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Home > Allocating
the Single Housing Pot
The introduction of Regional Housing Boards, Regional Housing Strategies and the single housing pot is a major set of changes, and the full implications are still being worked through. The Board is responsible for making recommendations to Ministers about the use of the new single housing pot within the North West, on the basis of the priorities established in the Regional Housing Strategy. The pot is made up of the funds previously allocated to local authorities via the Housing Investment Programme (except the dedicated resource for Disabled Facilities Grants) and to registered social landlords (housing associations) via the Housing Corporation's Approved Development Programme.
Ministers have indicated that they expect 70% of Housing Investment Programme funding to be allocated to local authorities according to the existing national formulaic measure of need for the first two years of the new arrangements (2004-05 and 2005-06), unless the Regional Housing Strategy makes a strong case to do otherwise. Pre-commitments of future Approved Development Programme resources will also be honoured.
The Board have reflected the Regional Housing Strategy's priorities in their recommended distribution of the remaining 'free' funds available to it. This includes a proportion of funds set aside to enable the Board to commission a small number of projects aimed at developing new approaches to delivering against the regional priorities. This complements a more formulaic distribution for the remainder of the 'free' resources in support of the identified priorities.
Total funds available from the single housing pot for the North West will total £243.0 million for 2004/05 and £249.5 million for 2005/06. Those totals include an additional £6 million per year for the next two years for private sector renewal activity by local authorities, announced in the Communities Plan, which form part of the resource available for the first round of commissioned projects. These will be aimed at supporting innovative proposals using the extended powers available to local authorities via the recent Regulatory Reform Order, and are matched by a similar sum from the single housing pot for RSL involvement. Further details have been sent to targeted local authorities and housing associations - click here for more details.
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