London:

Londoners seemed to get the best deal from the Communities Plan: £446m was earmarked to transform the 40-mile Thames Gateway area, east of the capital, into a thriving 200,000-home new town. London was also scheduled to take a share of some of the £164m offered to one of the other four growth areas – the London Stansted corridor and £1bn was scheduled for investment in housing for the capital's key workers.

An urban development corporation was promised, which is the subject of a consultation running until 6 February, as was a regional housing board – this has been up and running for a year.

On top of all this, the capital already receives the lion's share of the Housing Corporation's housebuilding programme – £1.6bn across 2004/5-2005/6 – and has announced that it will be bidding for the 2012 Olympic Games and the 30,000 new homes this would entail.

So you would think that Londoners would be ecstatic. Think again.

Donald Hoodless is chief executive of Circle 33 Housing Group, which manages 21,937 homes and had a turnover of £69.9m in 2002/3. "I think there has been a lot of activity, but rather less action," he says. "I am looking for this activity to translate itself into homes. Infrastructure is still the key – the Thames Gateway bridge has been given the go-ahead, but other projects such as Crossrail need to be supported quickly. It is difficult to gain an overall sense of coherence."

Martin Cheeseman, director of housing at Brent council, also has doubts. "I have a concern with regard to key worker housing, as opposed to traditional socially rented housing. The phrase 'sustainable communities' shouldn't turn into a swear word – there is a danger of this, as it is being used in some quarters as an excuse against helping the most needy."

South-west:

The Communities Plan was not generous to the South-west, giving it no increase in funding above inflation and no growth area cash. The plan's provisions made the region's housing associations angry enough to start a campaign highlighting the acute shortage of affordable housing in the region.

One year on, there's still no extra cash – not that anyone really expected any – but the campaign has won the ear of housing minister Keith Hill. Wayne Morris, chief executive of Western Challenge Housing Association, says: "This doesn't mean there will be funding realignment that's sufficient in the longer term, but the fact that it has been recognised by government is something we wouldn't have expected at the outset."

Without extra money, the region's housing groups can only make small impressions on the affordability problem. For example, its regional housing board gets a big thumbs-up from most housing professionals in the area, but there's a limited amount they can do without extra money.

As Monika Strell, regional officer for the South-west at the National Housing Federation, says: "The government had already decided how much money was coming here. However strong the regional housing board made [its] case, nothing was going to change. They're working with both hands tied behind their backs."

But the lack of substantial funding hasn't stopped councils and associations trying to make lasting improvements. A group of councils and health trusts in eastern Dorset are on the verge of getting £150,000 of funding to set up a Home Improvement Agency for the region, drawn from a £14m funding pot promised in the plan.

East of England:

As home to the London Stansted Cambridge growth area, the East of England received £20m of Communities Plan largesse. One year on, this growth area is still the least developed of the four named in the plan, but there are signs of change.

The government has given Peterborough permission to join the growth area. Funding for the first year will come from the plan's £20m, but extra money could be on the way to the town after the next comprehensive spending review. The council is now working on a bid for ODPM funding.

The move corrects a longstanding grievance in Peterborough, part of the London and Cambridge commuter belt, that its housing problems had not been recognised. The town needs at least 700 new affordable homes a year: as part of the growth area, Peterborough will gain 200,000 more homes by 2020.

Across the region, English Partnerships is giving land to housing associations Genesis and Bedfordshire Pilgrims to build affordable housing. While some sites look set to be a success, others could be dogged by planning problems (HT 5 December 2003, page 13).

In Basildon, the council is pleased that the EP-backed schemes in its area are going ahead. It is also on the verge of getting £24m for the regeneration of two local estates and Basildon town centre.

However, it's not all rosy: the regional housing board is set to reduce its capital grant by roughly £100,000.

An infrastructure partnership with members from the county's five district councils, English Partnerships, the East of England Development Agency and the Housing Corporation is being set up to coordinate planning on the region's large infrastructure projects. It will not have planning powers, but will rely instead on winning the cooperation of the relevant local authorities.

Cambridge is set to get a major transport link with Huntingdon, including a guided bus system – a target for local scepticism. There are also major road improvements going on around the area. These projects will go some way to meeting the growth area's transport needs, but they are not yet complete.

Road improvements north of Cambridge are being made at the same time as a 12,000-home new town, Northstowe, is being built – a recipe for congestion. But road upgrades are already needed for the growth area.

"Without these, the development will fail," says Nick Abbey, chief executive of Hereward Housing and chair of the region's NHF executive.

North-west:

The Communities Plan gets a thumbs-up from the North-west, which has benefited from four of the country's nine market renewal pathfinders. These have now drawn up prospectuses for a 15-year programme aimed at turning around low demand and Manchester Salford has already been awarded £125m.

"Not much has happened on the ground," says Ian Perry, who is chief executive of Manchester-based Harvest Housing Association, "but I'd be concerned if it had.

"There's an enormous amount of money to be spent over a very long period of time. We need to get the planning right, which is what's being done.

