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| New Agency for New Housing | 21st Nov '07 |
| Trevor Beattie, a Director of English Partnerships, recently met with representatives of various regional and national church networks to talk and discuss the future plans for new housing in England. |
 | | | Ian Chisnall and Trevor Beattie |
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As reported on the website, Church in New Housing Areas a new body is planned to bring together all of the various public agencies currently involved supporting affordable housing; both regeneration and new building. The working title is the 'Homes and Communities Agency', which will bring together the current work of English Partnerships, the investment side of the Housing Corporation and the delivery functions of the Department for Communities and Local Government.
Trevor addressed the current and future structures and spoke about the positive impact the new Agency could have, especially as the word 'community' is stated in the title. He understood the key concerns of the church representatives and answered many questions concerning the regions and national structures.
The Government is yet to debate in both Houses the proposed Agency , but much of the early discussion and proposal is in place and the debate is imminent. Bishops in the House of Lords will get the chance to discuss the proposals, and Trevor said they should be encouraged to do so, with proper briefings, on behalf of the wider church and community.
After legislation allows, the 'Homes and Communities Agency' should come in to effect in the Spring of 2009.
Trevor Beattie made the following comments:- Previous proposed names for the new agency were 'Communities England', and 'New Homes Agency', but 'Homes and Communities Agency' said all the right things and put 'community' in the centre of the work.
- 'It doesn't make much sense to disassociate regeneration and new housing, local programmes and Government strategy, and the regional variations it all needs to be joined up' - as in the proposal.
- The new Agency is proposed to be the delivery arm of the Department for Communities and Local Government, including Housing PFI, the funding for the Growth Areas, the Urban Regeneration Companies and Urban Development Corporations (currently excluding Thames Gateway) and the Decent Homes programme.
- The current budget for all of these areas which it is proposed the Agency will manage is some £4.7 billion per year.
- The new Agency will have the concern for both quality and quantity. At present some new houses are too small to live in, so as to get the numbers built on land available. English Partnerships have just introduced 'minimum space standards' to combat this. Good design can increase the number being built without compromising quality.6 The new agency will also have the brief for affordable housing, as well as environmental and community concerns, so all of this should be better integrated.
- The target of building 240k new homes per year by 2016 is not being reached at present as 170k are being built now. A new Agency should be able to increase the build rate..
- The new Agency will not halt any current planning. 'Everything under way now will continue and be completed - it is business as usual', he said..
- The proposed Agency would deliver on a regional basis, as at present..
- Though not sure about the mechanism for doing so yet, the proposal is not to replace or repeat the current regional Spatial Strategy consultations, but to 'mesh' them in to new national and regional plans under the Agency..
- One aim is to provide integration of national and regional plans while at the same time 'empowering and enabling the local'..
- New and existing communities are to be serviced by the same body..
- The Government intention to build 10 new eco towns of 25k population each is on a far greater scale than even the biggest current new build projects. The proposed Agency should be in a better place to handle that scale of work..
- As with all community networks, new housing areas provide a 'massive opportunity for the mission of the church'. Trevor lamented how often 'the opportunity has not been grasped'. He gave various examples, eg church building being made redundant in planned new housing area; current church buildings not adapted for new resident needs; the church leaders had not got involved in the planning process at all; no imagination about new community and church plant possibilities etc..
- Often, as in old airfield or hospital sites, a chapel already exists and could be utilised ...
- School provision is critically important: it is often the first question people ask when considering buying a new house. Trevor recognised that the church is often involved and makes a positive contribution..
- Trevor commended the re-use of church land for social housing as a hope described by the representatives from Housing Justice and the Arthur Rank Centre present..
- Rural housing was to be part of the new Agency work, which is seen as 'national' not 'urban'..
- The current 'Section 106 Agreement' process will continue but should be better and more uniform across the regions under the new Agency. The whole planning process should be more integrated under the general heading of 'Planning for Communities'..
- To an environmental question, Trevor said that in his view 'there is no need to touch Greenbelt - as 5.7 % of the land is for housing and there is 75% green field - so plenty of other land to use'. (Ed note: green field is often confused with Greenbelt, which is 13% of the country, making the total of green field and greenbelt 88% of the country)..
Trevor recognised the controversy over this last question, as with many other issues he had sought to address for the church representatives gathered. |
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