Launch of the Homes and Communities Agency in the North East
Nick gave this speech at an event today to mark the launch to the Homes and Communities Agency in the North East:
The Agency have got off to a great start with this launch coming 4 months ahead of schedule.
This is what we are trying to do:
• create opportunity for people to live in high quality, sustainable places
• provide funding for affordable housing;
• to bring land back into productive use
• Improve quality of life by raising standards for the physical and social environment.
How we are going about doing it:
By bringing together the investment functions of the Housing Corporation, all of English Partnerships, the Academy for Sustainable Communities and the delivery programmes of CLG such as Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders, Growth Points and the Places of Change programme.
We’ve created a national agency that will work and deliver locally.
The regional structure is a good fit with the other agencies that focus on public service delivery in our region.
The case for the new structure is well made, but it couldn’t have come about at a more fortuitous time.
The recessionary forces at work in our economy have had an impact on most sectors, but surely none more so than the housing market.
In our region the housing market is intimately linked to the broader prospects for economic regeneration.
Just as we work our way through the downturn we should also build our way through it.
The Government response:
• A £200 million Mortgage Rescue Scheme is now live across the whole country and aims to help 6,000 of the most vulnerable households facing repossession over the next two years.
• In the North East, four local authorities agreed to be ‘fast track’ authorities and operate the scheme before it went national. These are:
• Stockton
• Middlesbrough
• Darlington
• North Tyneside
• There is also a Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme to enable households that experience a significant and temporary loss of income as a result of the economic downturn to defer a proportion of the interest payments on their mortgage for up to two years.
• The Government has also doubled the capital limit on which eligibility for Income Support for Mortgage Interest is calculated to £200,000
• HomeBuy Direct is a new shared equity scheme designed to help up to 18,000 First-Time Buyers into affordable home ownership. The scheme will also help participating house builders by enabling more First-Time Buyers to purchase their newly built properties. The scheme has been allocated £400m of Communities and Local Government funding. Through this programme £39.5 million will be invested in the North East region, assisting in the purchase of more than 1,600 homes in schemes such as North Ormesby in Middlesbrough, Parkside Crescent in Widdrington, Northumberland and Hadrian Mews in Wallsend.
• The scheme will be offered on specific new build properties brought forward by developers. Buyers will be offered an equity loan of up to 30 per cent of the purchase price, co-funded by Government and the developer.
• Government has also been working with lenders to encourage them to resume investing in property. It is encouraging to see that Northern Rock has announced that it is to start lending again with loan-to-value rates of 80 per cent.
• The Government has also brought forward £400 million in order to deliver up to 5,500 new social homes
The Agencies Response:
The Homes and Communities Agency brings together the strengths of a number of organisations under one body which can provide a range of support to meet local needs.
• Since December last year, the Homes and Communities Agency has brought forward more than £8 million of investment that has allowed local Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to buy more than 180 high quality homes in areas of strong demand such as the Staiths development in Gateshead and Northumberland Park in North Tyneside.
• This investment not only supports the needs of those seeking affordable housing in the region, it also gives much needed certainty to private sector development partners that enables them to continue to invest in developing new homes, while retaining jobs within the region.
• I know that Pat Ritchie and her team have continued to meet with RSLs and private developers in the region to discuss their needs in the current economic climate.
• This is the right approach. By engaging with these partners directly the Homes and Communities Agency can identify where and how to target investment and support to meet local needs and ensure projects can be delivered successfully on time.
• In places such as Scotswood in Newcastle this will mean a comprehensive regeneration in a massive scheme that will deliver 1,800 new homes, transform the image of the area and require an investment of £30 million.
• At the other end of the scale on Holy Island, in the north of the region, the Homes and Communities Agency has partnered with its first ever community land trust (CLT) to secure the delivery of the four affordable homes that will help to maintain vitality in the community there. This partnership between the CLT, Homes and Communities Agency and Tudor Trust will help to tackle issues of affordability in an area where the average house price is 18 times the income of local residents. The HCA grant of £200,000 will help to meet a third of the cost of providing these homes.
• Also the Homes and Communities Agency has worked with the local community at Mandale and Stockton Council, NomadE5 and Barratt Homes to develop a plan for a new, mixed community with excellent green spaces. By developing new private houses for sale as well as social rented homes, the community in Mandale has been completely transformed. Proof of this transformation is that even in the current climate homes are continuing to sell in the new Mandale. This community-led regeneration has been nominated for a number of national awards.
The housing market in our region has some clear features:
• The link between economic regeneration and housing (as I said earlier)
• Owner occupation is not the only model for those in work.
• Demand for rent, extends well beyond social housing.
• Strength of cooperative model and way of working in the North east. ONE and ANEC.
It is essential that the agency is a vehicle for delivery, works well as part of a team in the North East, avoids the dangerous error of process substituting for delivery.