星空传媒

The price of social housing could rocket as housing associations compete to buy properties built with social housing grant from private developers, the Housing Corporation was warned this week.

Roger De La Mare, the corporation鈥檚 director of regulation performance, confirmed he would examine the issue in detail after concerns over inflationary auctions emerged as a main concern at the bidders鈥� conference in Euston, London, on Monday.

He said: 鈥淲e will give a bit more thought to the whole area of how price is determined if unregistered bodies are disposing of properties to housing associations.

鈥淧eople were asking how that was going to work and how we will avoid unhelpful competition between housing associations that would put up prices.鈥�

Although the prospectus for the pilot programme, published a fortnight ago, states that the corporation expects that 鈥渢he majority of the homes provided by unregistered bodies will be passed to RSLs to own and/or manage鈥�, details of the process remain sketchy.

Keith Searle, director of housing consultant Adams Integra, said: 鈥淭he trouble is nobody knows what anyone is doing at the moment. [Competition between associations] is something on the horizon and could happen. Eventually [any price rise] could affect rents and deliverability.鈥�

Wayne Morris, chief executive of Western Challenge Housing Group, said associations would probably be cautious about getting involved in any bidding competition.

He said: 鈥淚鈥檓 aware that disposal arrangements were a key point arising from the consultation paper but I think associations will be very keen to ensure they pay the right price. From my own point of view, we will want to ensure that any properties are sustainable financially in the long-term.鈥�

Questionnaires from all parties interested in bidding for the 拢200m pilot scheme are due in by 8 April. A shortlist, and more detailed proposals, will be produced by May.

De La Mare also confirmed that although the corporation is not looking to alter its statement that unregistered bodies will be paid all the grant at the completion of any project, it will consider 鈥渂ids that vary from that template鈥�.