Lewisham Council's Delivering Homes in Partnership Task and Finish Group has recommended embedding key performance indicators (KPIs) and performance measures into its Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) to boost the delivery of affordable housing. The group is also exploring ways to fund additional strategic capacity through small partnership contributions, shared posts, or more flexible use of existing budgets.
The recommendations were agreed at the group's meeting on Tuesday 21 October 2025, and are detailed in the Delivering Affordable Homes in Partnership Report. The report will now be submitted to Mayor Damien Egan and the cabinet for consideration.
The Task and Finish Group (TFG) was established in November 2024 to explore how the council can work through innovative partnerships to meet its affordable housing goals. The report recognises challenges such as limited grant funding, unfavourable market conditions, rising building and borrowing costs, and new pressures linked to decarbonisation, decent homes standards and new fire safety requirements.
The report recommends a post-procurement review of the SPA, embedding KPIs and performance measures, and resident engagement in the small-sites pilot. Councillor Jack Lavery, chair of the meeting, highlighted the importance of the group's work in finding effective ways to deliver affordable homes. The recommendations include:
- A light-touch
lessons learned
review after the SPA appointment (mid-2026) to assess whether the partnership structure, governance, and KPIs are delivering on agreed objectives. - Clear KPIs built into the SPA, for example: proportion of affordable housing, pace of delivery, build quality and compliance, social value, and use of local suppliers.
- Clear early warning points and pre-defined actions, such as design adjustments, grant applications or tenure mix changes, to keep schemes on track if costs or values shift, if costs or values shift.
- A short Partnership Charter setting out shared values on affordability, design standards, social impact and resident engagement.
- A simple process for recording key decisions, assumptions and contact points.
- Ensuring that SPA and joint-venture partners commit to delivering measurable outcomes on apprenticeships, local jobs and supply chain opportunities.
- Exploring ways to fund additional strategic capacity.
- Publishing a short
partnership prospectus
setting out the council's priorities. - Embedding resident engagement in the Small Sites Aggregator pilot.
- The Overview and Scrutiny Committee should revisit progress after 12 months.
The 'Small Sites Aggregator pilot' will focus on accelerating development on smaller plots of land, boosting the delivery of social and affordable housing and helping reduce local housing waiting lists. To embed resident engagement, the report recommends doing so from the outset, with a clear published pipeline, transparent timelines and visible commitments to local jobs and suppliers.
The report also noted that Lewisham already engages in joint ventures with private developers to increase affordable housing delivery, citing the partnership with Grainger at Besson Street, a 100% build-to-rent scheme delivering 324 homes, including 114 at London Living Rent.