Since taking on my role at the Homes and Communities Agency, and in the year since we opened for business, I’ve clocked up a fair few miles visiting many inspirational schemes across the country that we fund and support.

I’ve also had many productive conversations with our partners - from housing associations and developers to local authorities and Regional Development Agencies - which are so crucial to the HCA’s enabler role. It is they who translate the big numbers into something meaningful on the ground that will help change real lives and real communities.

From our perspective, as a single agency bringing together housing and regeneration expertise, this enabler role is, I believe, our most important responsibility and challenge. There is, after all, no one-size-fits-all magic formula, and every area is unique. Nevertheless, it’s clear to me that, looking back, there are a number of recurrent success factors emerging on the ground, and I feel it’s worth highlighting some of them here, as these are things we will consistently need to get right in the future. In doing so, I’d like to turn the spotlight firmly on our partners.

Recipe for success

Firstly, a strong commitment to make things happen. Just managing to get schemes off the drawing board is no mean feat considering the economic climate. While bringing forward stalled schemes has been integral to the HCA’s rapid response to the recession and housing market collapse, it’s something regularly cited as key to delivering results for partners. Flexibility on grant rates and tenure, helping housing associations maintain key contracts; effective communication with the private sector; and listening to the needs of local areas have all contributed to their delivery.

The Epsom Cluster in Surrey, for instance, has benefited from recent national affordable housing programme funding plus an HCA infrastructure loan, which have helped unlock these stalled former hospital sites and kick-start their redevelopment.

Secondly, a willingness to listen, to engage and consult with local people, in recognition of the tangible impact our activity can have on their lives. This is especially evident in the work of our partners in helping vulnerable people.

Earlier this year I attended the launch of the refurbished St Mungo’s hostel in Hackney, east London, part of our Places of Change capital funding improvement programme, and was truly impressed by its great design, which has created a spacious, light-filled, welcoming and inspirational place for people to turn their lives around. Talking to staff and residents, it’s clear they love their new space and there is talk of renewed hope for the future.

Third, clear and powerful local leadership. Places such as North Solihull, in Birmingham, put the success of large-scale regeneration projects down to powerful local leadership - of being organised, professional and effective in the face of challenge - and pushing through change.
Our single conversation is already helping drive initiatives such as these, in shaping local visions and priorities. In just one year, there are already conversations in progress around the country with more than 200 local authorities. Partner feedback confirms this approach is enabling a much more robust, focused and organised way of thinking, offering a platform for open and honest discussion with public sector partners.

At Plymouth, for example, where the single conversation process is already advanced, this approach is viewed locally as an opportunity to clarify priorities in order to attract public investment and build on progress already made in transforming the run-down dockland and Devonport. For Plymouth, it’s not just about transforming homes and neighbourhoods, but raising aspirations and quality of life where it is most needed.

What these excellent schemes say to me is that the HCA is an enabler. Put simply, we cannot achieve anything without our partners. It is they who must deliver on our behalf on the ground, and it is they who must grasp the opportunities our investment and expertise provide.

I think this is perhaps most marked in the Pathfinder areas we fund, and our housing association partners. Transform South Yorkshire, the largest Pathfinder, facing perhaps the greatest challenges, has demonstrated how bringing people together to develop a clear vision for the future of communities and neighbourhoods can have an impact.

Its flexible programme of work in Rotherham has taken advantage of changing economic needs by introducing greater diversity in housing available through a series of refurbishment, demolition and new build projects. This has given communities a clearer sense of place and function.

Rural areas also face particular challenges, given the scarcity of affordable housing, so it was enlightening for me to chair a rural housing event in March hosted by Hastoe Housing Association in Essex and hear first hand the challenges faced by village communities.

The Hastoe residents I met in Thaxted were enthusiastic about the sensitive development which, thanks to effective local partnerships, has provided 10 environmentally friendly homes, with one home custom-designed for a local man with serious disabilities, on a rural exception site. Our funds are key to helping dedicated associations like Hastoe deliver sustainable developments for rural communities.

For me, the message is clear: now more than ever we need to uphold our enabler role and keep listening to local authorities and our development partners in order to understand local requirements. We must stay abreast of local markets in terms of price, affordability, land supply and demand and respond to these factors. Most of all, I believe we need to maximise opportunity for our partners.

Sir Bob Kerslake is chief executive of the Homes and Communities Agency

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