HCA unveils two-year plan to build 117,000 homes

The Homes and Communities Agency plans to deliver 117,000 new homes in England by March 2011, nearly half the 260,000 forecast to be built over this period.

Unveiling the agency's two-year corporate plan, chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake said £13.6bn would be ploughed into housing and used to fund wider regeneration.

Sir Bob also hit back at shadow housing minister Grant Shapps, who last week warned that quangos such as the HCA would face spending cuts under a Conservative Government.

Sir Bob said that the HCA was happy to be placed under scrutiny and be "judged on performance".

The Agency also pointed out that its operational budget accounted for around 1% of  its total spending.

He said: "The HCA has a far wider remit than its predecessors, touching on every walk of life, and this is reflected in the breadth and scope of our plan.

"The advantages of a single national housing and regeneration agency are already coming through and will become stronger over the period of this plan.”

The Agency plans to spend £6.75bn between April 2009 to March 2011, directly delivering 117,000 new homes, the vast majority of which will be for affordable rent or sale. Thousands more homes will be delivered by the remaining £6.85bn spread across regeneration and renewal schemes.

The Agency said it planned to move away from individual programme budgets towards a more integrated approach, giving greater flexibility to target funding where maximum outputs can be achieved.

Sir Bob said all contractors will be required to invest in training and apprenticeship schemes which will be built into all HCA funding agreements with housebuilders and contractors.

Within the affordable housing budget, over 63,000 of the new homes will be for social rent with nearly 43,000 for affordable sale via HomeBuy. An additional £350m will be available to local councils to build new homes for social rent.

As well as funding new housing, in 2009-11 the HCA also has targets to create 319,000 sq m of employment floorspace to help create new jobs; and to bring 715ha – an area equivalent to 1000 football pitches – of brownfield land back into productive use.

Nearly £1.7bn will be spent bringing council stock up to a 21st century standard via the Decent Homes Programme and a further £918m will be invested in infrastructure, including in the Thames Gateway. The 12 Housing Market Renewal areas will see investment of £657m.

Open market: Housing Kickstart (Housing Pledge) A further 9,000 open market houses to be completed by the end of 2011/12; many of these will actually be completed by the end of 2010/11.