The NHS has particularly been under pressure to tackle this issue after the sale in the summer of its surplus land to the private sector to build luxury homes. Behind the scenes, the Housing Corporation and NHS Estates at least appear to be trying to resolve these competing demands. The two organisations are in talks about housing associations buying the land at sub-market rates to provide homes for nurses. Deals like this will inevitably need more changes to government accounting. But what the Treasury loses on the economic swings in subsidising housing in this way, it stands to gain far more on the political roundabouts.
One scheme where affordable housing has not lost out to the private sector is the Isokon building in north London, pictured on the cover. Keen to retain the building's pioneering ethos, Camden council turned down lucrative offers for the building in order to sell it to Notting Hill Housing Group, which is renovating it to house teachers. When author Agatha Christie and her chums graced the Isokon in the 1930s, its sleek modernist design and community spirit put it on the map. In its latest incarnation, the Isokon is forging new territory by providing affordable housing with a minimal grant. It is one of three very different schemes featured this week showing the financial ingenuity available to social housing providers struggling to create homes on scarce public resources (page 26).
While the ODPM strives to deliver affordable homes, other government departments are pulling the rug from under its feet
Source
Housing Today
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