Innovative Housing Programme: Lessons learnt Year 3

Tender description

The client requires an experienced contractor to undertake research into the construction lessons learned from all schemes funded in Year Three of the Innovative Housing Programme (IHP).The Innovative Housing Programme was first announced in February 2017 by the former Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children and has since been developed to support the development of new and innovative approaches to delivering housing in Wales.The IHP has a fund of GBP155m over the years 2017/18 to 2020/21 to support schemes to meet a target of 2,000 affordable homes. This programme forms an important part of the Welsh Government’s overall target for 20,000 new low carbon homes to be built by 2026.The Programme seeks to support innovation in a broad context, covering construction techniques, delivery pathways and housing types across all tenures, with the exception of the refurbishment of existing residential dwellings.In year one (2017-18), the IHP was open to Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and Local Housing Associations (LHAs), including local authority owned housing companies. The 2017-18 programme was aligned with the Social Housing Grant (SHG) programme, including its monitoring and evaluation requirements.An evaluation of the Year One lessons learnt was conducted in 2020 and published on 15th September 2020. This research reported findings relating to: navigating the planning process; construction challenges; workforce challenges; comparisons between IHP and typical build programmes; and progress to date against outcomes.For Year Two (2018-19) the scope of the programme was extended to cover market housebuilders (including large house-builders and SMEs) and other developers (e.g. charities, co-operatives and individuals). This report is due to be published later this year.For Year Three (2019-20) the scope of the programme was changed in order to facilitate a higher level of innovation than was supported in the first two years of the programme. The programme was once again opened to schemes across Wales from registered social landlords (RSLs) and local housing authorities (LHAs), including local authority owned companies, and both private sector organisations and social landlords. In order to do this, applicants were encouraged to submit applications linked to themes. The themes were linked to other Welsh Government priorities such as Active Travel or Placemaking which focused on the creation of active, social, vibrant places that enhance the wellbeing of resident; and climate resilience which focused on schemes being truly zero carbon.In addition to the evaluation of IHP Year Three the Welsh Government are seeking a comparative evaluation that takes into account the findings from Year One and Two. This should include an exploration of the different experiences of applicants across the three years, including market housebuilders, RSLS, LHAs and other types of developers. This should include a review of the barriers and successes experienced by all type of applicants.