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Home > Regional Housing
Strategy > Delivering decent homes in
thriving neighbourhoods
Regional Priority 3: Delivering decent homes in thriving neighbourhoods
Issue
While the great majority of the North West's homes are in good
condition, physical conditions have long been a concern in the region,
particularly in the private sector, where the legacy of pre-1919
terraced property presents a huge challenge. Significant parts of
this stock are nearing the end of their useful life and are often
occupied by people who are unable (because of age, low income etc)
to afford or undertake essential repairs or improvements. In comparison,
local authorities and registered social landlords have maintained
much of their housing stock in better condition, but as the scale
of work required to meet the Government's commitment to a 'decent'
home for all social tenants by 2010 illustrates, here too the region
faces considerable challenges.
The case for action
Experience in the North West has conclusively demonstrated that
investment in property condition alone is an inadequate and expensive
response to the broader sets of issues often faced by deprived or
declining neighbourhoods. The recent PSA Plus Review emphasised
the contribution of Decent Homes programmes in the social rented
sector to the broader neighbourhood renewal agenda: "investment
in decent homes should take place in neighbourhoods with sustainable
demand in the long term; decent homes strategies need to be co-ordinated
with wider neighbourhood regeneration efforts; combining strategies
will help to satisfy tenant priorities and deliver sustainable communities",
principles which apply equally across all tenures.
However, the need to address other issues in parallel should not
lead us to underestimate the importance of straightforward investment
in improving the standards of homes. As well as providing a better
quality of living accommodation, such work addresses concerns such
as energy efficiency, fuel poverty and health issues. For example,
low indoor temperatures are associated with greater incidence of
heart attacks and strokes, cold and damp can cause a number of respiratory
diseases. The Government's commitment to "A Decent Home for
all", most recently reinforced in "Sustainable Communities:
building for the future", must be a key driver for the North
West's Regional Housing Strategy. For private sector housing nationally
the Government has set a target that 80,000 vulnerable households
in the private sector will have had their homes made decent by 2006,
and a further 130,000 by 2010.
Delivering change
A number of measures have been put in place to facilitate delivery
of the national Decent Homes targets. The recent Regulatory Reform
Order for example allows local authorities to offer a wider range
of financial help for the improvement of privately owned housing,
including loans. The Government is supporting delivery of the Decent
Homes target through the provision of extra resources (announced
as part of the Spending Review) to fund continuation of the Arms
Length Management Organisation programme, extra PFI credits and
new rates of funding improvements in the management and maintenance
of council stock.
The four Housing Market Renewal pathfinder partnerships in the
North West are expected to be key vehicles for helping deliver the
decency target for private sector housing in their areas, and will
be expected to establish baseline data as part of their action plan
development. They will also need to establish processes for monitoring
performance on delivery against the baseline. It is anticipated
that as baseline information held within the region becomes more
sophisticated local authorities, and the pathfinder partnerships
in particular, will be able to demonstrate that the region is making
an important contribution to delivery of the Government's target.
The recent PSA Plus Review examined progress against the targets
for the social rented sector.
For local authorities, recommendations included meeting
the cost of early redemption of Public Works Loan Board debt and
exploring options for gap funding of negative value housing stock.
The Communities Plan requires all landlord authorities to undertake
an option appraisal for their stock by 2005, which must be "signed
off" by the Government Office. It also makes clear that local
authorities that do not use one of the three options (stock transfer,
PFI or Arms Length Management Organisations) for generating additional
investment in their own housing stock "cannot expect increased
investment in their stock above that from the Housing Investment
Programme."
Government Offices and the Community Housing Task Force (CHTF)
have been working with local authorities to ensure that appropriate
steps are being taken to meet the Decent Homes targets for social
housing. This work will continue, and those landlord local authorities
requiring it can expect to receive more intensive support in the
next few months both from the CHTF and the Government Office in
carrying out any necessary option appraisal, and developing robust
"fit for purpose" Business Plans which show how the target
will be delivered. The Board will review the outcomes of option
appraisals carefully as part of their assessment of future progress
toward Decent Homes targets.
For housing associations, the Housing Corporation is currently
assessing the ability of the sector to achieve these targets and
this information will be available towards the end of July 2003.
