Following the report on Taylor Woodrow's success with the Starter Home Initiative (23 January, page 30), the experience of United House may be of interest to readers.

Through its wholly owned regeneration subsidiary Unitary, United House was allocated £1m of SHI funds in September 2001 to subsidise 40 key worker purchases on the Kings Crescent Estate, Hackney.

Uniquely, our proposal satisfied all four aims of the joint Housing Corporation/DETR bidding guidance. Alas, it fell foul of EU State Aid Rules. The newly created DTLR was reluctant to seek clearance from the European Commission to pay "grant direct to developers".

We made the commercial decision to relinquish our interest in the programme in favour of the Peabody Trust.

Initially, this preserved the opportunity to achieve greater tenure diversification within a regeneration area, as Peabody is a partner in the project. However, continuing delay in stock transfer negotiations meant that the funds were eventually swept up within Peabody's overall SHI programme of street properties in Hackney.

The objective was met and key workers have been housed, but as I look back through a bulging file of now irrelevant correspondence, I can only reflect that this is an experience I will not be anxious to repeat.

Good luck to Terry Fuller and like-minded enthusiasts, but put the kettle on, Donald Hoodless – I predict some tea and sympathy will be required.

Source

Housing Today

Postscript

Ron Roberts, managing director, Unitary