News analysis Regeneration agency gets a broad welcome

25 Jan 07
Nobody was too surprised by the government's plan to create a new agency to take charge of housing and regeneration in England within the next two years.

26 January 2007

Nobody was too surprised by the government's plan to create a new agency to take charge of housing and regeneration in England within the next two years.

The name of the proposed agency, Communities England, has been fairly widely known for about a month – along with the fact that it will take on most, if not all, of the work of the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships.

Much has still to be decided before the agency swings into operation, probably in 2009. There is the tricky question of which functions will be transferred from the Department for Communities and Local Government, as well as who is to be appointed to lead the agency.

Even so, it is hard to find anyone who believes the creation of Communities England, following a nine-month review, is a bad idea, or that local authorities and housing associations will suffer as a result.

Sarah Webb, director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, says the institute always supported the concept of a single agency and will continue encouraging the DCLG to be 'as brave as possible' in giving it control over government programmes.

To date, Communities and Local Government Secretary Ruth Kelly has confirmed only that the decent homes and Housing Market Renewal programmes, urban regeneration and the Private Finance Initiative in housing will switch from the DCLG.

'With the expectation of over £4bn of public spending at its disposal, Communities England will pioneer innovative and more efficient ways of working with our key partners in the public, private and voluntary sectors to get better outcomes from public investment in places,' was Kelly's summation of its functions.

This would leave the DCLG 'to focus more on strategic policy-making,' she said.

According to Webb, this gives the impression that Communities England will be more involved in investment than wider community schemes.

'If you put service delivery and neighbourhood management somewhere else, you run the risk that what you build won't be sustainable,' she says.

The National Housing Federation, meanwhile, is disappointed that the DCLG has not stated whether the Supporting People programme will come under the new agency.

'The needs of the most vulnerable people should be seen as integral to healthy communities,' says David Orr, the NHF's chief executive.

But the government will argue that these are the sort of details that a transition team, headed by English Partnerships' chief executive Baroness Ford, will start to work out during the next few months.

At the same time as Ford is weighing up the possibilities for Communities England, three more reviews will arrive at the DCLG that are bound to have a major effect on social housing as a whole, as well as on the precise role of the agency.

Of these, Professor Martin Cave's review of regulation is likely to have the most direct impact. It should at the very least clarify whether the agency regulates registered social landlords, and the extent to which private developers are monitored after they receive grant.

Ford, who ruled herself out of the chair's post at Communities England, says bodies such as EP are 'waiting for house builders to come to the table'. In the meantime, it will be business as usual. 'The important thing is to keep the show on the road,' she says.

John Slaughter, spokesman for the Home Builders Federation, says developers are keen to see how the agency emerges, but adds that it should not intervene where the market works effectively.

'In the long term, the hope would be that it delivers benefits of efficiency and co-ordination,' he says.

English Partnerships was set up in 1993 to steer regeneration schemes. Six years later, its role expanded after it inherited the work of the Commission for New Towns and the Urban Regeneration Agency.

The Housing Corporation is far older, having been established in 1964. Like EP, it employs about 500 staff and has regional offices. While compulsory redundancies have been ruled out, it is uncertain exactly how many of its staff will end up at Communities England.

Sarah Webb, who worked at the old Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, says civil servants who are asked to transfer will adapt to the challenge.

'They are used to getting to grips with a new brief,' she says. 'But the speed with which an agency works is faster than a government department. They may need to be more flexible and responsive.'

Jon Rouse, the chief executive of the Housing Corporation, appears to be a frontrunner to take on the top job at Communities England if he wants it. However, Webb says the post of chief executive is likely to be 'hotly contested' and could attract interest from the private sector.

Gwyneth Taylor, policy officer at the National Federation of Arms'-Length Management Organisations, is looking for more joined-up government and an end to the sort of silos that exist within the DCLG.

'At present we have a good rapport with the team that monitors Almos, but it's difficult to get to the teams that look at other areas,' she says.

It remains to be seen what impact the agency has on local government. Ruth Kelly sees it as a way to move regeneration closer to communities. Councils will therefore argue that this should put them on an equal footing with RSLs when it comes to funding Neighbourhood Renewal and other schemes.

Martin Wheatley, programme manager for housing at the Local Government Association, says councils want a national strategic agency that is 'lean and mean' and leaves local partners to deliver what is required. 'If it works in the right way, the advantage will be that there is more flexibility over the boundaries between decent homes and neighbourhood renewal,' he says.

Who's reviewing what

  • Housing and regeneration: The decision to create Communities England in place of the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships follows a nine-month review by the Department for Communities and Local Government, which was extended to cover the department's own role.
  • Social housing: Professor John Hills, director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, is taking a wider look at the future of social housing for the DCLG and is due to report within the next few weeks.
  • Housing regulation: Professor Martin Cave, director of the Centre for Management under Regulation at Warwick Business School, is undertaking the first review of how social landlords are regulated for more than 30 years. His report is due this spring.
  • House building: John Callcutt, chief executive of English Partnerships, was seconded to the DCLG on January 1 to study how housing associations and private developers can speed up the construction of new homes. No date is set for his report.

    PFjan2007

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