Communities Plan: an outline of the main points and what the experts think of them
Deputy prime minister John Prescott's long-awaited grand vision for housing was published on Wednesday, six months after he announced his desire for "thriving sustainable communities" after July's comprehensive spending review.

It explains how housing's total budget of £22bn will be spent over the next three years.

The main points are:

  • arm's-length management organisations get an extra £2bn and, with the private finance initiative, are identified as key ways to hit the decent homes target
  • £610m is allotted to the four key housing growth areas in the South-east, to create 200,000 new homes over the next 15-20 years
  • £500m is to be shared between the nine market renewal pathfinders to tackle low demand in the North
  • urban regeneration companies, regional housing boards and the land restoration trust will be created to handle delivery
  • single regional investment pots will replace the Approved Development Programme and Housing Investment Programme

Decent homes target
The plan identifies ALMOs and PFI as key methods of getting the 1.5 million households living in homes that are below the decency standard up to the target by 2010. ALMOs win an extra £2bn over three years, there is £685m in PFI credits for refurbishing council homes, a plan to write off the financial penalities incurred by authorities going for partial transfers and a vow to explore options for gap funding of negative value stock. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has also acknowledged that more than two million households are affected by litter and rubbish and 1.5 million households by graffiti and vandalism, so the plan confirms £201m over the next three years to improve "liveability". This includes more money for neighbourhood management pathfinders. There is also an emphasis on good design: the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment will get £41m over three years to focus on open spaces.

Housing Quality Network director Alistair McIntosh welcomed the extra ALMO cash but said that investment must be met by action. "ALMOs have proved themselves to be a reliable, low cost, fast option. The government has done its best to make all options more attractive – and looks like it will try to remove the kinks from PFI. It was a good move to take time out and have a good, long look at all the options."

Sheffield council intends to bid for the extra ALMO cash. Head of housing strategy Karl Tupling said: "The announcement provides a framework for mixed options that will be of real benefit.

"The government hasn't given any guarantees on partial transfer, but it has said it will look at the situation with negative transfers, with the implication that these may be able to go ahead."

It’s good to hear barriers to stock transfer are to be addressed but the commitment must be real and resourced

Howard Farrand, chief executive of Whitefriars Housing Association, said: "Almos are going to have an important role. They will never be as big as stock transfer; but people who won't go for stock transfer might go for ALMO. I'm not sure, though, that PFI is appropriate to the renovation agenda."

High demand
With the average cost of a home at £155,080 in the South-east and £214,257 in Greater London – 10 times the average salary of a nurse – Prescott's plan concentrates heavily on the region's affordable housing shortage. There is to be a £446m "seed corn investment" for the Thames Gateway housing growth area, to help attract private investment, and £164m to be shared between the other four: Milton Keynes, Ashford and the London-Stansted-Cambridge corridor. Prescott stressed that homes would be built "using fast-track modern methods of building and design".

John Barker, chief executive of Moat Housing Group, one of the area's leading registered social landlords, said: "Housing associations are the delivery agents for the much-needed affordable housing and neighbourhood renewal in the South-east. It is essential that the key players in the region work together to achieve the best results."

But Marcus Keys, business improvement manager of housebuilder Lovell, warned that there may be too many agencies involved in the grand plan: "There is already a number of agencies involved, and there could end up being too many."

Michael Ward, chief executive of the London Development Agency, said: "The next step is to clarify how the infrastructure vital to the success of the Thames Gateway is to be funded."

Low demand
The nine housing market renewal pathfinders are to gain the expected £500m investment, mostly in later years of the spending review.

What about the hotspots of high demand outside the South-east and areas of low demand outside the pathfinders?

On top of the £25m pump priming already underway, £60m will be available from April with £150m and £290m in subsequent years. Gap funding will be used to kickstart markets in areas where building is more expensive than value of the housing. Projects will benefit from £350m being put into speeding up and streamlining the planning system.

Homeowners forced to move will get £1000 extra compensation.

The Rochdale/Oldham pathfinder contains 70,000 mostly pre-World War One houses that do not meet modern standards. Rochdale council leader Peter Roberts said: "Today's announcement confirms our judgement that the pathfinder will provide a once-in-a-lifetime chance to make significant improvements to our two boroughs. Many, many local people's lives will be improved as a result."

Delivery
A new body, the Land Restoration Trust, will be created to turn 1500 hectares of derelict land into "urban green spaces". New urban regeneration companies will speed up development. The plan also confirmed £350m over the next three years in planning delivery grant for local authorities, £6m for improved regional planning and £17m to improve urban design skills and widen access to design knowledge across the sector.

Each region gets a new single pot for housing investment to replace the Approved Development Programme and Housing Investment Programme. As revealed in Housing Today last year (HT 28 November, page 7), regional housing boards will advise ministers – who will represent the 13 key housing areas.

Marcus Keys, business improvement manager at housebuilder Lovell, welcomed regional housing boards as a way to speed up the planning system. John Walker, acting chief executive of English Partnerships said English Partnerships would work with regional development agencies and other local organisations to provide gap funding for the pathfinder areas but also for other areas where the costs of development exceeded sale costs. "We would only pay out the money once the development has started," he said.

Other policy changes
Prescott also announced plans to set up a housing ownership taskforce, which will be chaired by the Housing Corporation. The taskforce will look at ways of helping more tenants into home ownership, using a range of existing ownership schemes without reducing the stock of social housing.

Reaction: Richard McCarthy

I’m pleased that the plan is underpinned by a £22bn investment in housing and regeneration; and the £500m earmarked for housing market renewal is a welcome first step towards long-term regeneration of those areas. It is the necessary minimum level of funding in the early years that the NHF has been seeking. But as ever with government announcements, it’s hard to tell what is new money and what has been repackaged. One area which does appear to be new is the £200m which will be invested over the next three years to improve people’s local environment and tackle problems such as graffiti and vandalism. The sum is promising, but the question is, how do we get our hands on it? It’s also good to hear that some of the barriers to stock transfer are to be addressed, but the commitment to this must be real and resourced. Council tenants will benefit from the £2.8bn set aside to improve their homes, but I’m concerned that there is no mention of funding for registered social landlords to achieve this same objective. The involvement of English Partnerships as an assembler of brownfield land and large-scale sites backed by additional resources is a valuable step forward, but acquiring and remediating brownfield land is not enough on its own. Where is the encouragement and support to plan and develop at least some of these sites with housing associations? We have a central role to play but we must be involved at an early stage.

Reaction: John Moralee

The £500m going into the housing market renewal pathfinder areas is welcome. Further funding is possible but will be subject to future spending reviews, so there is very definitely an expectation on delivery here. But will the burden of expectation be too much in trying to quickly turn around areas with a long history of problems? But I am concerned about those areas outside the pathfinders – the coalfield communities, for example – with similar problems but only able to access resources from decent homes and existing regeneration programmes. How much of a difference can they be expected to make? There is also little recognition of the hotspots outside the South-east where demand for affordable housing cannot be met – the Lake District and the Tyne Valley, for instance. Increasing the Housing Corporation’s rural target is unlikely to meet demand. The recognition of the role of ALMOs, which could encourage more authorities to view them as an alternative to stock transfer, is good news. We also welcome the proposal for mandatory licensing of houses in multiple occupation, including areas of low demand. Credit must go to the government for listening to the sector’s concerns about issues such as reforming local authority housing finance and the way the decent homes target is delivered. Getting the regional housing strategy right is now of paramount importance for housing organisations.

Source

Housing Today

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