AMT Public

Part I: National Policy Context?

The founding principle of much government policy is the promotion of sustainable development, with sustainable communities being an integral part of that concept. As a result current government policy is centered on a new ‘Place Shaping Agenda’ of which housing, both market and affordable, is integral central part.  In delivering affordable housing national, regional and local policies are all important as together they create a connected approach to delivering affordable housing.

Where to start?

Section A – Relevant Government Departments

Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG)

The Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) was created in May 2006.  It is the successor department to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM).  It has overall responsibility within Government for housing.  It has a powerful remit to promote building more and better homes, reducing homelessness, improving local public services, regenerating areas to create more jobs, working to produce a sustainable environment and tackling anti-social behaviour and extremism.  The Department sets UK policy on local government, housing, urban regeneration, planning and fire and rescue.  It has responsibility for all race equality and community cohesion related issues across Great Britain and for building regulations, fire safety and housing issues in England and Wales.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the government department responsible for national policy and advice on environmental, agricultural and rural issues.  Defra’s rural programme focuses on the outcomes of the Government’s social and economic policies in relation to rural people and places. Its aim is to ensure that the evidenced needs of rural people and communities are addressed effectively through mainstream public policy and delivery. This is about working constructively within a national policy framework and recognising that all communities are different.  This is increasingly designed to give local areas the flexibility to respond to local circumstances and needs.

Homes and Communities Agency (HCA)

The Government’s principal agency for delivering affordable homes is the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) formed in 2008.  The HCA is a non-departmental public body and their sponsor government department is CLG.  The HCA brings together English Partnership’s land and property expertise, the Housing Corporation’s track record of delivering affordable homes and the Academy for Sustainable Communities’ knowledge of creating and renewing high quality places. It has a strong emphasis on being a national agency that works locally with a regional presence, aligned to the nine Government Office regions and acting as a bridge between national targets and local ambitions.  Its statutory objectives are to:

• Improve the supply and quality of housing in England
• Secure the regeneration or development of land or infrastructure in England
• Support in other ways the creation, regeneration or development of communities in England or their continued well-being
• Contribute to the achievement of sustainable development and good design in England, with a view to meeting the needs of people in England

It addresses four key themes of activity:

• Growth – Enabling the delivery of large scale development 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 falling estates to cleaning up swathes of brownfield land and stimulating renewed economic activity
• Sustainability – Improving quality of life through innovation, enhanced surroundings and a higher standard of physical and social environment.

The single conversation is the business process through which the HCA agrees and secures delivery at the local level with sub regional partners, in support of their national objectives.  It is about connecting local ambition with national targets and refers to the full range of activities within an area; housing, infrastructure, regeneration and community activities.

Tenant Services Authority (TSA)

The Tenant Services Authority (TSA) was formed at the same time as the HCA and is the regulatory body for Registered Social Landlords (Housing Associations) working with landlords and tenants to improve services for existing and prospective tenants.  Its statutory objectives are to:

• Improve standards of service delivery for tenants
• Support decent homes and neighbourhoods
• Promote effective tenant involvement and empowerment
• Ensure providers are well run and deliver value for money
• Promote and protect public and private investment
• Encourage and support a supply of well-managed social housing

The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU)

The National Housing and Planning Advice Unit (NHPAU) was established in response to Kate Barker’s Review of Housing Supply in 2004 to research and provide advice to Government and regions on the impact of planned housing provision on affordability. Its aims are to make market housing more affordable and to address the trend in the rise in the number of people prevented from getting onto the property ladder.

Section B – Current Government housing and planning legislation

In a nutshell, Government’s affordable housing policy is to ensure the provision of high quality housing for people who are unable to access or afford market housing.

