Corporate Brochure Nov09 1

Thriving communities, affordable homes

Who we are and what we do

DELIVERING HOMES CREATING COMMUNITIES

The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the single housing and regeneration delivery agency for England, helping to create great places and affordable homes. We are a national agency that works locally. We act as a bridge between national targets and local ambitions, harnessing the resources of the public, private and voluntary sectors, providing a single point of contact for all those involved in helping communities to thrive. Great design, great places

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What we do

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How we do it – Investment and Land

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How we do it – Affordable Housing

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How we do it – The Single Conversation

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How we do it – Raising the Game

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Getting in touch

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Front cover image: Burton’s Farm Park, North Solihull Regeneration Project Young residents keeping active, using public open space in front of new homes

The HCA opened for business on 1 December 2008, as the single, integrated housing and regeneration agency in the country. From day one, we started making an impact on the way homes and communities are delivered across the English regions.

One year on, we’ve worked with central and local government, housing associations, housebuilders, communities and partners in the public, private and voluntary sectors to make a real difference to people’s lives in villages, towns and cities around the country.

DEC

JAN

• HCA starts operating four months ahead of schedule • HCA spells out its offer of taking flexible approach to delivery partners • Inherited programmes transferred without loss of momentum

JUN • Hanham Hall, near Bristol, England’s first Code Level 6* large-scale development, gets planning permission • Housing Finance Advisory Group is appointed • Public Land Initiative set up • 64 expressions of interest received for Private Rental Sector Initiative • Government pledges additional £1.5bn for affordable housing

• Barking Riverside submits three major planning applications to transform a 150 ha brownfield site in the Thames Gateway • Mortgage Rescue scheme launches nationwide

JUL • HCA and London Mayor invest £32m into regeneration of Greenwich • £1.1bn invested into Yorkshire and Humber through NAHP • £12m for first Low Carbon Infrastructure schemes • £1.7bn awarded to 10 local authorities through Private Finance Initiative • £35m allocated to the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders

FEB

• £32m of Gypsy and Traveller Site Grant funding available and bidding guidance published • Final stage of Liverpool’s Lime Street Gateway project gets underway with appointment of contractor • Corby train station opens, providing a direct rail link to London

AUG • Go-ahead for redevelopment of former Bickershaw colliery site • Launch of HCA’s Community Engagement policy • £8.8m for second round Low Carbon Infrastructure schemes • Redevelopment of former Graylingwell hospital site in Chichester gets planning permission

MAR

• Launch of L&Q’s Up2You intermediate rent housing scheme in London • Construction of first 116 homes starts at Woodberry Down estate, one of London’s largest regeneration sites • HomeBuy Direct attracts first buyers, and new HomeBuy Agents are appointed for 2009/2011

SEP • Frickley former colliery site officially opens to the public as a country park • 750 homes unlocked through Kickstart’s first £10m • Launch of Agency’s first Corporate Plan 2009/2011 • £180m for Round 2 of Local Authority New Build

APR

• Planning approval granted for the £1bn regeneration of Kidbrooke’s Ferrier Estate • Launch of Rural Affordable Housing Project, which aims to help local authorities increase delivery of homes in rural areas • HCA receives additional £635m Housing Funding Package in April Budget

OCT • Multi-million pound agreement signed to deliver first affordable homes at King’s Cross, London • £51m of Kickstart funding released to unlock 2,000 homes • Rowner Renewal project gets planning approval from Gosport Borough Council for 219 new homes in Phase One of the development

MAY

• Details unveiled of £400m funding for Kickstart and £100m for Local Authority New Build, along with £84m Social Housing Energy Saving Programme • Milton Keynes gets £15m funding to boost growth in the city • Appointment of the Housing our Ageing Population Panel for Innovation (HAPPI)

NOV • Publication of Annual Report and Financial Statements 2008/09 shows 27,666 new affordable homes completed in first four months of operation • Single Conversation makes great progress, with 121 underway across the country • £5m from Department of Energy and Climate Change for renewable construction of affordable homes meeting Code Level 4* • HCA publishes report on social mobility

Homes and Communities Agency

Five Links Estate, Basildon Estate regeneration has ensured affordable, desirable homes for many residents in the area

Allerton Bywater, West Yorkshire The community here will benefit from high-quality, well designed homes in this long-term regeneration project

Our work is about building new, and rejuvenating existing communities, by forging partnerships with all of the key players in housing and regeneration in your area. Above all, it’s about people, places and a sense of local belonging. We create opportunity for people to live, work and enjoy life in places that they desire and that they can afford.

We particularly promote the issues of diversity and community engagement, placing local people firmly and fairly at the heart of the design and delivery of housing and regeneration in their areas.

Great design, great places We champion and enforce rigorous design, quality and energy-efficiency standards throughout our work. This ensures the creation of high-quality homes in safe and attractive surroundings, well served by infrastructure, amenities and open green space.

So, whether we’re providing funding for affordable homes, bringing brownfield land back into use or working with partners to develop their skills in community engagement, our aim is to bring together the right people at the right time to create truly great places.

