West Midlands team welcomes Homes England and Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing on an official visit

Homes England and the Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing were welcomed on an official visit to our Foxfields site in Stoke on Trent to hear about our work in delivering high-quality homes for local people.

The teams were given a tour of the new community, meeting with the West Midlands team to learn more about the developer’s success in delivering a number of First Homes on the development, as well as discuss the opportunities and challenges facing the housing sector.

First Homes, is an initiative from Homes England, offering first-time buyers a minimum discount of 30 per cent on the market value of a new home. The First Homes properties were granted approval by Stoke-on-Trent City Council at Foxfields, giving more first-time buyers the opportunity to take their first step onto the property ladder. Since the scheme’s launch earlier in the year, all of the properties have been purchased by local buyers.

During the visit, we also offered the teams the opportunity to meet with a local resident who has benefited from the scheme, as well as speak to officials from Stoke on Trent City Council about their experience delivering First Homes and meet with Gent Law and Acumen Mortgages to discuss the process of purchasing a home through the scheme.

A DLUHC official said: Today’s visit gave us an opportunity to see the impact that the First Homes programme is having for first-time buyers around the country. We are grateful to Persimmon who have been great supporters of the programme and have played a significant role in our pilot which will deliver up to 1,500 First Homes ahead of the policy being fully rolled out through the planning system.”  

Dan Hassall, Managing Director at Persimmon Homes West Midlands, said: “It was great to welcome the teams from Homes England and Department for Levelling Up, Communities and Housing and demonstrate the work we’re doing to deliver homes that local people can afford, in partnership with national Government through the First Homes scheme.

“Nothing fills us with more pride than helping local people buy their own home and it’s always incredibly exciting to see our customers moving into their properties – we were pleased to be able to bring this to life for the teams visiting us at Foxfields.”