HCA Exceed Key Delivery Targets

Preliminary end of year results show that the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is on course to report a very strong year of delivery, helping local authorities to achieve ambitions for their areas, and expects to report a positive performance for housing starts and completions.  An early assessment of year end figures shows that despite continued challenging operating conditions the Agency has exceeded its key output targets for 2011-12.  The results will now be audited and formally reported in June. The HCA’s total programme investment for the year was within budget at £2.3bn.  This included £1.2bn on the National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP).  Read more on the HCA website.

Social Housing Residents Happy With Design and Quality of Homes

Resident feedback published today by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) shows that the overwhelming majority of social housing tenants are very happy with the design and quality of their homes, funded by the Agency. The report, Quality Counts, summarises the main findings of a series of Quality Assurance and Impact Visits carried out by the HCA for homes delivered under the Agency’s National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP) 2008-11, across 520 schemes nationwide. The Quality Assurance and Impact Visits complement the Agency’s compliance activity, providing a valuable understanding of what residents really want from their homes. Findings from the Quality Assurance and Impact Visits will be used to inform the Agency’s approach to delivering the new Affordable Homes programme, helping to ensure continuous improvement in the quality of homes funded by the HCA. Download a copy of the report from the HCA website.

Battle Highlights Funding Black Hole for New Traveller Sites

Millions of pounds intended for new Gypsy and Traveller sites have been diverted to other projects, a move described as shocking by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). The Gypsy and Traveller Sites Grant, launched in 2008, had £97m available to "reduce the number of unauthorised sites" and "reduce the need for costly enforcement action". But only £16.9m has been spent. A lack of ring-fencing has meant millions being channelled into affordable homes not intended for Gypsies. "Given that the lack of Traveller sites is central to the Dale Farm problem, it is shocking that millions have been taken away that should have been used for site provision and other projects," said Simon Woolley, a commissioner with responsibility for Travellers, at the EHRC. The Homes and Communities Agency told the Guardian that £15m from the grant was allotted to "unfunded commitments in other programmes" within the National Affordable Homes Programme. Read more on the Guardian website.

HCA Exceeds Its End of Year Homes Targets

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has smashed its end of year housing starts target by 65 per cent. Six-monthly figures released by the agency - in relation to housing starts and completions delivered through its various programmes - show that it has far exceeded its key outputs for 2010-11. According to its figures, it achieved a total of 57,605 housing starts on site against a target of 34,982 – equating to 65% above target - and 64,242 housing completions in England against a target of 62,495, in the financial year ending 31 March 2011. In the case of the latter, this figure is an increase of 8,088 more homes delivered than last year (56,154). The homes were delivered through its National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP), Kickstart Housing Delivery Programme, the Local Authority New Build Programme (LANB) and the Property & Regeneration (P&R) programme. Read more on the HCA website.

Affordable Rent Will Cause Most Upheaval

Housing groups believe affordable rent will have the most significant impact of the government’s social housing reforms, a survey has found. The research from consultancies WCL and Auxo found bodies believe affordable rents will cause the greatest upheaval, followed by housing benefit reforms, and the reduction in funding through the National Affordable Housing Programme. The affordable rent product will allow social landlords to charge up to 80 per cent of market rent. £1.8 billion has been set aside for the development of homes that will be included in the scheme. The survey - which covered 25 bodies including housing associations, local authorities and ALMOs – found some concern about how the various reforms will interact. Download a copy of the research report by clicking on the WCL logo below.

Update on ALMO New Build

The government has started to discuss further details of the National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP) for April 2011 – 2015. Not all of the details are clear yet and the HCA is due to publish its prospectus for the next new build programme at the end of January 2011. The HCA has confirmed that from April 2011, the NAHP will not include any funding for social rent. Instead it will only consist of the new "affordable rent" product that was announced as part of the spending review and Low Cost Home Ownership (LCHO) if it can be shown to deliver as good value for money as the new "affordable rent" product. The model that the HCA are currently looking at is based on registered providers letting all new homes developed at the new “affordable rent”. There is also an expectation that a percentage of voids in their existing stock would be re-let at the new "affordable rent" in order to help cross subsidise the development of new "affordable rented" homes. This briefing updates members on discussions so far with the HCA and the NFA’s concerns regarding the ability of ALMOs to participate in the next development round. Download the briefing from the NFA website.

HCA Invests More Than £7bn in Two Years

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has published a detailed breakdown of its investment programme across England for the financial years 2009/10 and 2008/09.  The data, which details investment by local authority area, reveals that the government's national housing and regeneration agency invested more than £5.433bn in total during 2009/10 and more than £2.190bn in the first four months of its existence between December 2008 and March 2009.  The biggest single programme during 2009/10 was the National Affordable Housing Programme, totalling more than £3.633bn of investment across England. During 2009/10, as well as investment within individual local authority areas, each region attracted some additional spend across a range of programmes, namely Property and Regeneration; SHESP (Social Housing Energy Saving Programme) and CIF (Community Infrastructure Fund) that cannot be attributed to any single local authority.  Details can be found on the HCA website for 2008/09 and 2009/10.

