Places for People sets sights on £200m grant to developers pilot

England’s largest housing association is planning to bid for funds from the £200m pilot scheme giving grant to private developers.

Places for People, which manages 52,500 homes, missed out on Housing Corporation partner status in March after concerns about its governance. It emerged from corporation supervision in May but was denied a place in the list of 70 preferred landlords.

Instead the association received £11.92m in social housing grant for 2004/6. It is now considering bidding for funds from the ODPM pilot via its private housing arm, Emblem.

Chief executive David Cowans said: “The biggest thing for us is to build on our long tradition of providing affordable housing.

“In terms of availability of grant to private sector developers, we would probably bid.”

Places for People joins the Peabody Trust and Notting Hill Housing Trust, which have already confirmed that they are interested in joining the bidding process (HT 3 December, page 11).

The National Housing Federation has expressed concern that the government’s pilot will not result in a level playing field between private firms and registered social landlords competing for grant.

But Cowans said the key was whether the new arrangements would improve delivery.

He said: “The scale of the need is so enormous that we should all be working together to work out the best way to deliver.

I think we should focus on the outcome rather than the organisational basis.”

A spokesman for Places for People added: “We are in the fortunate position as a group that we have got our own private housing arm so we do not have to go out to find someone to partner us. We could bid direct.

“As a group we haven’t looked at it in great detail yet. Nothing has been submitted. I think it is a case of looking to see what is on offer.”

Four other RSLs are considering joining the pilot. They are: Circle 33, through its developer arm Circle 33 Lifespace; the Guinness Trust, via its Guinness Developments subsidiary; Orbit Housing Group, through its Orbit New Homes division. Riverside also has a private developing arm but is undecided about joining (see fact file).

Raj Upadhyaya, group investment director at Guinness, said: “We are considering it but we are waiting to see detailed guidelines before we commit as we could bid through the private development arm or we could bid in the normal way.”

Ian Greatrex, business development director for Orbit Housing Group, said: “We haven’t made a formal decision. We might submit an expression of interest to get the detailed information available next year but we need to see how it will impact on the broader partnering agreement we have. We cannot have one compromising the other.”

The government published a consultation on the pilot last week, with comments due by 11 January. It will launch the pilot in February.