Welcome to the Place North West

Social Housing ForumPaul Unger, Editor, Place North

West

Claire GriffithsManaging Director

Regeneration & Commercial DevelopmentPlus Dane Group

A Neighbourhood investor perspective

Claire GriffithsManaging DirectorRegeneration and Commercial DevelopmentPlus Dane Group

Where I’m coming from

• HCA lead development partner since 2003

• C12,000 units in Merseyside and Cheshire

• HomeBuy Agent for Cheshire and Merseyside

• Over 1,300 new units delivered since 2008

• 200 Future Jobs Fund apprenticeships

• Commercial focus on office, retail and market housing

The job to be done

• 2011-15 Programme

• Regeneration

• Continuing new supply

• Investing in neighbourhoods

• Making the links

The challenges

• Affordable Rent

• Welfare Reform

• Culture Change

• Post 2015

The opportunities

• Localism

• New Partnerships

• New Markets

• Delivery

• Adaptability

Summary

• Let’s engage with the opportunities• Create new public and private

partnerships• Role of Local Authorities critical• Recognise welfare reform as the

biggest sector challenge• Take control of the knowns - cut

costs, innovate our assets, attract equity

• Acknowledge unknowns – unintended consequences of reform

• Fleet of foot!

Gwen CrawfordDirector of Housing Regeneration

Bolton at Home

TRANSFORMING ESTATES

Context

• Bolton at Home established in 2002 to deliver Decent Homes• Unique as a Regeneration ALMO, delivering private sector

housing renewal as well as managing public sector housing • Four Beacon awards• 3 star status from the Audit Commission in 2005• Bolton Council is a 4 star Council• Tenants balloted on stock transfer in 2010• Transfer of stock to Bolton at home took place in March 2011• One of the main elements of the offer to tenants was

‘Transforming Estates’

What is Transforming Estates?

• An integrated and ambitious Regeneration programme for former Council estates comprising –– Great Estates (transforming the physical environment of

estates)– New Build (housing for sale and rent)– Social & Economic Regeneration (Narrowing the gap of

deprivation which exists on estates and enabling our customers to take advantage of employment opportunities)

Great Estates (environmental transformation)

• A recognition that Decent Homes was only ‘half a job’• Estates still looked unloved, unkempt, and uncared for• Difficult to ask customers to care more for their environment

when the environment within estates was often so physically poor to begin with

• A belief that a holistic and intelligent approach was needed which would transform environments on estates

• Aligned with a belief that we did not have the necessary design skills in-house to deliver this

Great Estates

• Competition held for architects to work with us to redesign estate environments in 5 pilot areas

• A borough-wide environmental audit of estates was conducted in 2005

• Every area was objectively graded by its environmental quality across a range of indicators

• Community engagement and involvement is at the heart of the approach

Great Estates

• We selected five pilot estates on which to trial the approach• The worst areas were selected based on scores within the

Environmental Asset audit• This was supplemented by intelligence from housing

management around customer complaints and other issues• A variety of typologies chosen including inter-war garden

suburb estate, 1960’s low-rise, Radburn etc. • Extensive consultation undertaken with residents and

architects to achieve consensus

Community Engagement

Community Engagement

Community Engagement

Shepley Avenue - Before Great Estates

Shepley Avenue – After Great Estates

Thornbank – Before Great Estates

Thornbank - After Great Estates

Brownlow Way – Before Great Estates

Brownlow Way – After Great Estates

Hall i’ th’ Wood – Before Great Estates

Hall i’ th’ Wood – After Great Estates

The improvements are very good. . . It’s brought the neighbourhood together, what we have found since all this has taken place is that we talk more, it’s really knitted the whole community together . . .

“

”

The Verdict – Great Estates

Socio-Economic Regeneration

• Bolton has a Neighbourhood Management approach to working with communities and partners in the most deprived areas

• Bolton at Home is a key partner in delivery, with four Neighbourhood Management teams focusing on deprived former Council estates and adjacent neighbourhoods

• We have a comprehensive action plan aimed at getting people ready for work or training via a series of supportive, targeted measures

• Joined-up working with Economic Development, Health, Police and other partners

• Joint training for front-line staff to enable them to raise these issues with customers

Socio-Economic Regeneration

• Urban Care and Neighbourhood centres (UCANs) provide a physical basis for our Community Development staff

• Capacity building for communities – e.g. enabling customer groups and communities to raise funding for their own activities