HCA: How the Funding for New Homes Adds Up

The HCA has revealed details of how funding confirmed by the Government for new homes would be spent. The statement follows an announcement confirming £390 million funding for the HCA. According to the briefing, here's how the HCA’s funding adds up:
* On 24 May reductions were made to the HCA’s programmes of £230m as part of wider efficiency saving imposed on CLG. These were made up of £100m (National Affordable Housing Programme); £50m (Kickstart Round 2); £30m (Gypsy & Traveller Programme); £50m (Housing Market Renewal, subject to consultation).
* As part of the Government’s announcement on the above reductions, it was indicated that Housing Pledge funding for the HCA of £780m was not secure. However, the Treasury also indicated that £170m of funding would be reinvested in the HCA for social rented housing, creating an overall potential shortfall in funding for the Agency of £610m (£780m - £170m = £610m).
* The Government has decided that granting the remaining £610m in full is unaffordable, given the extent of similar commitments across the rest of government. However, the Government has guaranteed that £390m will be available this year, on top of the £170m announced on 24 May 2010. This will be prioritised towards new affordable housing as well as meeting existing commitments on Decent Homes and Mortgage Rescue.
* In total the £780m coupled with £230m in programme cuts, created a total potential shortfall in funding of £1.010 billion. This set against a funding commitment from government of £170m and now a further £390m means that the HCA has a programme reduction in 2010/11 of £450m in total (£230m (as above) plus £220m as per yesterday’s announcement). This reduces the HCA’s capital budget for 2010/11 by around 10 per cent, to £4.11bn.
As a result of the funding settlement, the HCA has confirmed that it will be able to meet existing contractual commitments across all of its programmes. It will also be able to provide funding for those Round 2 Kickstart and LANB schemes approved before 6 April. Details of LANB schemes that are contractually committed and have secured funding, including Nottingham’s Round 2 bid for new build in Bilborough and Bulwell, are available on the HCA website by clicking on the logo below.

Social Housing Expenditure - PWA

Lisa Nandy MP:
*Which 150 social housing developments are under review, broken down by local authority area?
*What housing developments funded through the National Affordable Housing Programme are to be cancelled, broken down by local authority area?
*What housing and local government projects are under review, broken down by local authority area?
Grant Shapps MP:
It is likely a number of housing projects will be affected by the need to find the £220 million savings to be made from the housing funding planned by the previous administration. To date, the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has been holding back from making any new commitments in 2010-11 until the position on funding could be finalised. Now that the funding position has been confirmed, the HCA will fully review the impact of any changes on its investment programmes, and will then contact affected schemes to advise them. The HCA will also publish a list of the confirmed schemes. Throughout 2010-11, the agency will continue to publish on its website the quarterly regional investment statements, detailing all allocations to the National Affordable Housing Programme.
Read the full reply on the Parliament website.

Local Authority Housing Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer (2)

John Healey MP: What estimate has been made of the change to the number of homes to be built under (a) the National Affordable Housing Programme, (b) the Kickstart scheme and (c) the Housing Market Renewal Programme as a result of the budgetary reductions announced on 24 May 2010?
Grant Shapps MP:The Government are committed to reducing the UK’s budget deficit. It has led us to identify savings across Government including the £150 million reduction against the previous Administration's housing pledge. Against this, £170 million has been provided for 2010-11 to safeguard delivery of around 4,000, otherwise unfunded, social rented homes. It is estimated that the £150 million reduction will reduce the number of affordable housing starts by around 5,000 but these changes will mainly fall to shared ownership and shared equity schemes - not social rented housing. The Department is consulting on the mechanism by which the Housing Market Renewal reduction of £50 million will take place. In addition we will un-ring fence HMR expenditure in order to provide maximum flexibility at a local level. At this stage the final decision on individual allocations has still to be taken. It will be for individual HMR Pathfinders to manage the reductions and to review the varying impact.
John Healey MP: What guidance has been provided to councils on assessing levels of housing need in their area?
Robert Neill MP: Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing and the Strategic Housing Market Assessment Practice Guidance can assist local authorities on how to assess the level of housing need in their area.

Council Housing: Construction – Parliamentary Written Answer

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for CLG how much his Department contributed to local authorities from the National Affordable Housing Programme for the building of new homes in the last five financial years.
Andrew Stunell: The HCA provided £97 million grant in 2009-10 to support local authorities build new council housing under the Local Authority New Build programme (a subset of the National Affordable Housing Programme). There was no direct support for new council housing in the previous four financial years.

