星空传媒

The Housing Corporation is to slash the number of associations in its approved development programme by up to two-thirds.

The move is part of a wider shake-up that aims to increase housebuilding efficiency. The cull will begin in the 2004/5 financial year.

The corporation's assistant chief executive, Neil Hadden, announced the change at the 星空传媒 More Houses conference on 30 April.

He indicated that the current 385 development partners could be reduced to as few as 150: "We've got a new approach to the [approved development] programme. There aren't 350 good planning departments in the housing association sector. If there are 150, we'll concentrate developments in those that have a proven track record."

Later, he said the corporation would create a dossier on the development departments of each association. He said the ADP cull would increase housebuilding efficiency by cutting out those associations that have failed to deliver in the past.

It is the first time the corporation has placed a figure on its shift towards sharing investment funding between fewer associations. The strategy was first outlined in Partnering and the ADP, a paper published last July.

Many associations have grave fears that the reduction will hurt smaller or specialist associations, or certain areas of the country.

National Housing Federation deputy chief executive James Tickell said: "Cutting down to 150 is too far to deliver the housebuilding programme. In some areas, there will not be enough to ensure proper competition."

Charlie Adams, chief executive of Hyde Group, said: "The danger is that associations will be viewed by tenants as distant and monopolistic. They will have to be extremely careful to avoid that allegation, because if there's anything in it, it'll stick."

In addition, the corporation plans to endorse standardised layout plans to speed up the grants process, inspired by the methods of Space4, the off-site manufacturing arm of registered social landlord Westbury Homes.

Hadden said: "We're looking at words to say 'this layout meets our standards and is suitable for housing associations.' If any other scheme adopts the same layouts, they will go through the system without further scrutiny." RSLs bidding for funding would not be obliged to use the layouts, but their applications would be processed faster if they did, he said.

He added that the plan was not advanced enough to say how many layouts there might be, or when they might be implemented.

These plans have raised concern that they could lead to problems of 'identikit' social housing that can stigmatise residents and sap demand.