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Homes and Communities Agency

Hale Village, Tottenham Hale Village in Tottenham was one of the schemes in London that was put at risk by the economic downturn. The HCA struck a deal with the developer Lee Valley Estates, loaning £3m towards the completion of the first phase, in addition to the existing investment through our affordable housing programme. It is one of the first times the HCA has used its new powers to lend money to a partner. The housebuilder receives a cash injection to help with liquidity on the scheme, at no ultimate cost to the taxpayer. Importantly, Hale Village acts as the catalyst for the regeneration of Tottenham Hale by delivering 1,200 new homes and 7,500 sq m of office, retail and leisure floorspace. And we have made a commitment to continue being flexible and innovative with our funding in London.

Castleford Footbridge, West Yorkshire A new footbridge connects communities on both sides of the River Aire What we do This year and next we will invest nearly £14bn across our programmes, which indicates the scope, breadth and impact of our activities. From Decent Homes to the Private Finance Initiative, from Gypsies and Travellers to ‘kickstarting’ stalled developments, each programme is crucial and each is interlinked. They are more than the sum of their parts. We use our budgets flexibly. Ultimately our aim is to help local authorities bring together their housing and regeneration priorities into a single, comprehensive plan through our Single Conversation business model.

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Homes and Communities Agency

We do this by addressing four key themes of activity: Growth Enabling the delivery of large scale developments in strategic locations, helping local areas achieve their growth targets and unlocking stalled schemes. Affordability Providing the funding for housing associations, private developers and local authorities to build affordable homes for rent and sale.

Renewal Working with local authorities and regional agencies to identify renewal requirements, from rejuvenating failing estates to cleaning up swathes of brownfield land, removing the blight of dereliction and stimulating renewed economic activity. Sustainability Improving quality of life through innovation, enhanced surroundings and a higher standard of the physical and social environment.

We are an important voice of delivery in government, ensuring that our partners’ experiences in creating sustainable places are heard by those that set the policies.

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Homes and Communities Agency

New Broughton, Salford

How we do it – Investment and Land With operational bases in each of the nine English regions, every county and district is able to tap into HCA skills and expertise, our strategic partnerships, our economies of scale and our buying power. We use our budget for thousands of new and affordable homes, for improved community facilities, and for infrastructure funding – homes, shops, offices, schools, roads and hospitals. Government has pledged to accelerate the pace of delivering more homes by increasing investment available to the HCA and empowering the Agency to work in more innovative ways, especially with local authorities. The £1.06bn Kickstart Housing Delivery Programme, for example, part of a wider housing stimulus package, has the potential to unlock thousands of homes nationally by reviving stalled housing schemes and at the same time generate significant local job and apprenticeship opportunities. A package of £350m new funding is the catalyst to restart a council house building programme by local authorities, creating up to 4,000 new social homes for rent over three years. And through our Public Land Initiative, we aim to introduce a different approach to housing delivery that reduces risk by partnering public landowners with developers and construction companies to jointly build new homes.

At New Broughton in Salford we have combined a similar approach to that intended for our new way of doing business, the Single Conversation, with flexibility in our funding. We have joined forces with Salford City Council and three other sub-regional partners to help strengthen agreed delivery plans for one of the region’s most deprived communities. A cash injection of £7m of HCA funding will

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support nearly 200 new family-sized affordable homes, and has helped ensure that the scheme can progress in the current economic climate. As well as private sale and affordable rent, many of the 3,500 new homes will be available for affordable sale, reflecting our commitment to help first-time buyers to get a foot on the property ladder.

As a single agency, we are able to add substantively to the impact of our programmes. We are the government’s honest broker of surplus public-sector land. We buy, clean up, manage and sell land, and work with local authorities to resolve complex planning issues helping to speed up the delivery process for developers, for the benefit of communities. We use our budget for thousands of new and affordable homes, for improved community facilities, and for forward funding infrastructure.

Homes and Communities Agency

How we do it – Affordable Housing Providing much-needed new affordable housing for rent and sale is central to meeting the needs and aspirations of local people in every neighbourhood, in every town, in every county in England. It is also central to our wider regeneration work, helping to create places with a mix of people from all walks of life. Around half of our entire annual budget as an agency is allocated directly to housing, creating around 117,000 new and affordable homes over the next two years. From major estate regeneration to small developments in rural towns and villages, if new affordable homes are built, they are almost always funded by the HCA.

We insist on quality – including minimum space standards and high environmental performance – as well as value for public money. Most importantly the homes have to fit with locally identified needs and priorities; they have to be of the right type, in the right place, for the right people.

Steeple Chase, Redcar, North Yorkshire Kickstart investment of over £4m will help create 141 new homes

Key Event, Manchester Buyers and housing professionals are brought together at this free public event

Chelsea Flower Show, London Visitors explore the Key Garden, partly funded by the HCA through our Places of Change programme

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Homes and Communities Agency

City Waterside, Stoke-on-Trent City Waterside in Stoke-on-Trent involves the full-scale regeneration of largely disused land around the historic canal network to the south of the city centre. The aim is to create a thriving community with some 1,300 new homes, shops and a café-style culture that reconnects the area to the city centre, making the most of the waterways for leisure and residential use. The HCA has invested around £5m to fund infrastructure, and chairs the scheme’s steering group to create a shared vision for the area. Backed by an agreed investment plan and clear roles and responsibilities, the approach at City Waterside has been a forerunner to our new Single Conversation business model. For local residents City Waterside is making a slice of life by the water available to everyone.

