New agreement aims to deliver housing and regeneration agenda

A new agreement to support the delivery of more homes and the regeneration of communities has been formulated by ministers and local authorities.

Crucially this initiative - in the form of a draft protocol - has set out how central and local government will work with the new Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to deliver the Government's ambitious sustainable communities agenda and its aspiration for 3m new homes over the next two decades.

The protocol is now out for consultation. The draft has stressed that the HCA, the new body being formed by uniting English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation, will have a key role in helping to bring forward land for development by providing financial assistance and the provision of infrastructure and community services.

The new agency will also provide information, advice and guidance services to help unlock strategic land assets and develop innovative new approaches to the delivery of new housing development.

Housing and planning minister Caroline Flint said it was crucial that 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 Local Government Association is so important".

Sir Simon Milton, chair of the LGA, said: "The draft protocol rightly emphasises that the new agency must work with the grain of local ambition and understanding, allowing councils to steer development to the most appropriate sites."

Publication of the draft protocol came as Parliament discussed key amendments to the legislation creating the HCA which promote consultation with councils and local people on designation orders and the involvement of local authorities in the planning functions of the new body.

During the report stage of the Government's Housing and Regeneration Bill in the Lords, Communities minister Baroness Andrews got approval for the Agency's remit to be widened to include the promotion of good design.

She also reassured Peers that that the agency would not become a latter-day New Town Corporation will both plan-making and development control powers.

The minister insisted: "Even in the unlikely event that the Secretary of State designated an area and confers responsibility for preparing and maintaining all or part of the local development framework for the designated area on the HCA, that in no way exempts the HCA from having to go through the same process as any other local planning authority to amend the plans for the area, including consultation and examination in public.

"If it is involved with a development that requires planning permission, that must be applied for and obtained in the normal fashion. There are no short cuts for the HCA."

Read the Communities and Local Government press release.

Roger Milne

10 July 2008