The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is ready to begin delivering a significantly enlarged programme of public house building immediately, the Agency's Chief Executive has confirmed.

The HCA, responsible for housing and regeneration delivery in England, will take responsibility for an additional £1.5bn channelled into affordable housing over the next two years, following the announcement on 'Building Britain's Future' by the Prime Minister. The money will be used to build an additional 20,000 new affordable homes on top of the Agency's existing programme.

The funding will be allocated through a number of new and established delivery routes including the HCA's National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP), and the existing bidding processes to kickstart stalled schemes and for direct development by local authorities.

-- Advertisement --

HCA Chief Executive Sir Bob Kerslake welcomed the announcement of further funding for the HCA and confirmed that the Agency is well placed to begin delivery immediately.

He said: "This is a renewed commitment from Government to boost housing numbers and get people into high quality homes and I am pleased that the HCA has been trusted with quick delivery. The sector's capacity and appetite for housing delivery is strong, and the knock-on effect house building has in terms of jobs, businesses and the wider economy is well established.

"We are well prepared for this. We have had an excellent response from our housing association and developer partners to our flexible grant rates through which we were able to fully deliver our programme last year, and the response to our existing £400m Kickstart programme has also exceeded expectations showing that we will have more than enough schemes of the right quality. With this new money we will be able to meet many more of these bids and begin to look at new schemes for the future, and the housing and regeneration sector will welcome the opportunity to deliver completions over a third year.

"Local Authorities too will have an essential role here, both in leadership in identifying new sites, and through direct development of new homes, building on the £100m announced in the recent Budget. We will also look to them to lead on local labour initiatives and job creation as one of the associated benefits of this funding."

(CD/JM)