By Neil Merrick
25 November 2009
A multibillion-pound housing and regeneration agency set up just under one year ago faces the axe under a Conservative government.
Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps told house builders that the Homes and Communities Agency was ‘cumbersome’ and too expensive. ‘They have 21 offices around the country and a £4.5m staffing bill per month,’ he said
Shapps, who has already indicated that the Conservatives would wind up the Tenant Services Authority, claimed the HCA was ‘made up of lots of different quangos’ and that some activities, such as training, duplicated private sector initiatives.
While he accepted that an agency was needed to own public land, it would be far cheaper for development grants to be given directly by the government, he told a lunch organised by the National House Building Council on November 19.
Both the HCA and TSA were launched last December to replace English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation. Shapps described the position in London, where HCA chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake sits on a board chaired by Mayor Boris Johnson, as ‘ludicrous duplication’. He added: ‘We see great savings to be made from cuts in enormous organisations.’
An HCA spokeswoman said the agency had cut the network of offices it inherited in 2008 from 21 to 17, eight of which are shared with Regional Government Offices or other public bodies. Its monthly salary bill is £4.2m.
Shapps praised the HCA’s efforts by to encourage institutional investors to fund private rented housing and said these should be extended to social housing.
Figures published by the HCA on November 24 show that 20,177 homes were built by housing associations and other developers between April and September as part of the National Affordable Housing Programme. This included 10,671 for social renting. Starts were made on 14,136, of which 9,280 were for social renting. The agency said it was on course to meet its end of year targets.
25 November 2009
A multibillion-pound housing and regeneration agency set up just under one year ago faces the axe under a Conservative government.
Shadow housing minister Grant Shapps told house builders that the Homes and Communities Agency was ‘cumbersome’ and too expensive. ‘They have 21 offices around the country and a £4.5m staffing bill per month,’ he said
Shapps, who has already indicated that the Conservatives would wind up the Tenant Services Authority, claimed the HCA was ‘made up of lots of different quangos’ and that some activities, such as training, duplicated private sector initiatives.
While he accepted that an agency was needed to own public land, it would be far cheaper for development grants to be given directly by the government, he told a lunch organised by the National House Building Council on November 19.
Both the HCA and TSA were launched last December to replace English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation. Shapps described the position in London, where HCA chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake sits on a board chaired by Mayor Boris Johnson, as ‘ludicrous duplication’. He added: ‘We see great savings to be made from cuts in enormous organisations.’
An HCA spokeswoman said the agency had cut the network of offices it inherited in 2008 from 21 to 17, eight of which are shared with Regional Government Offices or other public bodies. Its monthly salary bill is £4.2m.
Shapps praised the HCA’s efforts by to encourage institutional investors to fund private rented housing and said these should be extended to social housing.
Figures published by the HCA on November 24 show that 20,177 homes were built by housing associations and other developers between April and September as part of the National Affordable Housing Programme. This included 10,671 for social renting. Starts were made on 14,136, of which 9,280 were for social renting. The agency said it was on course to meet its end of year targets.
