Memorandum by Communities and Local Government
Housing is a central concern for families across
the country and it is a central priority for this Government.
The Housing and Regeneration Bill will help deliver the Government's
pledge to build three million new homes by 2020, in mixed and
sustainable communities. The Bill will help address the shortage
of affordable housing for first-time- buyers and families; make
new housing greener to tackle climate change; and give social
housing tenants a better deal.
The Government believes that everyone deserves
a place they can be proud to call home, at a price they can afford.
In the last 10 years, substantial progress has been made towards
achieving this—housing has improved for many people and
1 million more families are now homeowners. But challenges remain.
First time buyers are struggling to get on the housing ladder;
families are making do in cramped accommodation; and the challenge
of climate change means more sustainable as well as more affordable
homes must be built.
The Housing Green Paper set out plans to deliver
three million new homes by 2020—homes that are needed to
meet growing demand and rising aspirations. The Green Paper set
out a package of proposals and funding to deliver 240,000 additional
homes a year, supported by significant investment in infrastructure,
higher environmental standards and plans to deliver at least 70,000
more affordable homes a year by 2010-11. These ambitions are supported
by measures in the Housing and Regeneration Bill.
The Bill establishes the Homes and Communities
Agency (HCA); removes barriers to councils building their own
social housing; and, makes it mandatory for buyers of new homes
to be given information on the sustainability of their home.
The Bill will also give tenants more choice
and a stronger say over how their homes are managed, by establishing
a new social housing regulator and also implementing changes to
improve the way that housing services are provided, including
creating a level playing field for members of the armed forces
applying for local authority housing and changes to improve the
way the Right to Buy scheme operates.
The HCA will bring together English Partnerships,
investment functions from the Housing Corporation and key delivery
roles from the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The Agency is expected to be established in April 2009 subject
to the successful passage of the Bill.
The Government welcomes the Committee's discussion
with Sir Bob Kerslake about his plans for the HCA. Sir Bob has
shown repeatedly throughout his successful tenure at Sheffield
City Council (England's third biggest unitary authority), that
he has the ability to deliver in the face of considerable challenges.
His work in helping to transform Sheffield over the last 10 years
has been an exemplar in the delivery of a large scale housing
and regeneration strategy.
Under Sir Bob Kerslake's leadership of the HCA,
land and money will be brought together for the first time to
deliver decent, affordable housing and to regenerate our communities
by creating places where people choose to live. Delivery will
be enhanced by bringing together a range of existing regeneration
and housing delivery programmes. Local authorities will have a
clear strategic partner to work with on housing and regeneration
work in their area, and the Agency will effectively use a range
of assets, resources and funding streams to respond to the particular
housing and regeneration problems in different communities.
Three million new homes are desperately needed
by first-time buyers, families on council waiting lists and those
who are frustrated by the lack of sufficient affordable homes.
The HCA is not simply about building more homes; it is about building
better homes, underpinning the new timetable for all homes to
be zero-carbon by 2016 and building stronger communities through
a greater and more co-ordinated link between housing and regeneration.
The challenge is significant. To deliver the
additional housing across the range of tenures required involves:
— An efficient and effective planning
system.
— An actively involved and engaged
community to help design, deliver and sustain the community.
— Identifying and bringing forward
additional land supply.
— Infrastructure to support and
sustain the community..
— Access to employment, retail
and services.
— Mitigation of the environmental
impact of development.
— Resources—capacity of
delivery agencies (local authorities, RDAs, HCA, communities,
Government, private sector) and the finances to pay for it.
— Better designed and well-planned
homes that meet the needs and aspirations of individuals, families
and the wider community.
LEGISLATION AND
POWERS OF
THE HCA
The Agency will have three objects:
(i) To improve the supply and quality of
housing in England.
(ii) To secure the regeneration or development
of land or infrastructure in England.
(iii) To support in other ways the creation,
regeneration or development of communities in England or their
continued well-being with a view to meeting the needs of people
living in England.
These objects will allow the HCA to work to
ensure that communities have the mix of housing and infrastructure
they need.
The HCA will have wide powers in support of
its objects including the power to acquire land, remediate land,
dispose of land, provide financial assistance, provide or facilitate
the provision of housing, provide or facilitate the provision
of community services, form companies, provide information, advice,
education, training and guidance services and may also provide
support services such as seconding staff or providing resources
or property to a particular project. It will also be a partner
authority for the purposes of the Local Area Agreements and must
also be consulted on the formation of the community strategy.
These powers in pursuit of its objects and those
that may be conferred upon the HCA will enable it to:
— Help local authorities to develop
expertise.
— Be in a position to take a strategic
view of how and on which sites national needs will be best met.
