Memorandum by English Partnerships
1. Thank you for the letter dated 18 December
2006 formally inviting English Partnerships (EP) to give evidence
to the above inquiry alongside the Housing Corporation. I confirm
that as Chief Executive of English Partnerships, I will be attending
the evidence session as a witness.
2. As you are aware, English Partnerships
contributed to the written evidence prepared by our sponsor department,
Communities and Local Government (CLG). However, in advance of
the oral evidence session, I thought that it would be helpful
if I outlined English Partnerships' role in the supply of rented
housing.
3. English Partnerships is the national
regeneration agency, helping the Government support high quality
sustainable growth across England. EP focuses on land assembly,
pre-investment in infrastructure, remediation and masterplanning
to bring about sustainable mixed communities. English Partnerships
facilitates development that will support a range of housing sizes,
types and incomes, including social and private rented accommodation.
4. In 2005-06 we facilitated 7,389 housing
starts on site including 2,057 affordable units, of which 933
were affordable for rent. We also facilitated 3,238 housing completions,
including 1,073 affordable units, of which 653 were affordable
for rent.
SUPPLY OF
LAND
5. English Partnerships recognises that
the availability of land is a key issue in the supply of housing,
including the provision of rented accommodation. English Partnerships
has a key role in bringing forward land for development, particularly
in bringing surplus public sector land and brownfield land back
into use.
6. English Partnerships has acquired more
than 2,000 hectares of surplus public sector land over the last
four years, including 96 former hospital sites which will contribute
to the delivery of 14,000 new homes of which 50% will be affordable.
English Partnerships and the Office of Government Commerce also
administer the Register of Surplus Public Sector Land, which provides
a single reference point for all participating public sector organisations
on the available national supply of surplus land and helps to
ensure that wider government objectives, including housing need,
are factored into land disposal decisions. Sites from around 50
public sector bodies make up the Register.
7. EP's experience has also informed the
work of the joint HM Treasury/ CLG Surplus Public Sector Land
Taskforce. The Taskforce is focused on providing a more comprehensive
picture of surplus public sector land, exploring with landowners
how more of this land might be utilised to increase the supply
of new homes and examining cost-effective options for releasing
more public sector land to facilitate growth.
8. English Partnerships recognises the critical
role brownfield land has in contributing to increasing the supply
of housing and delivering the Government's wider objectives. EP
has launched a best practice toolkit aimed at disseminating the
experience of English Partnerships and other organisations that
are actively involved in reusing brownfield land and is concluding
recommendations for a National Brownfield Strategy for consideration
by Ministers in the Spring.
9. English Partnerships is also a partner
in the National Land Use Database of Previously Developed Land
(NLUD), a key tool in recording the availability of brownfield
land in England. In 2005, NLUD recorded that a total of 53,291
hectares of land comprising more that 25,500 sites that, having
been developed, were now lying derelict or vacant, or although
still occupied, was considered suitable for redevelopment.
DELIVERING AFFORDABLE
HOUSING
10. English Partnerships works to deliver
affordable as well as market housing, principally through the
delivery of innovative intermediate housing products.
— The London-Wide Initiative (LWI)
uses redundant buildings and sites to provide discounted for sale
intermediate affordable housing (totalling about 1500) across
London. LWI is a deferred equity model in which EP retains the
unsold equity of the homes. Sites will also provide a further
2500 homes, a mixture of open market for sale and other affordable
tenures, including some social rented homes.
— The First Time Buyer's Initiative
(FTBI) is a shared equity product providing first time buyers
a "stepping stone" into home ownership. It forms part
of CLG's New Build HomeBuy initiative, targeted at key workers
and other eligible groups currently priced out of the market.
FTBI will deliver 15,000 homes across England by 2010.
11. English Partnerships encourages the
use of effective Section 106 agreements to release land to deliver
affordable housing and infrastructure. For example, English Partnerships
has led on innovative land value capture mechanisms in areas such
as West Bedford and Milton Keynes. We are currently working with
the Housing Corporation to produce guidance on the use of cascades
to simplify section 106 arrangements where the level of public
sector funding is uncertain.
12. English Partnerships encourages high
quality mixed-tenure and mixed-income communities to achieve better
social cohesion and sustainability. Our challenging quality standards
require homes to be well designed and constructed so that the
social housing is not differentiated from other tenures by design,
quality or location within a site or by significant differences
in access to services and amenities. We are also committed to
implementing the level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes on
our developments from 1 April 2007 which will apply to both market
and rented housing.
13. We recognise the benefits that the growth
of the private investment market has brought to the housing market,
especially the attraction of new institutional investors and a
greater attention to long-term management of property. We also
acknowledge the tensions that sometimes arise where investors
and owner-occupiers buy within the same developments. For this
reason, especially to avoid empty properties caused by investors
holding homes only for capital growth, in some of our schemes
we have sought to limit the number of homes sold to private investors.
14. English Partnerships believes that early
engagement of the local community, including social housing tenants,
in the development process is key to the success of its projects.
We are currently developing new good practice guidance on community
planning and engagement which includes pioneering the use of collaborative
design workshops to create visions for our developments.
FAMILY HOUSING
15. English Partnerships supports mixed
communities which include a range of housing types. This includes
the provision of larger accommodation to support families in need
of housing. In its quality standards, EP has adopted the requirement
that housing on all its future development is built to the principles
of Lifetime Homes. This aims to promote housing which is flexible,
adaptable and robust to changing social and demographic times.
Homes should be of a reasonable size to allow adaptation and flexible
use by owners throughout their lifetime.
16. In addition, EP is promoting the development
of "super-flexible homes" which support a range of design
features including foundations to attached garages designed to
accommodate potential first floor extensions; open truss roof
structures designed to facilitate future upwards extensions; and
houses built with basements which can easily be converted into
living space.
WORKING WITH
THE HOUSING
CORPORATION
17. EP works in close collaboration with
the Housing Corporation across its programmes. We have 12 Joint
Strategic Projects that bring together English Partnerships' expertise
in land and development with the Housing Corporation's affordable
housing investment and regulatory expertise.
18. Government has recently announced proposals
for a new agency to deliver regeneration and housing. Communities
England will bring together the functions of English Partnerships,
the Housing Corporation, and a range of programmes currently carried
out by Communities and Local Government. English Partnerships
welcomes the announcement and looks forward to playing a part
in creating the new agency.
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