Homes England has launched a toolkit designed to help councils identify shortfalls in their housing capacity amid a review of the regeneration agency.

The capacity analysis tool is a downloadable kit designed to help housing teams identify their full range of delivery and regeneration skills – and signpost town halls and their partners to areas that could be improved.

Alongside the toolkit, Homes England has published 10 factsheets to help councils improve how they communicate with communities about housing needs and issues.

The new tools have been released amid a Government-led review of Homes England, which has £16bn of capital spend to deploy over the next five years but has been criticised for failing to help meet housing targets in recent years.

A review team - led by former PwC executive Tony Poulter - is assessing the efficacy, efficiency, governance and accountability arrangements at Homes England and is due to report back next year.

Homes England has described the review as a ‘standard' assessment, but one senior council officer said: ‘We would rather see Homes England dead and its powers and massive funding handed to housing authorities to decide how to use. It would cut out the bureaucracy and overheads.'

A local authority housing expert added: ‘Don't be surprised to see further reforms across the agency.'