Tag: Homes and Communities Agency

Cheers to 2011. Here’s three aims for 2012

It doesn’t seems like six weeks since I blogged about my reflections on 2010, which contained some personally important landmarks in my life. I’d like to take a different approach this time and look forward to 2012 rather than spend a lot of time looking back on a year which – for all sorts of reasons – was tough, extraordinary even, yet not as enjoyable. One reason why I have not blogged recently is because I have been absorbed in other matters and struggled to find the time to devote to writing (I can feel a new year’s resolution coming on here).

This is not to say some important things didn’t happen in 2011. I kept my job (which is positive), my wife lost hers in November and then was told she had got it back with a different organisation just before Christmas (negative then positive) and my little girl started school in September (life changing). Despite these things (and others), I will be quite glad to see the back of 2011 and look forward to a new year with optimism and hope.

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Totnes tale brings home benefits of affordable housing

Since joining the HCA, I have become less involved in developing human stories which can demonstrate the positive impact that affordable housing has than I have been in the past.

This is mainly because although we directly fund the delivery of tens of thousands of new homes, they are build and managed by organisations that have the direct links with tenants and first time buyers who benefit from this investment. This leaves us reliant on social landlords and housing providers to uncover those occasional gems needed to bring a standard story to life.

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Cashes Green consultation puts localism into action

I returned from the Easter break today to the good news that a planning application to transform the derelict Cashes Green Hospital in Stroud into new homes and community facilities has been submitted to the local planning authority to consider.

I blogged in January about the impressive level of consultation that had gone into shaping the proposals that have been submitted to Stroud District Council. Hundreds of people living near the site have been engaged, through attending the regular consultation events, having newsletters sent to their home or reading the dozens of media articles that have reported on the plans in recent months. In many ways the consultation led by Hab Oakus, a joint venture led by Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud and GreenSquare Group, has been textbook stuff.

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Affordable homes blend into Exmoor beauty

I visited a site today in one of the most beautiful villages I have ever been to, where the HCA is supporting the construction of new affordable housing.

Wheddon Cross in Exmoor is one of those picturesque villages most people would dream of living. Situated on top of the rolling hills of Exmoor National Park, with a smashing pub and hotels in the centre of the village and stunning scenery in every direction, it certainly seems popular with visitors.

But with average house prices in Exmoor approaching an eye-watering £400,000 last year, many locals undoubtedly find it impossible to afford to live in villages like this.

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Four things taken from Torquay this year

The Chartered Institute of Housing’s South West conference in Torquay seems to have been a success this year, in spite of the cutbacks that have hit sponsorship budgets and delegate numbers and made events like this much more difficult to put on.

The CIH is a key partner for the HCA and this is a really important event for us to be involved in, particularly at a time of reorganisation when colleagues who are new to the patch have the opportunity to meet the sector’s leading local figures and understand the issues that drive delivery here. Even though our sponsorship of the event is a thing of the past, I am glad we maintained a delegate presence this year (NB: three of us were guests, including two speakers).

I certainly found attending yesterday worthwhile, made some good contacts and found out a few nuggets of information which I would not have known if I had stayed in the office. Here are some of the more noteworthy discoveries, along with some thoughts about the event itself.

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Communities of Practice offers food for thought

I’ve been working with HCA colleagues recently on putting together a group on the excellent Communities of Practice website for public sector professionals.

For those unfamiliar with the site (although it seems like an awful lot of people use it), Communities of Practice is a series of networks, set up by people working right across the public sector to share information and communicate on a vast range of topics. It appears to have benefitted from the huge increase in social media usage in the UK, which is interesting for a sector that is often portrayed as not embracing digital commnuications. 

However, you can’t argue with the stats: it seems that there are more than 42,000 individual members and more than 1,600 groups, ranging from ABC Benchmarking to Zero Waste. More than 60 HCA staff are invovled in various groups, with our Head of Delivery Partnerships Andy Nelson involved in a live Q&A session today with more than 600 members of the LGA’s Strategic Housing Community of Practice group.

We have set up a small pilot group, involving colleagues and council staff who put together Local Investment Plans for their area. We hope it will be a useful way for members to collaborate, share best practice and interact with the HCA – without perhaps always having to travel long distances to attend meetings.

We have only just finalised the group, and are still finding our feet with it. But we hope people who join find it worthwhile. In the spirit of collaboration, we’d welcome ideas on how to make this work well!