Transcript Slide 1

Future activities of the Homes and
Communities Agency
Dan Jackson
13th December 2010
The vision
 The HCA is changing to reflect the Government’s new
direction
 The Agency will be a smaller and more strategic
enabling, investment and regulation agency
– working with local authorities and their communities at their
request
– ensuring Registered Providers are economically well run and
financially viable
– with a stronger role for local leadership
 “The people you call to get things done”
– Grant Shapps, Housing Minister
As a national agency that delivers
locally the new HCA will…
 Provide practical, innovative and co-ordinated support
– to deliver local ambitions for housing and regeneration
– in a way that would otherwise be more expensive and difficult
to achieve
– while withdrawing from areas better led by others
 Embed localism at the heart of every activity
– to put communities in charge and support people to meet their housing
aspirations
– while increasing accountability and transparency
 Maximise the potential of private and institutional investment
– and secure the best outcomes and value for money from limited public
resources
– while reducing costs significantly
The HCA offer
 As an enabling, investment and regulation agency our
offer will have four main parts
– driven by what local areas need, developed through local
investment planning
Investment
Enabling
support
Maximising
assets for
local benefit
Supporting
local
delivery
and services
through
regulation
Investment –
Three areas of activity
Affordable housing
 Total investment of
£4.5bn over the
spending review
 Completion of existing
commitments under the
NAHP
 A new affordable
housing programme, up
to 150,000 homes,
many at the new
affordable rent
 Continuing provision for
mortgage rescue,
Places of Change and
Gypsy and Traveller
sites and for bringing
empty homes back into
use
Existing stock
 A £2.1bn programme of
investment needed to
deal with repairs
 Reaching a point where
self-financing becomes
viable
 Enabling local
authorities to connect
this investment to other
opportunities, especially
around energy
efficiency
 A key test of our
investment and
enabling role combined
Land & regeneration
 Using public land
assets to deliver value
and benefits for local
communities
 A central role in
realising benefits from
the land assets left by
the RDAs
 Access to £1.3bn fund
for completion of
existing regeneration
commitments that are
high priorities for local
areas
These programmes will be at the heart of the new HCA’s place making activity
Investment – A new approach
to affordable housing
 Government’s new “Affordable Rent” offer in return for investing in
new supply:
– rents set at up to 80% of market levels
– tenancy agreements that can be reviewed after a fixed period
– ability to convert existing social homes to affordable rent at point of relet
 Rent and tenancy terms for existing tenants will not be affected
 Funding remains for empty homes, Mortgage Rescue, Places of
Change and Gypsies & Travellers
 Low Cost Home Ownership supported where it’s a local priority
 The new approach allows greater flexibility to make public
investment go further
– details of how this model will be implemented will be developed over the
coming months
Local Investment Planning –
The overall framework
 Local investment planning provides the overall framework for the
HCA at a local level. Local investment planning is:
– a voluntary process: when asked, no local authorities expressed a wish
to discontinue developing their plans
– a locally led process: the HCA supports local authorities to develop the
plans, based on their own criteria for prioritising investment; and
– A collaborative process: producing shared but locally-owned housing
and regeneration ambitions
 The HCA is working with 160 local partnerships, the majority of
which will have completed their plans by Autumn 2010
– e.g. the HCA has supported seven local authorities in Cumbria to agree
a common framework for housing investment, making decisions
consistent and mutually supportive
Local Investment Planning –
Three Processes
Guiding the HCA’s
local offer
 Local investment planning will play a central role in guiding the delivery of
specific investment programmes
 It will also provide the basis for establishing what other support local areas
request from the Agency
Informing resource
allocation
 Local investment planning can help support a localist approach to allocating
resources
 The detailed intelligence provided by local investment plans ensures that new
investment is applied to meet local need
Maximising impact
 Local authorities find the planning process valuable in helping them to
maximise the impact of all available investment
 It does so by providing the basis for co-ordination across public and private
investment, and in identifying the areas of greatest impact
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