Large housing associations are using the financial backing available through signing long-term partnership deals with Homes England to ramp up the proportion of affordable rent and shared-ownership homes they build.

Securing £190m through the strategic partnership with the government agency has meant housing association Optivo has been able to bring forward pure affordable-housing schemes that do not require cross-subsidy from open-market sales, its chief executive Paul Hackett told Housing Today.

The timing of such partnerships has been helpful, not least because of the downturn in the housing market, in part caused by fears around the UK’s departure from the EU, due in three weeks’ time.