Opportunity knocks

Finally, after all the build-up, all the limelight and anticipation, John Prescott last week released the government paper Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future. This Communities Plan has a number of key legal ramifications for the sector on a practical level.

Tenant involvement
The government has indicated that consultation and the continual involvement of tenants lies at the heart of its policies. How this will be achieved has not been set out, but registered social landlords are in a strong position to take a proactive approach.

The involvement of tenants in the management of their estates is common on estate transfers; estate management boards are often set up that consist, at least in part, of tenant representatives. Tenant management organisations, or similar bodies, and how they can integrate with existing management structures also need to be looked at. There is now also greater scope, after the Charity Commission's acceptance of the principle of greater tenant involvement in running charitable entities. RSLs are ideally placed to advise and pursue the initiative.

Joined-up planning
The government is currently doing a consultation exercise on the planning process. Linked to this is the government's desire to free up a number of housing areas that are currently constrained, such as disused shops in inner-city areas.

For the government to create sustainable communities, it will be relying to a large extent on the planning authorities to ensure that private sector partners accept the requirement that they must help to provide affordable housing. This could be achieved in a number of ways – through planning agreements, planning gain or direct cross-subsidy – but it is a balancing exercise between the need for the deal to be commercially acceptable to the private sector and the need to maintain the commitment to provide affordable housing.

Off-site gets on board
One of the central ways of providing a sustainable community is through the design process – creating properties which people wish to live in, while speeding up the construction process. Off-site construction techniques and environmentally friendly homes gel with this aim.

While other bodies may be best placed to build sustainable housing, they may not be best qualified to manage it

The challenge in adhering to these principles is to provide quality at a cost that RSLs can afford. The Communities Plan says that it is not concerned with the lowest cost, but with providing buildings with a long lifespan. The "partnering" ethos of the Egan taskforce will prevail and projects will be encouraged to follow this procurement route.

Mixed messages have been coming out of central government regarding the quality of off-site techniques, which potentially detract from the proposals in the paper.

New players come to the table
The paper discusses making more funds available for investment, through the Housing Corporation, both for key workers and those in priority housing need. It also, however, says that the Housing Corporation itself may be given further powers to provide funds to "other bodies" to encourage new housing development.

The issue for RSLs here is that, while they are in the best position to undertake affordable housing, other bodies brought in, like subsidiaries of private developers, could severely limit and affect registered social landlords' ability to develop stock. The concern is that, while other bodies may be best placed to build housing, they may not be the best qualified to manage it. Can these other organisations provide a sustainable community while focusing on profit margins?