As the North West director of the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA), Deborah McLaughlin is much in demand. She addressed a packed house at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall on the agency’s plans.
With a property market in dire need of a helping hand from the public sector, all eyes are on the HCA, the body formed by the merger of regeneration agency English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.
The big message from McLaughlin was that the door is very much open to developers. She said: “The strategies that were right in the good times are still right and we shouldn’t lose sight of that.”
The HCA was given an extra £635m in the Budget to stimulate the housing market, through initiatives including Kickstart Housing Delivery and funding for local authorities to deliver new council housing. But the money isn’t divided up into regional pots, so there’s no defined amount available to North West bids.
McLaughlin said that 450 sites across the region had been identified by local authorities as in need of assistance; and that the agency identified 20 that it deemed of immediate importance, with a further 25 long-term projects being progressed at a slower pace.
The HCA is also working hard to put lenders and developers together and on 22 June will hold a public event which, said McLaughlin, would be a “bit like speed dating” for property companies trying to find backing.
Date: Mon 11th May, 2009
Venue: Bridgewater Hall, Liverpool
Number of Guests Attended: 90