Super-quango strikes deal with councils on housing targets

A working arrangement has been reached between the government’s proposed housing and regeneration super-quango and local councils, who had feared the imposition of top-down decision-making.

The draft protocol spells out that the agency’s funds and powers should be used to help achieve local development targets, rather than to impose central government ambitions.

The government said the deal would help bring forward more development land, and aid the provision of infrastructure needed to support new homes.

Housing minister Caroline Flint, Sir Simon Milton, Local Government Association chairman, and Sir Bob Kerslake, the chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency, announced the deal yesterday.

Flint said: “It is crucial the agency works closely with local councils to support them in their wide range of housing, regeneration and community work, which is why this draft agreement with the LGA is so important."

Milton added: “More and better homes … will only happen if the new agency works with the grain of local ambition and understanding, allowing councils to steer development to the most appropriate sites.”

A final version of the protocol will be published when the agency is formally set up in December.