Parliamentary Bulletin January 2008

The Housing and Regeneration Bill 2007

Few things have shot up the political agenda as fast as housing. Perhaps it was inevitable that lack of investment in public housing for twenty five years would have a deleterious effect. The incidence of homelessness is nothing like it was in the eighties. Nevertheless,   restriction of social mobility and people being priced out of the housing market in many areas of the country, is starting to impact on employment. So it is no surprise that this Treasury driven government has come up with a Bill which seeks to address housing, not in isolation, but in conjunction with community and economic development.

The Bill will:

• Abolish the Urban Regeneration Agency, the Commission for New Towns (English Partnerships) and transfer the housing investment functions of the Housing Corporation to a new body, The Homes and Communities Agency. The purpose of the HCA will be to 'make the best use of private investment, public subsidy, land assets and skills to deliver more houses and mixed communities'.
  
• Key outcomes which the HCA is expected to deliver include:
• An increased supply of housing, including affordable housing for rent, shared ownership and other low cost home ownership schemes
• Regeneration of underperforming urban centres and neighbourhoods
• Transformation of disadvantaged estates by promoting mixed communities
• Better use of public sector assets - including land
• Levering in additional private sector finance from new and existing lenders
• Driving the adoption of high environmental standards across the market.
• The HCA will also be responsible for development of partnerships and commercial vehicles to direct investment and undertake development.
• The HCA will be fully operational by April 2009.
• Although development of Eco Towns is not mentioned explicitly in the Bill, the powers in the Bill are so widely drawn that such initiatives will be covered.
• The HCA will be able to acquire, hold, improve, manage, reclaim, repair or dispose of housing or other land, or facilitate these activities. It will be able to purchase land by agreement, or with Secretary of State consent, use compulsory purchase to acquire land and rights.
• In some circumstances the HCA can the designated local planning authority. It may be given responsibility for the preparation and maintenance of Local Development Frameworks. So it may be the local planning authority for applications for listed building and conservation area consent.

The extent to which the HCA should take over the responsibilities of Local Planning Authorities will be a key point of contention, within and between political parties. In some areas, particularly London, there is a lot of resistance to handing over planning powers to new bodies which will be akin to Urban Development Corporations.

Sustainability Certificates

The Bill introduces sustainability certificates for homes to be sold after April 2008. This is an attempt to make the Code for Sustainable Homes the industry standard. Building to or assessment against the Code will remain voluntary, but they will appear in HIPs, alongside mandatory Energy Performance Certificates.

Key issues for debate will be:

• the level to which the standards in the code have to be met
• the cost of the assessment
• the availability of assessors
• the extent to which these factors will delay availability of new homes.

Building Regulations : time limits for prosecutions

At the   moment the time limit for prosecutions under the Building Regulations is six months of completion of the work, except for breaches relating to fuel, power and greenhouse gas emissions. In future the time limit for all prosecutions will be within two years of completion.  

For MPs the key issue will be how to address the needs of constituents for redress against poor work and potential increased threat to small companies.

Mobile Home Sites (Gypsies and Travellers)

If you want to strike terror into the heart of an elected politician and delight his opponents, just mention the words 'travellers site'!   As a result of a European Court of Human Rights case (the Connors Judgement), local authorities cannot summarily evict families from traveller sites without reasoned justification or sufficient procedural safeguards.

This is a subject on which Peers have campaigned strongly for many years, so expect informed and interesting debate when this Bill comes to the House of Lords.

From the Complete Yes Minister

'I thought planning inspectors were impartial', I said.

Bernard chuckled. 'Oh really Minister! So they are! Railway trains are impartial too. But if you lay down the lines for them, that's the way they go.

Liz Barker
30th January 2008