Supplementary memorandum by Sir Bob Kerslake
1. I welcome this opportunity to give evidence
to the Communities and Local Government committee session on the
Homes and Communities Agency. Since being appointed Chief Executive
Designate of the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), I have begun
work on setting up the Agency, and on ensuring the smooth transition
between the three contributing organisations (English Partnerships,
the Housing Corporation and CLG including the Academy for Sustainable
Communities) and the new Agency.
PROGRESS TO
DATE
2. Since my appointment, I believe we have
made significant progress in making preparations for the new agency.
The Government's recent statement confirming the functions to
be transferred to the HCA has been very helpful in this. It gives
us a greater clarity about the scope of the Agency, provides more
certainty to staff of the organisations affected allows us to
plan ahead with greater certainty. I was especially pleased to
see that the proposals for transfer incorporated all of the CLG
functions set out in the consultation paper and added the delivery
of housing and regeneration in the Thames Gateway.
3. Since being appointed as Chief Executive
Designate, I have tried to increase the pace of work on establishing
the Agency. We have put a high quality Set Up team in place. Their
aim will be to accelerate the preparations for the HCA by drawing
on the widest possible range of skills without diverting English
Partnerships, CLG and the Housing Corporation from the work they
need to do to deliver their own challenging targets in the year
ahead.
4. One of the keys to the success of the
Agency will be to ensure excellent working relationships with
a range of key partners. To this end, I have begun discussions
with representatives of local government (including the LGA),
the Mayor of London and the Regional Development Agencies. Their
continued support for the Agency will be critical if we are to
support the delivery of the government's target for new homes
and secure the targets for new affordable homes.
5. I have also begun to meet with key stakeholders
such as the Housing Associations and Housebuilders.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
6. My starting point for the Homes and Communities
Agency has been to consider it a wholly new agency. To this end,
one of the roles of the Set Up team will be to ensure that the
HCA will combine the strengths of the four existing organisations
and adds some of its own, becoming a distinctive organisation
in its own right. There has been a tendency to define the Agency
by the functions that it brings together, rather than the distinctive
purpose that it will have as a new Agency.
7. The essential role of the HCA will be
about creating opportunity. This means both the opportunity for
people to live in affordable homes in places they want to live
and the opportunity for local authorities and communities to deliver
the ambitions they have for their own area.
8. The HCA needs to become Local Government's
best delivery partner, able to work with local authorities to
deliver local outcomes and ambitions, whilst at the same time
delivering national targets. This local engagement will occur
through the Local Area Agreement process, with the HCA becoming
a named partner, required to have regard to local targets. Where
significant resources of the agency are involved, investment would
be managed through a single local delivery plan tied into the
LAA or MAA.
9. The Agency will need to have a strong
regional presence, working in close collaboration with regional
partners to play its part in the delivery of the regional strategy.
Its aim should be to complement, not duplicate, the delivery work
of the RDAs, focussing its input on initiatives and projects where
it brings a distinctive expertise. This will be focussed on, but
certainly not exclusive to, schemes with a housing content. This
strong regional presence will also help to facilitate the relationships
the Agency will need to build at a local level, as highlighted
above.
10. The HCA should act as a bridge between
national targets and local ambition. Whilst CLG will retain the
responsibility for setting strategy and policy, with the HCA in
charge of delivery, Ministers will need to be able to call on
the Agency to use its delivery expertise to advise on the practical
implications and options for delivery of their policy goals. Similarly
delivery of the Agency's responsibilities in many key areas will
have significant policy and political implications—ministers
and officials will understandably want to be closely engaged in
progress on delivery.
11. It will be important for the Agency
to be "market-facing", working closely with developers,
house-builders and housing associations to ensure the delivery
of the government's house-building targets, and acting as a link
between the market and local authorities. The Agency must have
a very strong understanding of how it can work with markets and
make most impact with the public funds available to it
KEY TASKS
12. There are a number of key tasks for
the Set Up team between now and next April when the Agency is
expected to commence formal operations (subject to the passage
of the Housing and Regeneration Bill)
13. In this early stage, I will be especially
keen to reach early decisions on the organisational structure
of the Agency, especially around issues such as accommodation,
roles, responsibilities and pensions. This will give certainty
and confidence to staff transferring to the new Agency and will
result in a smooth transition to the new Agency that will allow
the focus to continue to be on delivery at English Partnerships,
CLG and the Housing Corporation.
14. Bringing together the various activities
of the three contributing organisations will also be vitally important.
To deliver better outcomes, we need to harness the flexibility
that combining these activities and functions can bring. This
is something that will grow over time. We can make significant
headway in this Spending Review period, but I believe there will
be event greater opportunities in future spending rounds.
15. The Agency needs to position itself
as the expert source of knowledge on the operation of housing
and development markets, national and international best practice
in sustainable development and how delivery of the Government's
agenda is progressing on the ground. The Academy for Sustainable
Communities will act as a key method for the dissemination of
best practice and will help to build local knowledge and capacity.
16. One of the key tests of success for
the new Agency will be its ability to:
— Provide ministers with good
quality advice on the delivery implications of policy proposals
and keep them well briefed on progress on the delivery of key
policy initiatives.
— Ensure that ministers are able
to engage in the discussions on key delivery proposals before
the final decisions are taken (within the terms of the formal
framework).
17. This will require a closer relationship
and greater interaction between the Agency and ministers than
was previously the case with English Partnerships and the Housing
Corporation.
18. The Agency will not be responsible for
the regulation of registered social landlords, which will be undertaken
by the newly formed agency OfTenant. It will, however, need to
work very closely with this new regulatory agency, particularly
in order to ensure that it has a means of establishing whether
a Registered Social Landlord has the standing and capacity to
deliver its proposed investment programme.
CONCLUSION
19. The new Homes and Communities Agency
will be the national Housing and Regeneration Agency for England.
Whilst it will make an active input in to the development of policy,
its primary focus will be on delivery. Its central tasks will
be to:
— Support the delivery of two0
million homes by 2016 and three million homes by 2020, achieving
a new build rate of 240,000 homes per annum.
— Secure the delivery of at least
180,000 new affordable homes over the next three years, with a
new build rate of at least 70,000 affordable homes by 2010-11,
of which 45,000 should be socially rented.
— Ensure that the above targets
are met in a way that are economically, socially and environmentally
sustainable, promotes good design and provides value for money.
— Support and accelerate the physical
regeneration of under-performing cities, towns and neighbourhoods,
including rural communities, working closely with local authorities
and other agencies involved in the wider regeneration task.
20. If the Agency is to succeed in these
tasks, it will need to be able to hit the ground running from
its formal start date next year. Therefore, my key objective,
as Chief Executive Designate, over the next twelve months is to
establish a clear vision and ways of working for Agency, develop
strong relationships with key stakeholders and build a new organisation
with its own distinctive culture.
21. The Agency will be judged on its success
against the tasks set out above. This success will only come if
the HCA is viewed, and views itself, as a new agency (not simply
an amalgamation of the Housing Corporation, English Partnerships,
the Academy for Sustainable Communities and part of CLG), one
that is about creating opportunity for people and communities,
and one that is able to act as an effective bridge between the
government's ambitions for housing and regeneration and the delivery
of those ambitions locally, through close working with local authorities,
other national and regional agencies and the market.
Sir Bob Kerslake
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