Homes for Tomorrow: New Directions for Housing
Policy
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Homes for Tomorrow: New Directions for Housing
Policy
Five of the country`s largest housing
association groups joined forces and published a new report on 6th
April called Homes for Tomorrow: New Directions for Housing Policy,
which challenges the current model for providing affordable housing
and its ability to deliver the positive social and economic results
for all those it is intended to help.
Well placed to promote ideas for the radical reform of housing
policy the group of associations, known collectively as the Housing
Futures Network, provide over 250,000 affordable homes across the
country and invest significantly in their residents and their
communities.
The paper by Places for People, Affinity Sutton, London and
Quadrant, Riverside, and Gentoo points to the need for wholesale
reform, arguing that the current model is broken and that we need
to find new ways to fix it.
Suggested fixes come under four headings:
- What is the purpose of social housing? Why should the State
intervene, what outcomes should it expect, who should be helped and
how?
- Which products are needed? What changes to current delivery
models will overcome the impacts of the credit crunch, how can we
increase and diversify supply and how could we use the existing
stock more creatively?
- How should housing associations be accountable and to whom?
Associations play a key role in delivering the nation`s affordable
housing. How should they balance the imperative for the effective
governance required by complex businesses, with offering real
accountability and influence to customers and other
stakeholders?
- How should regulation work? What is its purpose, how can it
protect the interests of tenants and public investment without
stifling innovation and investment in new homes?
The group's aim is to stimulate debate and
influence the government to be bold when it contemplates the future
direction for housing policy. Copies of the report have already
been sent to leading opinion formers, including the Minister for
Housing and Planning, the Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP, Shadow
Minister, senior civil servants and leading academics.
To read the full report, please click here.