The Housing Corporation has come under fire for its new strategy of investing in projects across London on a sub-regional basis rather than within council boundaries.
The criticism came from the Association of London Government, the Government Office for London and the Greater London Authority just two weeks after the corporation lost out to the Audit Commission in the battle to become social housing's single inspector.

The trio hope to persuade the corporation that refining its strategy of investing much more of its funding in projects such as the Thames Gateway could deliver more homes.

Michael Irvine, ALG interim director of housing policy, said: "London needs all the homes it can get from sub-regional and regional schemes, but we need local projects as well. The corporation has to realise that local schemes will allow it to provide a more balanced approach."

The four organisations have met on a number of occasions as part of a discussion group on the regulator's change of emphasis.

At the moment, the corporation splits its funding so that 60% goes to local schemes, 20% on regional schemes and the remainder on sub-regional projects.

Irvine said he hoped the corporation would agree to an investment split of 30% on local projects, 20% on regional projects and 50% on sub-regional.

He said this would allow London boroughs greater flexibility in meeting their various targets, which include removing homeless families from temporary accommodation.

The corporation has yet to outline how its £482m London budget will be divided for 2003/04, but it is expected that the majority will be spent sub-regionally, as the corporation feels more houses can be provided for the same investment than on smaller schemes.

Source

Housing Today