Where responses are negative, the Housing Corporation will want
to explore the reasons for this and the action needed. As with local
authorities the expectation is that an association will fund the
work necessary to achieve the Decent Homes target from its own resources
and that an appropriate asset management strategy will be put in
place to assist with this. It is the Housing Corporation's policy
that associations should repair and modernise their stock in areas
of continuing demand ahead of subsidising new housing or non-core
activities. However, there will be circumstances where an association
does not have the available resource. Consideration will be given
to funding associations that can demonstrate an inability to achieve
the decent homes target due to a lack of resource. Priority will
be given where long term demand for the stock can be demonstrated
and where the proposal supports other Regional Housing Strategy
priorities.
The priority for the North West in strategic terms is to:
Priority 3.1
Improve the condition of housing stock with a sustainable future
as part of broadly based regeneration strategies, particularly in
areas of concentrated unfitness and disrepair.
This will be delivered through investment from a whole range of
sources. Improving, remodelling or demolishing poor quality homes
will be a significant benefit of the market renewal Pathfinder projects,
New Deal for Communities projects, large scale voluntary transfers
of local authority housing, housing Private Finance Initiative projects,
arms length management organisations being established by local
authorities, direct investment in their own stock by housing associations
and local authorities, and many other interventions by a variety
of agencies in the North West. Investment in their own properties
by householders or private sector landlords will almost certainly
be the biggest single driver.
In setting out its own investment strategy, the Regional Housing
Board's priority for the use of the single housing pot will be:
SHP Priority 4. To invest in improving the condition of housing
stock with a sustainable future, complementing other sources of
funding, as part of broadly based regeneration strategies, and focusing
on areas of concentrated unfitness and disrepair.
The Board will also to encourage the development of innovative
tools and mechanisms to help achieve the Decent Homes targets. The
North West has received an additional £6m per annum as part
of the single housing pot for 2004/5 and 2005/6, to help local authorities
implement the Regulatory Reform Order. The Regional Housing Board
wants to ensure that this resource is used to develop and establish
models of good practice and innovation in this area replicable elsewhere.
The Board will match this with similar sums to be available to housing
associations, and will commission work from local authorities and
partners who can deliver such models and demonstrate progress against
the Government's targets for Decent Homes.
In the public sector, where stock transfer is accepted as the method
of achieving the Decent Homes target for an area of stock or for
a local authority's whole stock, the Board will expect the business
plan to make provision for any remodelling or restructuring required.
Where this cannot be achieved but the gap is deemed to be bridgeable,
the Board may exceptionally consider the allocation of single housing
pot resources as part of a funding package, if they are convinced
that future demand for the properties is secure, other options have
been exhausted, and the project offers good value for money for
the single housing pot resources required. Funding is most likely
where the proposals help to meet other key Regional Housing Strategy
priorities for regeneration, high demand areas or supported housing.
Subject to any emerging national guidance, a similar approach will
be adopted to the funding of work by stock transfer organisations
post transfer.
Outcomes
As part of comprehensive neighbourhood renewal strategies, this
investment should help secure outcomes including:
- Improvement in the quality, design and condition of the housing
stock, and resulting benefits in:
- Improving energy efficiency and reducing fuel poverty
- Improving public health through reduction in incidence of
damp, cold, overcrowded and unsanitary living accommodation
- Contributing to the achievement of the Government's Decent
Homes targets
- Improvements in the design and quality of the physical environment
in neighbourhoods
- Strengthening of sustainable local communities
The Board expect investment of single housing pot resources under
this priority to be focused on the renovation of housing stock with
a sustainable future, and would encourage the adoption of Lifetime
Homes principles in putting investment programmes together.
More work
Over the longer term, it is acknowledged that further work needs
to be undertaken to establish baseline data, both on stock condition
and household characteristics (e.g. around benefit dependency, disability,
age) in the region. A focus on the delivery of the Decent Homes
targets for social housing has led to much more detailed and sophisticated
data becoming available recently (e.g. on stock condition, life
cycles) at a local level, and there may be examples of good practice
in the social housing sector which could be replicated in the private
sector housing field.
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