research, skills, regulation and procurement – and it’s give me a clear sense of the factors driving good deliverability. 

We know SAHP bids will be assessed not only on value for money and strategic fit, but ‘deliverability’ – giving Homes England certainty and confidence they can bring schemes to site. 

Yet assurance on delivery performance has been lacking for years. Net additional homes have fallen from over 240,000 in 2020-23 to 221,070 in 2023/24 and 208,600 in 2024/25, the lowest in nearly a decade, reflecting deep structural issues. 

Against this backdrop, it is estimated that around 90,000 new affordable homes are needed annually to meet the government’s 1.5 million homes target by 2029, highlighting the intense pressure facing social housing.  

So, how can councils, housing associations, house builders and charities assure Homes England that they not only have the ability to deliver as planned, but to deliver fast? Although the programme requires schemes to start on site by March 2036 and complete by March 2039, it will prioritise early delivery. 

1. Engage contractors early, and fairly 

Time and again, those public sector organisations that bring their supply chain in early – treating them as part of the delivery team and sharing risk and reward fairly – are the ones that consistently get homes built. 

This is echoed in the government backed Constructing the Gold Standard, which recommends bringing contractors in at the earliest viable stage so they can contribute to design development, cost planning, buildability, risk management and programme strategy. 

When this is done well, housing providers give themselves enough time to compliantly engage suppliers at early RIBA stages, tapping into their experience to create plans that are right for all parties. 

This approach speeds things up – once planning is finished, everyone is already mobilised, and unnecessary re-designs are also avoided. 

It’s worth noting that in SAHP guidance, Homes England outlines the importance of treating contractors with dignity and respect, stating that procurement processes should be fair, transparent and inclusive – a core principle of working collaboratively. 

2. Blend construction methods 

Open-mindedness around construction techniques is another hallmark of successful schemes. Those housing providers that are agnostic and seek out methods right for their site (depending on typography, planning, costs and more) rather than focusing on a purely traditional or MMC route from the start – reap the rewards.  

The solution is often a blend, with construction firms taking the principal contractor role and bringing in manufacturers where needed. I’m seeing this integrated approach used more frequently by housing associations’ inhouse build teams and on infill sites. 

This links back to the construction skills gap that social landlords have struggled with for years. Despite the government announcing training for 60,000 apprentices, there is still a huge hole in the workforce, made worse by higher employment costs, an ageing workforce and reduced labour supply post Brexit. To realise ambitious building targets, more efficient and streamlined ways of constructing homes are needed. 

Combining trusted traditional techniques with manufactured components is one way to deliver this efficiency. The number of workers required on site reduces and a new generation of construction professionals is attracted to the warm, dry, tech focused side of factory construction. Build times speed up, quality control improves, sustainability is baked in and waste drops. 

3. Bundle work programmes 

Bundling development schemes also plays a big role in deliverability, improving efficiency on materials, labour, contractor certainty, social value investment and more. 

I’ve seen it work particularly well when local authorities and housing associations pull together a series of small brownfield sites or garage plots, letting contractors or manufacturers work up which ones can be delivered together for maximum efficiency. 

Programme packaging like this helps make small sites viable and attract higherquality bidders. It can also reduce delays and procurement costs for clients who don’t have to tender each site individually. 

In its SAHP prospectus, Homes England encourages housing providers to pull together demand by submitting a portfolio of schemes – rather than a single project – under its Continuous Market Engagement route. 

Guidance states that portfolios will be assessed on overall net additionality, meaning individual sites do not need to stand alone, and the 10year delivery window is designed to enable multisite planning. These elements create a clear case for housing providers to package sites into coherent portfolios. 

As the sector starts a decade of renewal, the organisations that deliver will be those willing to collaborate early, stay flexible and think programmatically about their land. I hope to see these enablers of good deliverability used more regularly over the next ten years. 

Tony Woods is Technical Manager for construction and sustainability at Procurement for Housing (PfH). This article also featured on Housing Today and can be accessed by clicking here

To view our Housing Development framework: Traditional build & Offsite / Modern (MMC) Delivery

To view our Housing Construction framework: Modern Methods of Construction – Category 1

To view our Housing Construction: Pre-Manufactured Housing Panels DPS – MMC Category 2

About Tony Woods

Tony Woods is a construction and procurement specialist with more than 30 years’ experience across the building, certification, and public sector framework sectors.

Currently Technical Manager at Procurement for Housing, Tony is responsible for supporting the development and delivery of compliant procurement frameworks that enable housing providers and public sector organisations to access high-quality construction and refurbishment solutions. He previously spent nearly a decade as Technical Manager at LHC Procurement Group, where he led the technical development and procurement of pre-tendered frameworks covering offsite housing, modular buildings, schools and community facilities, and energy efficiency and refurbishment programmes.

Earlier in his career, Tony held technical and business development roles with organisations including Building Research Establishment, BSI Group, and UL Solutions, where he worked on testing, certification, and the market development of innovative construction systems. He has also held technical leadership positions within the offsite housing sector, supporting the compliance of timber and modular systems with UK regulations and sustainability standards.

With deep expertise in offsite construction, technical compliance, and framework procurement, Tony brings extensive industry knowledge to the development of robust procurement routes that support housing delivery, modern methods of construction, and sustainable building solutions across the UK.