Caborn has good reason to be busy. Last week he unveiled ground-breaking new regulations which will require every housebuilder in the country to consider brownfield sites for development before greenfield.
And today, he has been plunged straight into the launch of the government's new £1bn a year flagship - the regional development agencies.
These eight organisations which begin operations this week are part of a twin-pronged strategy combining regional economic development and devolved decision-making.
On the one hand the RDAs will feed into the government's plans for devolution.
Their responsible bodies - the regional chambers - could develop into full blown assemblies like in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland or London, if voters so decide.
But their main role will be to promote economic development across England and tackle the massive imbalance in economic growth which has left the east and south east booming while other regions stagnate.
Housing, of course, is intrinsically linked to economic development. People live where there are jobs.
This means RDAs will tackle the anomaly which leaves a chronic housing shortage in the south east, while brand new estates in Tyneside are bulldozed for lack of demand.
RDAs will control the £300m Single Regeneration Budget, take over the work of English Partnerships and the Rural Development Commission.
They will also have a strategic partnership with TECs and universities - but will have no direct housing remit.
The social housing world has often bemoaned this fact, but Caborn is unmoved. He says: "RDAs are strategic bodies. Their main job is to develop the strategies that will start addressing the problems, not to deliver them."
Nevertheless, Caborn is setting his sights very high about the changes in housing he expects as a result of the RDAs' work.
When asked if he thinks that regional economic development through the RDAs can reverse the trend of low demand for social housing in the north, he replies: "I have absolutely no doubt about that. If we could shift the north east 10 per cent to bring them to 90 per cent in GDP per capita terms of the European Union it would have a massive impact - no doubt about that," he declares.
How confident is he that the RDAs are up to such a gargantuan task? "I am confident we can do that. Of course, it's not in my hands it's in theirs," he says.
Caborn is careful not to be prescriptive about which sectors could fill the enormous gaps left by the collapse of traditional industries, but he has high regard for information technology, telecommunications, automotive industries and services.
He also links the solution of low housing demand to the government's overall goal of urban renaissance. He says: "If we can get people with disposable incomes into some of the cities and towns and they start spending their cash, there will be better restaurants, better shops - the whole thing will improve. The key factors are jobs and housing."
Caborn can't give a timetable about how quickly regional development can begin to have an impact, but what he is sure about is the importance of confidence.
"What you have to start doing is bringing the confidence back into the place, that people understand what they are doing and why they are doing it. "Certainty - if you can bring that into the equation its a tremendous confidence booster," he says.
On the question of New Deal for Communities, Caborn suggests that as time goes on, we could see the £800m regeneration programme come under the wing like its cousin, the Single Regeneration Budget.
He says: "Its an evolving scene. You could well argue the case that the NDCs should be run by the RDAs but we were a little concerned that the NDCs were a new animal, whereas SRB is well-trodden and up and running and respected."
Caborn enthuses over the "excellent" idea of regional housing partnerships such as the Yorkshire and Humberside Housing nership set up earlier this year by councils and housing associations seeking to raise social housing on the RDA's agenda (Housing Today 7 January).
However, he is careful not to be "prescriptive" about the idea to other regions. "We're setting the scene and devolving power, but its up to them," he says.
Over the next few months, all eight RDAs will be working hard to produce regional strategies which will "address the structural weaknesses in wealth creation in their regions" armed with the government guidance issued this week.
"These will be very important, not only to Whitehall and the City of London, but also the stakeholders in the region," says Caborn. After that, the real work begins. But how will the success of RDAs be judged, over, say a 10-year period?
Quick as a flash comes the reply: "Every region performing in GDP per capita terms to the average of the European regions. If I can achieve that the quality of life will go up phenomenally."
And with that he's gone. His advisors tell him he's already late for the next media engagement and in a flurry of minders he's off downstairs to the waiting limo.
And up in the deserted office, the untouched coffee goes slowly cold.
Source
Housing Today
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