• Work with six local housing charities through ‘Collaborate’• Increasing support for Hoot, the local credit union• Increased support for and work with social enterprises• 20 x 14 Plan – environmental sustainability strategy includes

behaviour change and improving affordable warmth• Developing our approach to Social Responsibility issues

New Build

• Development possibilities were identified as a spin-off from the environmental audit in 2008

• Analysis of all neighbourhoods undertaken in terms of existing quality and future potential

• Numbers – scope for up to 6,000 new build mixed tenure units within and adjacent to former Council estates

• Delivery vehicle - SPV delivery model developed and economic appraisal undertaken

• Joint Bolton / HCA Project team established to test the proposals and take them forward

New Build• Transforming Estates New-build included as a priority within the

Council’s Core strategy for planning purposes• HCA supportive of proposals and interested in investment – funded an

economic evaluation using Green Book approach• Work with Council departments to look at housing development in the

context of borough-wide strategies, e.g. POS policy, BSF• An intelligent approach to development – looking not just at what sites

are potentially available to develop, but what might be achieved by holistic re-planning of an area

• Including looking at open space provision where in return for development land, a better open space offer can be provided

• Council receptive to gifting its landholdings to programme

Transforming Estates

• The intention was to bring the elements of TE together (Great estates, Social/Economic and New-build) in an integrated way by master-planning neighbourhoods

• Shared with residents, Council departments including Planning, Environmental Services and other key land users

• Proposals generally supported and universal sign-up to vision • Funding for the social / economic and Great Estates elements

were contained within the stock transfer business plan• Funding for new-build dependent on a combination of HCA

investment, cross-subsidy, free land and equity capital

New Build

• And then …..• The credit crunch and recession happened• House prices fell sharply therefore reduced ability to cross-

subsidise• Houses not selling due to market uncertainty• First time buyers experiencing increasing difficulty in obtaining

mortgages• Cross-subsidy within schemes becoming very difficult• Council cuts leading to increased need to sweat land assets• Significant cuts to HCA funding

Transforming Estates – where is it now?

• Social / economic work has made good progress– Neighbourhood Management approach embedded and a wide

variety of community initiatives being supported – e.g. food growing, dads and lads

– Numerous examples of customers volunteering and growing skills and confidence on a pathway to work

• Great Estates work is being progressed and mainstreamed as part of post-transfer Investment Programme for Bolton at Home – Looking at establishing our own fencing fabrication facility

– Reduced inability of Council to match and supplement the programme means that we are having to reduce the scope and focus master-planning on the worst neighbourhoods

Transforming Estates – where is it now?

• New-build– Little progress for a year or two – focus on stock transfer– Bid submitted for a modest programme as part of the new Affordable

Rent framework– Currently working with arc4 on a portfolio of 12 sites– To develop a range of products in the context of the Bolton housing

market taking into account local costs and values– Using these products, to undertake financial appraisals of the 12

sites to appraise development options and optimise site use – Evaluate the delivery mechanisms and partnerships required to

deliver development within a Transforming Estates context– We aim to get the show back on the road within the next couple of

years as the economic situation hopefully stabilises and confidence starts to return

Summary

• Transforming Estates was developed as a holistic and joined-up response to the challenges we faced post Decent Homes

• It is ambitious and transformational• The vision remains the same even though the delivery route will

have to adapt and change• It is the best opportunity we have in Bolton to deliver sustainable,

successful communities within former Council estates• For more information contact Gwen Crawford on 07795 061823• Any questions…?

Roundtable Discussions

Refreshments

Roundtable Discussions

Jan RowleyDirector (interim), Housing &

NeighbourhoodsLiverpool City Council

Social Housing in Liverpool

Jan RowleyInterim Director of Housing and

NeighbourhoodsLiverpool City Council

Background

• The City Council was previously Liverpool’s main provider of social housing

• Since 1993 a succession of stock transfers– 5300 tower block flats to the Housing Action Trust in 1993– 4400 homes in Speke/Garston to South Liverpool Housing in

1999– 12200 homes in the City’s Eastern Fringe to Cobalt,

Berrybridge and Lee Valley in 2003– Remaining 15,000 homes to Liverpool Mutual Homes in 2008

Current profile of social housing providers in the City

• Prominent social rented sector• Diversity in terms of the types of providers

– LSVT organisations specially created for stock transfer e.g. Liverpool Mutual Homes and South Liverpool Housing

– Large RSLs with wide national/regional base e.g. Riverside, PlusDane

– Smaller specialist providers e.g. Steve Biko– Community based associations e.g. Eldonians– Also around 25 housing co-operatives

