Housing associations are to lead the first two developments to be delivered through the new Housing Corporation/English Partnerships joint venture.
The fact that Housing Partnerships has given associations such a high profile in the two schemes, which between them will yield 1800 affordable homes, clearly signals that the sector will have an important part to play in projects run by the venture. English Partnerships chair Margaret Ford said the presumption that public land should be given to private developers rather than registered social landlords was finally being overturned. "We are challenging the received wisdom by making this a competition solely for housing associations – I hope it'll be the first of many."

An NHF spokeswoman said the move was "magnificent news" because "we know from other schemes that housing associations can deliver so much more as lead developers".

The first of the two schemes was announced by deputy prime minister John Prescott when he revealed the winners of the second round of the Challenge Fund at the Labour Party conference on Tuesday. Bidders for these projects were limited to RSLs that had already been successful in the first round of Challenge Funding last year.

We are challenging received wisdom by making this a competition solely for housing associations

Margaret Ford, English Partnerships

Genesis Housing Group and Bedfordshire Pilgrims Housing Association won the competition and will build 1600 affordable homes, benefiting from up to £20m Housing Corporation grant and an estimated £70m in land subsidies. The homes will be across 56 sites in eight different local authorities. Bedfordshire Pilgrims will build 500 homes around Milton Keynes and Peterborough. Genesis will develop the remaining 1100 in Crawley, Hemel Hempstead, Northampton, Stevenage, Welwyn Garden City and Basildon.

Bedfordshire Pilgrims chief executive John Cross said: "We will be partnering with a local RSL that has knowledge on the ground in the areas in which we are building." But he was sceptical that some of the buildings could be habitable by spring, as the Housing Partnership claims.

Source

Housing Today