How we do it – The Single Conversation The Single Conversation is our way of doing business. As it develops it is transforming the way we handle housing and regeneration, helping to provide a shared clarity of vision backed by a single investment plan for an area. In short, through the Single Conversation we act as the link between local authorities, central government, housing providers and other delivery agencies to create and maintain quality places for the benefit of local communities. The Single Conversation covers strategy, investment, capacity and delivery. Our aim is to come to a shared position on an area’s ambitions and objectives for housing, growth, regeneration and renewal. We back those objectives by agreeing a broad level of investment, on a rolling three-year allocation, as well as what outputs and outcomes are expected. We are also clear about delivery roles and responsibilities. No two conversations are the same. Different areas have different needs and the form and intensity of engagement, and level of investment, differs from place to place. And nowhere starts with a completely clean sheet so each conversation builds on current agreements and investment plans. Priorities are mutually shared and agreed, and based on local ambitions. Funding from a variety of public and private sources are linked for maximum impact, allowing local authorities to develop proposals based on a stable understanding of how funding decisions will be taken. The result will tailor investment strategies to the needs of places, rather than developing them on a one-size-fits-all basis.

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Computer generated image © Barratt Developments plc

Homes and Communities Agency

Hanham Hall, near Bristol England’s first zero carbon development

Upton, Northamptonshire The Sustainable Urban Drainage system is just one of many eco-friendly features of this new community

How we do it – Raising the Game At the heart of the HCA are our staff. Dedicated, professional, public spirited and socially and commercially minded. The Agency is an unrivalled source of expertise and specialist knowledge in the housing and regeneration industry. As an organisation that acts nationally and operates locally, we have strengthened our regional teams by increasing the number of our staff in front-line delivery roles, and reducing those at the corporate centre.

Both will strengthen our ability to create affordable, carbon-efficient, well-connected sustainable places. And through research and best practice we strive for the very best way to deliver housing and regeneration. We build on what works, discard what doesn’t, and work with the best in every field to test new ideas. And when we’ve done it, we share the outcomes with everyone.

Our ATLAS team has expanded to cover the whole of England, offering planning expertise for local authorities on processing large applications, while the HCA Academy is responsible for developing the skills and knowledge of those who create and maintain communities.

We build on what works, discard what doesn’t, and work with the best in every field to test new ideas.

HCA Academy Developing skills and knowledge for the housing and regeneration sector

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Homes and Communities Agency

Greenwich Peninsula, London Work underway on the 229-home Peninsula Riverside development

Sycamore Hall, Wensleydale, Yorkshire New accommodation and support for older people

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Rowner Carnival, Gosport, Hampshire The local community celebrates progress on the regeneration of the Rowner Estate

Homes and Communities Agency

Getting in touch If you are a local authority, developer, housing association or any organisation involved in the creation of great places, you need to speak to us. And we need to speak to you. Our corporate and regional directors are happy to discuss opportunities:

Regional Directors Margaret Allen East Midlands 0115 865 6901

Sir Bob Kerslake Chief Executive 020 7881 1638

David Edwards South East 0300 1234 500

Corporate Directors Eamonn Boylan Deputy Chief Executive and Director of New Ventures and Partnerships 01925 644710

Terry Fuller East of England 01223 374015

Trevor Beattie Director of Strategy, Policy, Performance and Research 020 7881 1626 Richard Ennis Director of Finance and Corporate Services 020 7881 1200 Richard Hill Director of Investment and Renewal 020 7874 5972 Gill Taylor Director of Skills and Knowledge and Chief Executive HCA Academy 0113 394 9397

For more general information on how we can help you create thriving communities, please visit homesandcommunities.co.uk, call 0300 1234 500 or email [email protected]

David Curtis Yorkshire and Humber 0113 394 9377

David Lunts London 020 7633 3490 Deborah McLaughlin North West 01925 644707 Colin Molton South West 01454 203622 Pat Ritchie North East 0191 497 7577 Paul Spooner West Midlands 0121 234 9915 John Lewis Chief Executive Milton Keynes Partnership 01908 353602

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homesandcommunities.co.uk [email protected] 0300 1234 500

HCA London 110 Buckingham Palace Road London SW1W 9SA HCA Warrington Arpley House 110 Birchwood Boulevard Birchwood Warrington WA3 7QH

The Homes and Communities Agency is able to provide literature in alternative formats including large print, braille and audio. Please contact us on 0300 1234 500 or by email at [email protected] for further information. Publication date: November 2009 Publication code: HCA0052

Printed on Revive 100 offset containing 100 per cent de-inked recycled waste. All imagery in this document is the copyright of the HCA unless otherwise stated.