It starts with Government’s Statutory Guidance, ‘’Creating Strong, Safe and Prosperous Communities’’.  This policy underpins Government’s whole approach to place-shaping and delivering housing at a local level and informs national housing and planning policy.  Published in July 2008, this guidance gives effect to Government’s commitment to ‘improving the equality of life in places and helping local authorities to provide better services’ and create a ‘new settlement’ between central government, local government and citizens.

Housing Policy

The landmark Housing Green Paper, ’Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable’, was published in July 2007 and it remains the key contextual policy document.  It set out the Government’s strategic approach to all housing, not just affordable housing.  The paper sets out a plan for three million new homes by 2020 which include:

• more homes - backed by more ambitious building targets, increased investment, and new ways of identifying and using land for development
• more social housing - ensuring that a decent home at an affordable price is for the many, not the few
• building homes more quickly - by unblocking the planning system and releasing land for development
• more affordable homes - by increasing the options for low cost home ownership and more long term and affordable mortgage products and
• greener homes - with high environmental standards and flagship developments leading the way

‘Local authorities have a critical role to play in achieving a major increase in new homes and their strategic housing role is at the heart of achieving our ambitions for housing supply. We want to see local authorities step up to play a stronger role in addressing the housing needs of all their residents, as part of their strategic housing role.’

(Housing Green Paper 2007: Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable )

The Government also issued a range of sister documents alongside ‘Homes for the future’ in order to make early progress on delivering particular commitments and provide more detail about many of the proposals in the green paper.   The most relevant to market towns are eco towns and growth areas:

Eco towns

The Government is looking to encourage and support local authorities and the private sector to bring forward five eco-towns.  They will be small new towns of at least 5-20,000 homes. They are intended to exploit the potential to create a complete new settlement to achieve zero carbon development and more sustainable living using the best new design and architecture.

Growth areas

The Government’s vision for towns and cities is of prosperous and cohesive communities offering a safe, healthy and sustainable environment for all. A vital ingredient for sustainable communities is an adequate supply of good quality housing offering a choice of types and tenures, including affordable housing for key workers and those in lower income groups.  To date fifty locations have been announced as Growth Points, eligible for Government funding for infrastructure projects and essential studies to support sustainable growth.  By supporting these areas as Growth Points, the Government is entering into a long-term partnership, subject to the statutory regional and local planning process.

Code for sustainable communities

The purpose of a Sustainable Community Strategy is to set the overall strategic direction and long-term vision for the economic, social and environmental well-being of a local area – typically 10-20 years – in a way that contributes to sustainable development in the UK. It tells the ‘story of the place’ – the distinctive vision and ambition of the area, backed by clear evidence and analysis.

Section C – Planning Policy

Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing (PPS3) underpins the delivery of the Government’s strategic housing policy objectives and its goal to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live in a decent home, which they can afford in a community where they want to live.  Published in November 2006, this remains the definitive planning policy document for all housing provision, including affordable housing.

The Government also published a sister document to PPS3 in November 2006, ‘Delivering Affordable Housing’.  The aim of this document is to support local authorities and others in delivering more high quality affordable housing within mixed sustainable communities.

PPS3 confirmed the government`s commitment to “improving the affordability and supply of housing in all communities, including rural areas” and aims to “deliver high quality housing that contributes to the creation and maintenance of sustainable rural communities in market towns and villages.”

Specifically, PPS 3 requires that ‘planning at local and regional level adopts a positive and pro-active approach which is informed by evidence, with clear targets for the delivery of rural affordable housing.’  Requirements are placed on regional and local planning authorities to support this more positive approach with three specific measures to secure range, diversity and accessibility of housing in rural areas:

• Clear targets for the delivery of rural affordable housing, informed by evidence (LDF)
• Allocating and releasing sites solely for affordable housing, where viable and practical (Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment)
• Enhancing and maintaining the sustainability of villages as well as market towns and local service centres, recognising that “the relationship between settlements so as to ensure that growth is distributed in a way that supports informal social support networks, assists people to live near their work and benefit from key services”

Go to Part II: Regional Policy Context