HCA tries to silence landlords over finance
Friday, 22 July 2011 12:23 PM
The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has attempted to prevent landlords from revealing the amount of funding they've been given for the Affordable Homes Programme, an industry title has said.
Inside Housing reported today that managers at the HCA advised landlords not to reveal how much money they have been allocated and the number of houses they are likely to build.
Last week, a list of the 146 housing associations, local authorities and other organisations selected to take part in the Affordable Homes Programme was released. The organisations will each play a part in the £1.8 billion scheme to build 80,000 new homes by 2015.
The list was released on the same day as Housing Minister Grant Shapps revealed that the plan to build thousands of new affordable homes over the next four years was likely to exceed previous expectations.
According to Inside Housing, the HCA requested that the successful bidders didn’t reveal their individual funding allocations – but the body's regional communications managers didn't pass the message on until 14 companies had already released the information.
This reportedly led to a 'chaotic' situation whereby some organisations' figures were known, and thus been subjected to scrutiny, while others' remained secret. One landlord announced it had been allocated £6.5 million to build 188 properties but then contacted Inside Housing to ask that the information wasn't published following contact with the HCA.
A letter from Pat Ritchie, chief executive of the HCA, said: "If you are planning any promotional activity in light of your allocations please contact the communications manager in the relevant operating area."
This led one housing association chief executive to tell Inside Housing: "We may be independent businesses, but the HCA is the paymaster. I can see why people would be worried about making an announcement."
Meanwhile, Keith Exford, chief executive of Affinity Sutton and chair of the G15 group of London’s largest associations, said: "This is a really important contract and we need to make sure it is sufficiently negotiated and been agreed with our board before we make an announcement."
Contracts are expected to be completed and signed within the next few weeks.
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