Why is more housing needed?
Homes England’s mission is to ensure more homes are built in areas of greatest need, to improve affordability. The land West of Ifield offers a once in a generation opportunity to provide much needed affordable and high-quality housing in Horsham District. This land has the potential to deliver an initial 3,250 homes.As a Government Agency, Homes England has a range of mechanisms that can assist in the delivery of a new sustainable community. This includes access to upfront infrastructure funding to make sure that the facilities are in place to support the new homeowners and the existing surrounding communities. Additionally, we will improve productivity and maximise housing delivery during the Plan period by using new construction methods (i.e. Methods of Modern Construction). Why West of Ifield?
During our consultation earlier in January 2020, we were asked why we have chosen this particular area of land to create the new communities. This land sits at the heart of the Gatwick Diamond and is located within easy commuting distance of both Manor Royal and Gatwick Airport. This will provide the new residents with excellent links to amenities such as shops and community facilities, in addition to employment centres. Furthermore, the populations of Crawley and Horsham are growing and changing. The population of West Sussex is forecast to grow by 20.4% over the next 20 years. Growth in Crawley and Horsham will particularly be driven by increases in the 65+ population. Our new community will provide affordable homes to attract younger working age populations and to provide new homes for the older generation to move into, to help address intergenerational disparity. Horsham District Council and Crawley Borough Council have to meet the housing targets identified through their Local Plans. Crawley needs 15,000 new homes by 2035 and Horsham needs 19,000 homes by the same year. The cost of housing in Crawley and Horsham is high and growing and the affordability ratio is very high as shown in the graph below. Homes England’s plans for new homes will help tackle this disparity between earnings and house prices by delivering at least 35% affordable homes. Affordable housing is homes that are available to buy or rent below market values. There is no set price for affordable homes and there are a number of different affordable home products (including social rented housing, shared ownership, affordable rent). We will work with a range of providers to ensure the widest range of different affordable housing types are provided within the site to ensure the new homes are accessible to as many people as possible. 
Information sourced from the Office for National Statistics. The link to the information is provided here.
If you’d like to read more about our plans, please visit our news page here. Over the past few weeks, we have posted updates about our plans for infrastructure, transport, working and open spaces. We are looking forward to engaging with the local community again later in the year. Make sure you are subscribed to receive our updates to stay up to date on all our engagement activities.
If you have any questions about the information provided, the consultation or the proposals please get in touch at westofifield@homesengland.gov.uk or 020 8629 7209.