Sep 6 2007
The bidding criteria through which affordable home providers will access at least £8 billion in Government funds was announced today, with the publication of the Housing Corporation's Prospectus for its 2008-11 National Affordable Housing Programme (NAHP). For the first time the Corporation's programme covers a full three year period.
Publication of the Corporation's Prospectus follows the Housing Green Paper Homes for the Future, which announced investment of at least £8 billion in affordable housing in
2008-11, offering a £3 billion increase over the current funding period. The Green Paper sets out the Government's ambition to meet the country's need for social homes, to tackle housing affordability and to support quality and sustainability.
Bidders for the £8 billion Housing Corporation NAHP will have a key role in helping meet the Government's targets, increasing the supply of both social homes and affordable home ownership options to help people get a foot on the housing ladder.
In the next three years supply of new social homes will rise by 50%, to produce at least 45,000 homes in 2010/11. In addition in each of the three years funding will help produce more than 25,000 low cost homes for affordable home ownership.
The Prospectus details the exact criteria organisations will need to meet when bidding for a share of the £8 billion NAHP, both through the Partnering route and the Specialist route. Organisations bidding via the Partnering route have already been short listed following an earlier expression of interest stage.
Housing Corporation Chief Executive Steve Douglas said,
"The Government has set out with clarity an ambition to meet the country's need for social rented homes, to tackle housing affordability and to support quality and sustainability. As a direct result, we have been awarded our largest ever grant allocation for the third consecutive time.
"Delivering the resulting programme - providing as it does much-needed homes for those who cannot afford market housing - is a huge responsibility to be shared by ourselves and the increasingly wide range of partner organisations we work with on the ground.
"This Prospectus is the means by which we will ensure that the quality of homes we build continues to rise, as does the number of homes delivered for each pound of taxpayers' money we spend."
Higher quality standards
Expectations that bidders will reach higher quality standards are detailed both in this Prospectus and in the Corporation's Pre-Prospectus for the 2008-11 NAHP programme.
Specific criteria are set out to require bidders to:
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achieve higher quality design, with the publication of the new Housing Corporation Design Strategy and Standards;
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raise the bar on environmental standards to achieve Code for Sustainable Homes level 3; and
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grow the provision for people with particular needs by providing homes for vulnerable people, diverse communities and for rural as well as urban environments.
Challenging regional efficiency targets
At the same time, to meet ambitious Government output targets, housing providers are asked to meet challenging efficiency targets.
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for the first time annual efficiency targets are set for each region, ensuring that the NAHP's competitive bid process delivers significant reductions better value for grant and more homes for the public money invested.
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targets range from 4.5% to over 10%, depending on the Corporation's analysis of the scope for efficiency in each area.