"It's been an excellent start – although now we've seen the scale, it's a bit scary."

Max Steinberg, chief executive of Elevate, East Lancashire's pathfinder, thinks putting the plan into action will address a lot more than housing. "One of the strengths of the plan is that it makes it clear you can't tackle housing by itself," he says.

"We're working with wider issues such as the environment, community cohesion, education and health. There's no single blueprint for how things should be done. That's enabled us to come up with some very interesting and innovative proposals."

North-east:

Housing professionals in the North-east are split over the Communities Plan. Those in the Newcastle Gateshead pathfinder area are enthusiastic about the plan's provisions, but relative neglect of other parts of the region has engendered local concern.

Jon Watson, director of business strategy for Home Group, the region's largest social landlord, sums up the paradox: "The basic analysis from the plan was very valuable in acknowledging the variety of needs in regions such as the North-east.

"My concern is that the government is concentrating on the easily quantifiable outputs for housing numbers in the South-east, and not giving enough money to regeneration here."

Like many, he is concerned that the Tees Valley region was overlooked by the Communities Plan. Alison Thain, chief executive of Tees Valley Housing Association, adds: "We represent the gap in the Communities Plan. We're disappointed nothing more has emerged in the past year."

Yorkshire and Humberside:

"Yorkshire has taken the idea of transformational change right to the heart of its agenda – the pathfinders have had a very strong impact," says David Cumberland, consultant at David Cumberland Housing Regeneration, which advises the regional housing board. However, his enthusiasm, echoed across Yorkshire and Humberside, is tempered by the feeling that the region has been hard done by in terms of investment.

He adds: "The level of resources through the regional housing pot is only scratching at the surface of what's going to be needed."

The area's two housing market renewal pathfinders have had mixed progress – the South Yorkshire pathfinder, now called Transform South Yorkshire, has submitted its bid for a share of pathfinder cash. However, the Humberside pathfinder is not on course to do likewise until September.

Nevertheless, the pathfinder's chair Stuart Whyte is enthusiastic about the changes the plan is delivering: "The government has provided a menu for us to respond to in terms of a national agenda. And so far the recipe from the regional housing board is right."

South-east:

The Communities Plan has often been accused of bias towards the South-east, but even there it has proved to be a mixed bag. With more than 30,000 households in housing need, the region is crying out for affordable homes, but funding restraints are making it difficult to deliver.

"The resources are not enough to get us close to our regional guidance target for affordable housing," warns Sharon Hedges, policy officer for the National Housing Federation's local branch and a member of its regional housing board. The board has not found it easy reconciling competing demands in the region into one coherent strategy. The tension between resources for the growth areas and other areas remains. The government has placed an intense focus on key worker housing, which has had a skewing effect on resources."

Mike Gwilliam, head of planning at the South-east regional assembly, added: "To deliver a sustainable programme for the growth areas, there is an urgent need for infrastructure funding."

But the South-east has had one big win this year – the ODPM agreed to its demand to split the single funding pot it shared with London and the South into three smaller pots, allowing the region to make firm spending plans.

East Midlands:

Opinion in this region seems to be split on the fundamentals that underpin the plan.

On the positive side, it has wholeheartedly embraced arm's-length management and some councils are already benefiting from the plan's £2bn investment in the third stock option. ALMOs in Derby and Ashfield have been joined by new bidders High Peak, Bassetlaw, Newarke and Sherwood, and Nottingham.

The South Midlands growth area has also won strong backing from Northampton, Kettering and Corby borough councils. More than £50m of government funding has been earmarked for Northamptonshire to help speed up the delivery of affordable housing.

However, those outside the growth area continue to question what the plan has to offer them. In the absence of a market renewal pathfinder in the north of the region, the plan has been left unbalanced.

"The three cities – Nottingham, Derby and Leicester – are concerned about investment in the southern part of the region and the long-term impact that this could have," says Ann Branson, corporate director of housing at Leicester City Council.

"The regional housing board and the corporation seem more concerned with new provision than rehabilitation – which is very important for the cities."

West Midlands:

The West Midlands didn't do too badly out of the plan. Two market renewal areas, Birmingham Sandwell and North Staffordshire, helped to lift the gloom that has clouded Birmingham since its failed transfer ballot in April 2002. The plan's emphasis on sustainability is having an influence.

"Sustainability is now at the heart of the debate – there's a realisation that throwing good money after bad is not good strategy," says David Hucker, senior housing manager at Birmingham council.

While the Birmingham Sandwell pathfinder is a "big opportunity", says Hucker, he hopes it does not set the precedent that all regeneration needs to be large-scale. "Communities fail for different reasons. Often a small intervention can have a positive impact on housing," he says.

Regardless of the plan, and with more than half of its stock currently below the decent homes standard, Birmingham will have to rely on attracting all the help it can to achieve regeneration.

Brendan Nevin, director of the North Staffordshire pathfinder, says the plan has yet to get going. "Government departments have to have it much higher up their agenda. The regional development agency will have to embrace it. This could take some time."