Councils should help approve housing grants

3 Nov 05
Local authorities should help the Housing Corporation to choose which registered social landlords receive public money to build homes, housing professionals said this week.

04 November 2005

Local authorities should help the Housing Corporation to choose which registered social landlords receive public money to build homes, housing professionals said this week.

Responding to calls for a new partnership between councils and RSLs, the Chartered Institute of Housing joined the Local Government Association in suggesting that councils could assist the corporation in drawing up 'preferred partner lists' before RSLs bid for grants.

The suggestion came in a CIH/LGA paper, Visionary leadership in housing, which urges authorities to adopt long- and short-term strategies for public and private sector housing – regardless of whether they own homes or have transferred them to an RSL.

Jon Rouse, the corporation's chief executive, said last month that councils could play a role in assessing the performance of RSLs, although he stressed that final decisions on where grants went would remain with the corporation.

Merron Simpson, head of policy at the CIH, said there should be nothing to stop councils from suggesting which of the corporation's existing partner associations they preferred and putting forward new names. 'It's possible that the Housing Corporation will adopt new partners on the recommendation of local authorities,' she said.

The LGA has already held an informal meeting with Rouse and is due to meet officials from the corporation later this month. It will stress that, in return for these new responsibilities, councils must ease planning regulations and make it easier to build homes.

Visionary leadership in housing, launched on November 2, proposes that the corporation reviews its bidding process so that investment decisions by RSLs and developers coincide with major local planning decisions.

Housing strategies were proposed in the 2003 Local Government Act but the legislation has still to be enforced. The CIH/LGA document goes further by suggesting that councils set out 15-year objectives in addition to short-term plans that are reviewed every three years.

Ruth Lucas, housing policy manager at the LGA, said housing should no longer be seen as the poor relation of local government. 'It is fundamental to achieving sustainable communities,' she said.

PFnov2005

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