Regional housing boards will be subsumed into regional planning boards under plans to merge the two bodies now being worked up by the ODPM.
Housing practitioners had hoped that housing would be given pre-eminence or at least that the two bodies would be given equal status.

A senior regional source said the housing boards would be "junior partners" in the merger: "The ODPM has been very positive about our view that the merger be conducted in favour of the planning boards. The consultation is going to take that very seriously."

This is backed up by minutes, seen by Housing Today, of a meeting between regional assembly representatives and the ODPM. The minutes show support for "the integration of regional housing boards into regional assemblies [the regional planning boards] in order to benefit from … the greater democratic legitimacy of regional assemblies, as compared to unelected boards."

We thought we’d persuaded people of the integral role of housing but this merger will take it back to bricks and mortar

Judy Watkinson, Yorkshire & Humber Housing Forum

Housing professionals reacted with dismay.

Judy Watkinson, link officer for the Yorkshire & Humber Housing Forum, said: "Just when we thought we'd persuaded people of the integral role of housing in communities, a merger on these terms will just take it back to being about bricks and mortar."

Source

Housing Today