The split between the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the Department for Transport has been called as "a lost opportunity" to merge transport and housing policy by a House of Commons committee.
The ODPM's public service agreement targets and government pressure on councils to use private finance to improve their housing stock were also criticised in the committee's report, published on Tuesday.

In its analysis of the ODPM's annual report, the committee said the government's aim to create sustainable communities could not be achieved while transport and planning policy pulled in opposite directions.

The analysis said: "The deputy prime minister does not control the budgets for the transport investment said to be so important for his Communities Plan, and the transport department will make decisions on expenditure in accordance with its own priorities and targets." The ODPM's public service agreement targets did not always reflect government priorities, it said.

It also criticised government pressure on councils to use "controversial management and financing arrangements" to reach the decent homes standard.

The committee recommended the ODPM should undergo comprehensive performance assessment and that the National Audit Office, the government's own watchdog, should decide whether the ODPM had achieved its targets. At present, the ODPM measures its own progress.

But the department got a pat on the back for reducing its number of targets and making progress on getting 61% of new homes built on brownfield land by 2001.

Source

Housing Today