HCA Exceeds Its End of Year Homes Targets

The Homes and Communities Agency has exceeded its end of year housing targets, despite the economic downturn and challenging operating conditions. Its second set of official six-monthly statistics in relation to housing starts and completions delivered through its National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP), Kickstart Housing Delivery Programme, the Local Authority New Build Programme (LANB) and Property & Regeneration (P&R) programme show that the Agency far exceeded its key outputs for 2009-10, completing a total of 64,811 housing starts on site against a target of 53,315, and 56,118 housing completions in England against a target of 52,325 in the financial year ending 31 March 2010. Find all the facts on the HCA website.

Council Houses under Threat

Local authorities fear the first significant council house building programme for more than a decade is under threat from funding cuts. More than £58 million to fund the construction of 912 council homes has been put on hold pending the 22 June emergency Budget. A total of £100 million has also been cut from the National Affordable Housing Programme. Councils, some of which were hoping to build their first authority-provided homes in years, now face uncertainty over new projects. Bristol Council, which has nearly £3 million of funding for 45 new homes on 11 sites on hold, Hull Council (£3.4 million for 57 homes) and Dudley Council (£4.34 million for 81 homes) are among 43 authorities affected. The council freeze and cuts come on top of the £214 million funding freeze for the HCA’s Kickstart programme. Read the full story on Inside Housing.

Impact of Her Majesty’s Treasury Announcement on HCA Spending

Following the announcement by Her Majesty’s Treasury on spending cuts, the Homes and Communities Agency will be implementing a package of programme savings totalling £230 million. This is part of a wider package of programme savings being made by its sponsor department – Communities and Local Government – of £780 million pounds for the current financial year 2010/11. The HCA savings are made up of reductions to the following programme budgets:
National Affordable Housing Programme £100 million pounds
Kickstart Round 2 £50 million. There are currently bids totalling £214 million that have gone through the due diligence process. The sum available to fund Kickstart projects will be reduced by £50m. Total 2010/11 Kickstart (Round 1 and Round 2) budget = £420 million pounds.
Gypsy and Traveller programme - £30 million pounds
Housing Market Renewal - £50 million pounds
In addition to the programme savings outlined above, further commitments on the remaining uncommitted funds for the National Affordable Housing Programme, Kickstart Round 2 and Local Authority New Build (LANB) programmes will remain on hold, until Government funding decisions are detailed in the Chancellor’s 50 day budget on 22 June 2010. All affected stakeholders will be receiving correspondence from the HCA explaining the current situation and the implications. Read the full briefing including details of what projects are continuing in Kickstart and which LANB projects are on hold until the Budget on 22 June by clicking on the HCA logo below.

Homelessness: Young People - Parliamentary Written Answer

John McDonnell: What plans does the CLG have to increase support for young homeless people seeking permanent accommodation?
Mr. Ian Austin: Government have recently provided £30 million capital funding over three years from CLG that will provide up to 500 new places in Foyers and specialist supported housing through the National Affordable Housing Programme.
Read the full answer on the Parliament website.

NAHP - £500m boost for affordable homes

In December and January, the HCA allocated nearly £500m to its investment partners – housing associations and private developers – through its National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP). The funding will be used to build just under 8,000 new homes; nearly 5,000 for social rent and over 3,000 for low cost home ownership. As a result, thousands of families and single people will have the chance to take a first step into home ownership, and thousands more will have access to a new high quality home at a rent they can afford. Every region will benefit from the funding and many of the housing developments will offer local labour and apprenticeship opportunities, maximising the impact of every pound spent.
Read more about the NAHP on the HCA website.

Consultation: HCA Consults On Proposals To Directly Recover Grant Linked To Value

The HCA has launched a consultation around options for the recovery and recycling of grant funding that would make it an investor in affordable housing, sharing risk with providers but also benefitting when property values rise. Such a move – allowable under new powers contained within the Housing and Regeneration Act and due to come into force from April next year – could see part of the Agency’s National Affordable Housing Programme allocated to housing associations as an investment rather than grant, resulting in a future return direct to the Agency which would be re-invested in affordable housing where it is needed most. It would also align the rules governing housing associations with those applied to private developers and ALMOs. The consultation ends on 15 March 2010. The consultation paper can be found on the HCA website, link below.

HCA 'On Course' To Meet End Of Year Housing Targets

The HCA says it is well on course to meet its end of year housing targets, despite the economic downturn and difficult operating conditions. The prediction was made when it published its first set of official six-monthly statistics in relation to housing starts and completions delivered through its National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP) and Property & Regeneration (P&R) programme. The figures show that the Agency completed a total of 20,177 homes and started work on 14,136 new units during the period April 1 to September 30 2009. More on the HCA website