03 August 2007
A £4bn regeneration agency that will replace the Housing Corporation within two years is to be rebranded — just six months after it was christened Communities England.
The agency will also succeed English Partnerships and inherit work from the Department for Communities and Local Government. It is designed to move decision-making on housing and regeneration closer to communities.
But within days of taking over as prime minister, Gordon Brown told the DCLG that he did not like the proposed name and instructed civil servants to come up with a better one. By the time the housing green paper was published last week, it was simply referred to as 'the new homes agency' although a DCLG spokeswoman stressed this was a working name.
The final name will reflect more accurately the high priority that the prime minister has given to affordable housing, said the spokeswoman.
Sarah Webb, deputy chief executive at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: 'It would be unfortunate to have an organisation that's focused solely on building.'
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