Wednesday 18 January 2006
Boost for affordable housing in region

BPHA, one of the country's leading experts on affordable housing, has been handed a bigger role to help more people onto the property ladder across the eastern region.

The Government confirmed yesterday (17 January) that the Bedford-based housing association would continue to provide a one-stop shop service for key workers looking for affordable housing across a 'zone' covering Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and parts of west Suffolk.

But the Housing Corporation also announced that BPHA would be given a much broader role in helping non-key workers who are unable to buy a property outright to purchase a property at a price they can afford.

From 1st April 2006, BPHA will become the main focus for helping anyone in the zone looking for an affordable home to buy, responsible for giving all potential applicants access to information and advice about the options available to them. It will manage waiting lists for all Government-supported affordable housing, including shared ownership and Homebuy schemes, now called New Build HomeBuy and Open Market HomeBuy

BPHA Chief Executive John Cross welcomed today's decision. "This is good news for all housing applicants, whether they are key workers or not, as it will give them a much simpler way of finding out what is available to them. We're delighted to have been given the opportunity to continue the excellent progress we have made over the years to help people into affordable housing."

David Keeling, BPHA's Executive Director of Development, said the challenge would be in creating a co-ordinated and streamlined service across a wide geographical area. He said: "This is a huge task and one that we are delighted to have been given, particularly as we've built up extensive knowledge of the housing market in the region.

"However, we won't be able to do this on our own and we will be continuing to work very closely with local authorities and key public sector employers across the region, as well as with other housing associations, to deliver what will be an extensive and far-reaching project."

BPHA is a major provider of affordable housing and now owns and manages around 850 shared ownership and 400 key worker properties in the zone.

The new extended role builds on BPHA's success over the past two years as the Government's key worker ‘zone agent' for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and parts of Suffolk, through its sales and marketing arm Keyhomes East.

Since April 2004, Keyhomes East has received over 5000 enquiries about low cost home ownership, with more than 700 of the applicants having been helped to find an affordable property to buy. These have included nearly 400 key workers such as nurses and teachers.

BPHA is now planning a conference in the spring for local authorities, key worker employers and other developing organisations to launch the new extended role and explain how the system will work in practice. A major information campaign is also being planned to ensure potential applicants are aware of the options available to them.

The original zone agent role was devised by the Government to offer affordable housing options to key workers to support recruitment and retention in frontline key public services.

From April 2006, the zone agent role will extend to all low cost home ownership schemes that are funded by the The National Affordable Housing Programme. BPHA, a preferred affordable housing development partner with the Housing Corporation, will also work closely with other housing associations and councils involved in choice-based lettings schemes and other affordable housing initiatives in the zone to ensure a co-ordinated approach.

The zone includes the whole of Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire, Peterborough, and Forest Heath and St Edmundsbury in west Suffolk.