The Department for Communities and Local Government is the government department responsible for developing housing policy in England*.
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is the single, national housing and regeneration delivery agency for England. The HCA's vision is to create opportunity for people to live in homes they can afford in places they want to live, by enabling local authorities and communities to deliver the ambition they have for their own areas.
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has published a Framework setting out the details of its new Affordable Homes Programme of investment, inviting Registered Providers to put forward proposals for £2.2bn of funding (out of the overall £4.5bn funding pot) for affordable housing during the 2011-15 Spending Review period. The Framework, co-produced with the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG), is a step-by-step guide for providers who wish to apply, working alongside their local authority partners. It outlines the changes in affordable housing provision being introduced for 2011-15, and how this new approach will meet the Government’s ambition to deliver up to 150,000 new homes over the next four years.
Key to this new programme is the Affordable Rent product, a more flexible form of social housing that will allow providers to charge up to 80% of market rent on properties, potentially increasing revenues and reducing the level of Government investment in affordable homes. As part of the new funding offer, providers will also have the flexibility to convert a proportion of their social rented homes to Affordable Rent as part of a package agreed by the HCA, with all of the additional capacity generated used to deliver new affordable homes. For further information on this, please see the HCA website.
HCA's activities focus on affordable housing, existing stock, land and regeneration.
