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Home > Scoping Paper > Introduction
Introduction
The North West Regional Housing Board was set up to ensure delivery
of the policies set out in the Communities Plan , and specifically
to prepare a Regional Housing Strategy as the basis for advice to
Ministers on the priorities for strategic housing investment in
the region. The Board currently comprises representatives of the
Government Office for the North West, the Housing Corporation, the
North West Development Agency, the North West Regional Assembly,
English Partnerships and the North West Housing Forum.
The Board also has responsibility to ensure that the high level
strategies (including the Regional Economic Strategy and Regional
Planning Guidance ) in the North West are consistent and support
the Communities Plan and the wider objectives of sustainable development.
The organisations represented on the Board accept that this places
an obligation on them to work together much more effectively at
regional level to make sure that this happens, and are committed
to doing that. We also need to take this a stage further - not just
aligning regional strategies, but also our own investment plans
and programmes to maximise our contribution to the priorities we
are collectively establishing for the North West.
This is a new environment for us all, locally and regionally, and
there are bound to be both winners and losers. However, the North
West Regional Housing Board is keen to make the most of this opportunity
to increase the influence of the region itself on some key strategic
investment decisions.
Our timetable is tight: we have to produce our initial Regional
Housing Strategy by July this year. This will limit the scope for
consultation and broad involvement in developing the strategy. That
is one reason why the Board decided to publish this paper at this
point in the strategy process, to allow partners' views to influence
our thinking while we have only a broad outline in our own minds.
We aim to build on the initial strategy over the next year, and
we will be seeking your views again to help us do that. For now,
we look forward to hearing your views on this paper, and would ask
you to focus on the 'big picture' issues facing the region, and
give us as much evidence as you can to back up the points you make,
to help us as we put the strategy together.
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