19 December 2003
A new system for paying development grants to large housing associations has been nearly three times over-subscribed.
The Housing Corporation, which has £3.3bn to pay out in grants by 2005/06, received bids totalling £8bn from associations keen to use its new 'partnering approach' during the next two years.
The corporation announced in September that it would focus funds on large registered social landlords to speed up house-building, especially in the four designated growth areas in Southeast England.
But part of the £3.3bn must be held back for landlords who wish to make smaller bids, as well as for private developers, who will be able to bid for grants once the housing Bill becomes law.
Final allocations will be announced by the corporation early in 2004. Norman Perry, its chief executive, said he was delighted that so many bids had been received in just two months.
'The Housing Corporation will have a lot of proposals from which to select a two-year programme,' he told the Henry Stewart annual briefing on social housing in London on December 11.
Most of the bids were from consortiums rather than individual RSLs. 'There are very few RSLs that are daft enough to think they can carry out a programme by themselves,' he added.
But he stressed the corporation would continue to insist on quality. He said: 'Don't think that this is just a question of getting the cheapest possible procurement.'
Perry recommended RSLs and private developers focus on sites in the south Midlands, rather than those nearer to London. The M11 corridor had 'landscape-sensitive issues', while the Thames Gateway area faces major infrastructure difficulties, he said.
PFdec2003
