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Homes and Communities Agency
27 August 2008
On the day Parliament rose for its summer
recess on 22 July 2008, the long awaited Housing and Regeneration
Act 2008 (HRA) received Royal Assent. The HRA has been billed as
the most significant change in the funding and regulation of
housing associations for many years.
The HRA paves the way for the Homes and
Communities Agency (HCA) to come into existence in December
2008.
The HRA brings together under one umbrella –
the HCA – the grant funding powers of the housing corporation, the
functions of English Partnerships and the decent homes functions of
communities and local government so that stock transfers, housing
market renewal and PFIs will all be dealt with by the HCA. It is
hoped that by bringing together responsibility for land and the
money under one agency this will streamline funding and enable more
effective use of assets and resources.
Under the HRA, the housing corporation will
eventually be dissolved and housing associations will be grant
funded in the future through the HCA and regulated through the
Tenants Service Authority (formerly called the Office for Tenants
and Social Landlords (Oftenant) – read our previous bulletin on
‘Oftenant’).
One of the HCA’s key objectives is to support
the delivery of the Government’s new homes target by 2020, and to
secure 180,000 new affordable homes by 2011. However, the
HCA’s remit is far wider-reaching than simply the provision of
housing. The HRA sets out four statutory objectives for the
HCA:
- To improve the supply and quality of housing in England
- To secure the regeneration or development of land or
infrastructure in England
- To support the creation, regeneration or development of
communities in England or their continued well-being
- To contribute to the achievement of sustainable development and
good design in England (this last object was included following the
intense scrutiny the HRA received whilst passing through
Parliament)
all with a view to meeting the needs of people living in
England. “Needs” is not limited to either present needs or housing
and so may include social, economic or health needs.
In order to meet these objects the HCA has
been given a general power to do anything that it considers
appropriate for the purposes of achieving them, together with a
wide variety of specific powers, including powers to:
- Provide housing or other land
- Regenerate or develop land
- Acquire, construct, convert, improve or repair infrastructure
such as water, electricity, gas, transport and business
facilities
- Acquire land, either by agreement or (if authorised by the
Secretary of State) compulsorily
- Provide such services for communities as it considers
appropriate
Communities and local government have also
indicated that the HCA and Tenants Service Authority will provide a
platform to help deliver the Government's plans to reform rented
housing, to be set out in the housing reform green paper later this
year.
The HRA will also rewrite the rules on
financing new council housing, helping councils to build new social
homes in their areas where it offers value for money. Councils will
be able to keep the full rents from new council houses and use any
surpluses to help pay for new social homes.
The Chartered Institute of Housing and the
National Housing Federation are both in favour of the HRA. This
followed the dilution of many of the provisions including the
addition of the requirement that the HCA should contribute
financially to the good design of new homes and clauses have been
added obliging the HCA to consult with local government on
projects.
A very limited number of sections of the HRA
will come into force on 22 September 2008 (for example, new
provisions in respect of the exclusion of the right to buy are
inserted into the Housing Act 1985) However, the vast majority will
be brought into force by order of the Secretary of State. We will
keep you up to date as the transitional arrangements become clearer
over the coming months.
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