Low-cost homes must be better value

6 Sep 07
Social landlords and private developers will need to meet tougher standards and cut costs to gain part of the £8bn available through the Housing Corporation's next national affordable housing programme.

07 September 2007

Social landlords and private developers will need to meet tougher standards and cut costs to gain part of the £8bn available through the Housing Corporation's next national affordable housing programme.

The prospectus for the 2008/11 programme, published on September 4, says homes must be designed to a higher quality and be capable of saving energy in line with level 3 of the new Code for Sustainable Homes, which replaces the Eco Homes 'very good' standard.

For the first time, efficiency targets are set for each English region. These range from 4.5% in the East of England to 10.5% in the Northwest.

This should reduce the amount of grant paid out for each home and so lead to better value for money, the prospectus says. At least 45,000 social homes for rent will be built annually by 2010/11, along with 25,000 for low-cost ownership.

Steve Douglas, the corporation's acting chief executive, described the programme as 'a huge responsibility to be shared by ourselves and the increasingly wide range of partner organisations we work with'.

PFsep2007

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