Memorandum by South West Regional Development
Agency (SRH 10)
1.1 In the South West, the Regional Housing
Body has, through its Regional Housing Strategy prioritised the
provision of new affordable homes (as opposed to meeting decent
homes standards, private sector rented provision etc), and within
that given a priority to the supply of social rented homes.
1.2 The SW has received a significant increase
in the allocation of funds from central government, reflecting
the extreme affordability crisis that exists in the region. The
SW is the only region with above average house prices and below
average incomes. In the SW we will use the intelligence gained
from the Housing Market Assessments to inform future decision
making on the distribution of public funds between areas and between
tenures.
1.3 At the moment we prioritise funding
to a number of key growth areas, however, I have put the case
at the Regional Housing Body for putting a higher proportion into
those areas where significant growth will not occur, as these
(the growth) areas will be better placed to provide a significant
proportion of their affordable housing by cross subsidy through
the planning system—simply by virtue of the numbers they
will deliver. Other more rural areas will find it harder to do
this as they will be delivering significantly lower numbers overall,
and in many instances experience higher unit costs per affordable
home.
1.4 As to who should deliver and manage
social housing, this is a matter of where does the relevant expertise
and experience lie? Historically (pre 1980's), local Authorities
were considered to be poor managers of housing—hence the
move to supply and management through RSLs. I am not aware of
any evidence to suggest that, even if LAs had the relevant skills—which
by and large now they do not—that they would be any better
managers of housing than they were previously.
1.5 In the South West the Regional Housing
Board has to date played an important role in identifying priorities
for the use of public funds. The Housing Corporation have certainly
then reflected these agreed priorities in their annual allocation
process. The private sector are represented on the Regional Housing
Board but their influence has been less marked. This is only likely
to diminish further in an enlarged, Regional Assembly lead, Board—following
the requirement to merge with the Regional Planning Body.
1.6 The planning system can play an important
role in delivering affordable housing. Most obviously it provides
the land on which to build, but it can also—through s106
agreements—provide the finance. This latter component has,
in my view been less well exploited as too often public sector
funds go into support the provision of social rented housing,
rather than exploit the availability of cross subsidy. We need
to see much better, and importantly, clearer planning policies
which state that no public sector finance will be available for
social housing through a s106. This will only work where the policy
is clear and all developers work to a level playing field, and
where the Local Planning Authority satisfy themselves beforehand
that the economics of their area and their plan will support this.
Through better intelligence gathering during the plan making stage,
LPAs should be able to determine the appropriate levels of affordable
housing required on each site and the approximate economics of
achieving this.
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