— Determine what needs to be done
on the ground to encourage private sector investment, and facilitate
the appropriate action (or if necessary do it itself), such as
providing additional funding or infrastructure.
— Be in a position to parcel together
smaller pieces of land so that they form a larger, more attractive
plot for developers.
BENEFITS OF
THE HCA
In 2006 the Department undertook an internal
review of housing and regeneration which found strong evidence
of the added value that could be created by a single focus for
the delivery of national housing and regeneration programmes,
compared to the existing structures. The review outlined some
key benefits of a single housing and regeneration agency:
— More effective forms of investment
in communities, more effective marshalling of scarce skills, economies
of scale and increased negotiating power.
— An integrated approach to project
appraisal and streamlined funding will ensure better outcomes
for places, with more and better homes, and sustainable regeneration.
— Increased innovation. Working
with markets and their partners in the public, private and voluntary
sector will ensure we get even better outcomes from our investment
in places.
— A one-stop delivery partner
for local government offering the expertise, capacity and critical
mass needed to support local projects. The Agency will also help
build local authority capacity and assist them in unlocking strategic
land assets and increasing private sector leverage.
— Increased environmental benefits.
The Agency will help to reduce the environmental impact of our
communities by demanding exacting standards for new buildings.
Combining English Partnerships, the investment
functions from the Housing Corporation and key delivery roles
from the Department, the HCA will be able to:
— focus on delivering more new
and affordable homes across all tenures, in mixed and sustainable
communities;
— support local partners to deliver
the new homes and regeneration projects their communities need—providing
advice and support for innovative new approaches to delivery,
helping to drive more effective joint working with the private
sector partners;
— support regeneration, bringing
together land assembly and housing—not just grant funding
social housing but investing in infrastructure and making better
use of surplus public sector land. It will pioneer new ways of
working with markets and key partners in the public, private and
voluntary sectors to ensure the best outcomes from investment
in places; and
— complete the delivery of the
Decent Homes Programme in social housing, making the most of regeneration
opportunities to support delivery.
WORKING WITH
PARTNERS
The HCA will have a range of powers and significant
resources in itself, but will be delivering its own and wider
government objectives in partnership with a range of public and
private sector partners.
The HCA will be a strong partner for local authorities,
Regional Development Agencies and other public sector organisations.
As a one-stop delivery partner able to work across local and regional
boundaries, the HCA will be able to help local government in its
place-shaping role, building local authority skills, and offering
expert support. In this way, the HCA will help deliver the devolutionary
vision of the Local Government White Paper.
It is these local relationships that will deliver
change and the Government has decided that in order to move the
HCA's work closer to local communities the Agency should have
offices in each Government Office Region. Discussions are ongoing
with the Local Government Association with regard to a future
working relationship and the Bill states the HCA will be added
to the list of specific consultees for the purposes of drafting
the Regional Spatial Strategy.
Sir Bob Kerslake shares the Government's aspiration
to see the HCA creating opportunity for people to live in affordable
homes in areas they want to live in and for local authorities
and communities to deliver the ambitions they have for their own
area. He maintains that by working collaboratively with local
authorities as their "best delivery partner" it will
be possible to secure both local ambitions and national targets.
Reflecting the devolved arrangements that operate
for the London Development Agency and the Mayor of London's responsibility
to produce a Housing Strategy for the capital, it is proposed
that a sub committee of the HCA Board should be set up with specific
responsibility for London. This sub-committee will be chaired
by the Mayor, and the Vice Chair will be the Chief Executive of
the HCA with representation from London Boroughs.
The Housing and Regeneration Bill states that
the HCA will be a partner authority for the Local Area Agreement
and local improvement targets and S108 of the Local Government
and Improvement in Health Act requires that "every partner
authority must, in exercising its functions, have regard to every
local improvement target specified in the local area agreement
which relates to it". The HCA will also be added to the list
of bodies that must be consulted in formulating the "strategy
for promoting well-being" also known as the "community
strategy".
It is the creation and transformation of communities
which will form the key part of the HCA's work and the active
involvement and engagement of communities will be vital to delivering
its programme. The HCA will work with communities in developing
projects and building capacity, building on the work of English
Partnerships, the Housing Corporation and the Department in developing
new methods of community engagement, governance and participation.
In addition to setting up the HCA, the Government
has announced a range of measures to meet the housing and regeneration
challenge:
The Housing Green Paper outlined the Government's
aim to provide two million homes by 2016 and three million homes
by 2020. The Government will invest £6.5 billion over three
years to deliver 45,000 homes per year by 2010-11 and £1.7
billion will go to support infrastructure in growth areas, Thames
Gateway, new growth points and eco-towns.
