Homes & Communities Agency goes live

The Homes and Communities Agency is now up and running. It's the new housing and regeneration delivery agency for England - with Sir Bob Kerslake at the helm, and 900 other staff. Here's their lovely new website - including Bob's vision for a single conversation with local authorities - and their corporate brochure.

The HCA now inherits the Government's target to build 3 million new homes, by 2020. That now looks impossible. But the long-term demand for new homes is still there. We think the 3m target should now be extended to 2025, to take account of the recent slump in new house-building. And the HCA should go for a larger share of high quality, private-rented housing.

From today, the HCA will need to respond to the big drop in housing activity. Bob said today that his response will be "investment led and counter-cyclical". At last week's Thames Gateway Forum, the Agency's director for London - David Lunts - set out a range of options, including buying up empty homes and putting them up for rent, and supporting more "rent to buy" schemes.

As a last resort, the HCA may even become a direct developer of new housing, if the market gets "really sticky" next year. Sir Bob has hinted that the English Cities Fund could be one possible model, with the HCA setting up joint ventures with the private sector to stimulate new housing. The chairman of ECF is one Sir Michael Lyons.