The ODPM's new director of sustainable communities has said he wants to inject a sense of urgency into the push to deliver the Communities Plan.
In an interview with Housing Today, Richard McCarthy said he would respond to the sector's "desires to see things happen quickly" on the deputy prime minister's blueprint for British communities.

"It's a fast-moving area," said McCarthy, who is a former chief executive of major housing association the Peabody Trust and a former chair of the National Housing Federation, the trade body for housing associations. "There are different vehicles for delivery, but what's important is that we move rapidly into position."

He said early signs of progress would come from the work of quango English Partnerships, one of several bodies for which he has ultimate responsibility.

He singled out a partnership between EP and housebuilder Bellway Homes, set up to develop 10,000 homes at Barking Reach in the Thames Gateway housing growth area, as a model that could become widespread in future. Government money is being used to fund part of the development, unveiled last month. Any returns will be ploughed back into housing and infrastructure projects elsewhere.

McCarthy, who took on the ODPM job full-time in November, highlighted the rise of urban development corporations in parts of the four growth areas as a sign that real work has begun on delivering the Communities Plan.

McCarthy also told associations to stop complaining about proposed changes to the planning system.

Source

Housing Today