Land supply will be improved through an increased
release of surplus public sector land with a target of 200,000
homes to be delivered on surplus public sector land by 2016. The
Government has set a target of all new homes achieving zero-carbon
rating by 2016 with a clear path to set to attain this through
a steady increase in standards.
The Code for Sustainable Homes will be introduced,
providing a six star rating on new homes.
Planning reform is continuing. New reforms are
designed to speed up the planning system, update aspects of the
Town and Country Planning Act and will introduce a new Community
Infrastructure Levy which is designed to help local authorities
fund the infrastructure needed to support development in their
area.
Planning guidance is being revised—a consultation
has recently been published on a draft PPS4 on Economic Development.
Detailed guidance on planning and flood risk has been issued as
part of PPS25.
The Sub-national Review outlines the Government's
goal of increased devolution, flexibilities and freedoms for local
authorities and communities.
DELIVERY RESPONSIBILITIES
TRANSFERRING TO
THE HOMES
AND COMMUNITIES
AGENCY
In a Written Ministerial Statement on 10 January
2008 the then Housing and Planning Minister announced which delivery
responsibilities would transfer to the Homes and Communities Agency,
when it becomes operational in 2009.
Transferring these responsibilities will enable
the Agency to provide a holistic approach to housing and regeneration
and free the Department to focus on the provision of strategic
policy advice and managing cross-Whitehall relationships.
In line with the proposals set out in the consultation,
the following delivery roles and responsibilities will transfer
to the HVA:
— Regeneration programmes from
English Partnerships, including remediation of brownfield land,
facilitating the provision of homes for key workers, the National
Coalfields programme and developing its strategic sites programme
to facilitate the delivery of increasing numbers of new homes;
— Provision of new affordable
housing, currently provided through social housing grant from
the Housing Corporation;
— Delivery responsibilities for
the Decent Homes programmes for the social housing sector from
the Department for Communities and Local Government including
Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs), Large Scale Voluntary
Transfers (LSVT), Housing Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and
PFI for new supply. This will enable the Agency to work closely
with local authorities to join up delivery of Decent Homes with
the wider regeneration of communities. Ministers will continue
to make final decisions on stock transfers and the establishment
of ALMOs;
— Programme management responsibility
from Communities and Local Government on Housing Market Renewal
which will facilitate the joining up with other Agency programmes,
allowing the Agency to work with local authorities to develop
multifaceted regeneration programmes that deliver community as
well as housing market renewal;
— Housing and regeneration delivery
responsibilities of Communities and Local Government in support
of the main existing growth areas, including Milton Keynes-South
Midlands, London-Stansted-Cambridge-Peterborough, and Ashford.
Fulfilling its objective of becoming the "best delivery partner"
for local authorities, it will also work with local authorities
to develop support for new and emerging growth points and will
become Government's main source of advice on the delivery of housing
growth. Responsibility for selecting and assessing growth areas
will remain with the Department and with Ministers; and
— Housing and regeneration delivery
functions from Communities and Local Government in the Thames
Gateway, including driving forward the implementation of the Thames
Gateway Delivery Plan published in November. The Gateway is the
single largest regeneration project in Europe and will provide
160,000 new homes and 225,000 jobs by 2016—making a key
contribution to the delivery of the Agency's objectives. The Agency
will make use of its unrivalled expertise in housing and regeneration
and work with local councils on delivery across the Gateway. Its
role will include the management of Communities and Local Government's
Thames Gateway programme for 2009-11 (up to £500 million
set out in the delivery plan).
The Department will retain responsibility for
overall strategy, cross-government co-ordination and securing
the commitment and spending of Other Government Departments in
the Thames Gateway. The Department will also retain the sponsorship
of the two Urban Development Corporations in the Thames Gateway
which will continue as separate statutory bodies and of the West
Northants UDC.
The Agency will be responsible for providing
advice to Ministers on how the Department's funding programmes
are being deployed and will provide expert support to the delivery
activities of local partners. Ministers and the Department will
retain responsibility for overall strategy, cross-government co-ordination
and securing the commitment and spending of Other Government Departments.
CONCLUSION
The HCA will play a key role in delivering the
Government's housing target of three million new homes by 2020
by bringing together money and land in the same place and combining
the expertise of the Housing Corporation, English Partnerships
and the Department, so that an integrated approach to delivery
can be obtained.
A key part of HCA's work in contributing to
the Government's housing target is the delivery of a range of
affordable housing and utilising/developing new tools and mechanisms
and working with partners to increase access to affordable housing.
The HCA will be able to undertake development
and regeneration directly, but the Government expects it to work
in partnership. With Sir Bob Kerslake as its first Chief Executive,
the Agency will be the "best delivery partner" for local
authorities and communities who will be able to access its housing
and regeneration expertise, negotiating power and innovation.
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