We want returns on our investment

The Housing Corporation has warned housing associations and private developers that it is not a “fairy godmother” that will fund developments without expecting something in return.

Speaking at the Northern Housing Consortium development conference in York last Thursday, Peter Dixon, the corporation’s chair, hammered home the message to delegates from councils and associations across the north of England.

In his speech, Dixon said: “The corporation has to change.

We are an investor – through partnerships – but investors want returns. We want either a financial return, or a guarantee that what’s built will be a sustainable community. We’ll decide which projects deliver on a scheme-by-scheme basis,” he said.

More must be done to encourage efficiency and mergers. We have to make our money work harder. We want value for money

Neil McDonald, ODPM

Dixon also said the regulator – which is policing the delivery of efficiency savings demanded by the ODPM – must become more efficient itself.

When questioned at the Housing Today-sponsored event on the proposed merger between Anglia Housing Group and Circle 33, Dixon said he hoped other organisations would follow suit and that the regulator was “working to be able to broker arrangements in this area”.

The conference also included a “Question Time” panel about delivering housing in the North.

Grant to developers means that the sector is on trial: if we don’t spend grant more efficiently on supply, other people will spend it for us

Sarah Webb, Chartered Institute of Housing

Panellist Peter Walls, chief executive of Sunderland Housing Group, called for a change in attitudes towards traditional perceptions of resource allocation in the region. He said: “It’s not a competition between investment in the economy or investment in housing. They are the same.”

Walls’ fellow panellists were: Sue Ellis, chair of the Yorkshire & Humber Housing Forum; Ian Cole, professor of housing studies at Sheffield Hallam University; Arvinda Gohil, director of regions at the National Housing Federation; and Kelvin MacDonald, director of the Royal Town Planning Institute.