Geographical distribution of social housing

• City Centre – 20.6%• Inner Core (excl. City Centre) – 35.9%• Central Buffer – 22%• Suburban Core – 8.8%• Eastern Fringe – 39.5%• Southern Fringe – 40.1%• Liverpool – 27%

With the permission of Ordnance Survey. License no. 100018351, 2011

RSL Ownership

Concentrations of social housing

With the permission of Ordnance Survey. License no. 100018351, 2011

Strategic approach to social housing

• Balancing housing markets• Sensitivity to existing tenure mix in localities

when deciding on new provision• Creating a mixed housing offer that supports

economic growth and promotes balanced communities

• Transfer of all the City’s remaining housing stock to RSL’s which has accessed funds to improve housing conditions in the social sector

Social housing as a tenure • Increasingly less distinct from other sectors –

owner occupation and private rented housing• RSL’s have developed a range of alternative

products – shared ownership, intermediate renting, Rent to Homebuy

• Affordable rents framework is a continuation of this trend

• However, RSL’s still have an ethos of helping the most vulnerable and strive for the highest standards in the management and maintenance of their properties

Our relationship with social housing providers

• Council maintains a housing register (13,000 applicants) and meets housing needs through nomination agreements with social housing providers

• Housing choice facilitated through Propertypool, Liverpool’s choice based lettings system

• RSL’s provide other services commissioned by the Council – sheltered and supported housing , handypersons services

• Providers are development partners for new social housing

RSL’s are key strategic partners

• Formulation of City’s housing direction through the strategic housing partnership, Liverpool First for Housing

• Delivery agents in regeneration areas through LIFE model

• RSL’s deliver on some of the City’s wider socio-economic objectives – Anti Social Behaviour, neighbourhood management and worklessness

Challenges

• Delivering new social housing through the Affordable Housing Framework

• Agreeing a tenancy strategy which maximises investment opportunities while protecting the vulnerable

• The impact of welfare benefit reforms on rental income streams

• Confidence of lenders to invest in social housing• Ability to maintain diversity of social housing providers

following mergers and formation of group structures

Danielle GillespieNorth West Strategy

ManagerHomes & Communities

Agency

Place North West Social Housing Forum

Danielle Gillespie, Strategy Manager – North West

15 June 2011

Contents

2010/11 Delivery

Role of HCA

Affordable Homes Programme

Key Issues

Delivery 2010/11

North West Delivery 2010/11

3134 2952

632 1398

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

Starts Completions

Rent AHO

North West Total = 3,766 starts & 4,350 completions

An Enabling and Investment Agency

Driven by what local areas need, as developed through local investment planning, we will provide four broad offers

Investment Enablingsupport

Maximising assets for

local benefit

Regulation that supports local delivery and

services

Role of HCA

Affordable Homes Programme

Form of social housing – Up to 80% market rent– Provision to convert existing stock

Four broad funding streams– Increased net rental income stream + borrowings– Cross subsidy – Reduced costs – HCA funding

Proposals to cover 4 years ‘offer’ set out by LIP area – Need to demonstrate fit with local priorities/ needs/ ambitions

Ongoing LA/ HCA/ RP dialogue

Less capital subsidy per unit + payment by results

Land & Regeneration

Working with local authorities to realise the greatest possible benefits to communities from HCA and other public land– Creating marketable investment packages

– Providing technical expertise

£1.3bn of existing Government regeneration commitments

Accelerated disposal of land – HCA land holdings published online – Disposal Strategy published (May 11)

Preparing for transfer of RDA assets– Proposed North West Stewardship Model

Enabling

Working with Local Authorities at their

request to: – Examine local opportunities for

housing, growth & renewal

– Maximise the potential of HCA and

other sector public assets

– Develop new approaches &

partnerships for delivery

– Deliver – drawing on specialist

expertise & capacity

Working with other stakeholders – Lenders

– Developers & RPs

Key Issues

Change Ahead– New approaches to development

– Active asset management

– Delivery partnerships

– Broader range of products

– Different customer groups

Key issues remain– Quality, quantity & access issues

– Efficiency savings

– Capacity

– Prioritisation

– Uncertainty

Conclusions

Spending review has produced a major shift in the way housing & regeneration are delivered

Significant challenges and opportunities– Working with new paradigm –

decentralisation, incentives and localism– Delivery capacity in private and public

sector

– ‘Necessity breeds innovation’

Role of HCA to help deliver local priorities

Q&A Panel Debate