Cabe's future hangs in the balance and 192 quangos are axed

The fate of the design quango the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment still hangs in the balance despite the announcement of a cull of 192 quangos today.

Paymaster General Francis Maude today announced the culling of 192 quangos and the restructuring of 289. This includes 118 bodies which will be merged, to leave just 57

Maude said the government is “still considering the options for reform” of Cabe, but did not give a timetable as to when the final decision will be made. However, Building understands that a merger with English Heritage has now been ruled out, but all other options – including potentially scrapping the body – remain on the table.

In addition the Construction Industry Training Board will also have to wait to discover its fate, with plans to privatise the body leaked last month, a move which has provoked much concern. Currently it is funded by a statutory levy on the construction industry, but a private body will not be able to force firms to pay up, meaning the amount of money for training may fall.

As expected the reforms will see the regulation of social housing, seen as key to the leveraging of private funds for development, passed to the Homes and Communities Agency, from the Tenant Services Authority, which will be scrapped.

However, the HCA will continue only as a much smaller organisation with a more strategic role and fewer staff. It is thought that investment will be based around just three funding streams: new housing supply; place making and regeneration; and the existing stock. Sources said the body is likely to be given more flexibility over how it uses a much smaller pot of funds, with the possibility being raised that its existing approximately 20 funding streams will be merged into just three.

Maude said: “We know that for a long time there has been a huge hunger for change.  People have been fed up with the old way of doing business, where the Ministers they voted for could often avoid taking responsibility for difficult and tough decisions by creating or hiding behind one of these quangos. 

“Today’s announcement means that many important and essential functions will be brought back into departments meaning the line of accountability will run right up to the very top where it always should have been.”