The document discusses the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) in the UK and its role in sustainable development. It has three parts: 1. It introduces the HCA and its goals of improving housing supply and quality, regeneration, and sustainable development. However, its focus on economic growth and housing delivery may limit its ability to fully achieve sustainable development. 2. It outlines constraints the HCA faces like budget cuts, changing policies, and stretched resources that challenge delivering objectives. There are also questions around its commitments to sustainability. 3. It proposes strengthening the HCA by refocusing on regeneration, integrating sustainability principles, engaging local partners, and creating self-sufficient communities to develop in a more

1. UK
Sustainable Development
Homes and Communities Agency
Strengthening Regeneration,
Integrating Sustainability
Richard Kulczak
e rpk201@exeter.ac.uk
07 March 2013

2. Threefold Goal
1. To see how well we are getting on with these
aspects of SD here in England through the
lens of the HCA.
2. To understand what, if anything, is holding
the HCA back from delivering sustainable
development.
3. To propose some interventions that could be
implemented to improve the HCAs capacity
for delivering SD.

3. Part I
Who are the HCA
and what do they have to do with
Sustainable Development?
Homes and Communities Agency
Richard Kulczak
07 March 2013

4. HCA Current role & function
 National housing and
regeneration agency
 Regulate social housing
 Create new affordable homes
and thriving neighbourhoods
© HCA: Urban Design Compendium
 Under the DCLG umbrella
 Purpose is to contribute to
“economic growth”
 Help communities to realise
their aspirations for prosperity
© HCA: Urban Design Compendium
 Deliver quality housing that
people can afford
HCA Investment webpage

5. HCA Objectives
 “Improve the supply and quality
of housing
 Secure the regeneration or
development of land or
infrastructure
 Support the creation,
regeneration or development of
communities or their continued
well-being
 Contribute to the achievement of
sustainable development and
good design, with a view to
meeting the needs of people.”
© HCA: Urban Design Compendium
Housing and Regeneration Act 2008

6. Department of Communities and Local Government
Commission for New Towns
Housing Corporation
Homes and Communities Agency
Urban Regeneration Agency
English Partnerships
Tenant Services Authority
Homes and Communities Agency
+ 2 other NDPBs
Housing & Regeneration delivery
• Investment planning w/councils
• Collaborate to “deploy resources and expertise”
• Partnering & Knowledge-sharing
• Monitoring & Regulating Social Housing
DCLG & HCA websites + archives

7. Sustainable Development?
In this context, SD ideally equates to:
Social sustainability
Suitable, decent housing
facilities and infrastructure
Economic sustainability
Cost effective and resource efficient
proximity to areas of appropriate
economic activity to provide jobs and
social structure
Environmental sustainability
Use of local, renewable, low carbon
materials, processes and labour
SUSTAINABLE
COMMUNITIES
seek to holistically
combine these
three pillars of
sustainability
towards the
end goal of
self-sufficiency and
facilitating
low-carbon,
sustainable lifestyles

8. Part II
Homes and Communities Agency
Constraints
Challenges
Messages
Homes and Communities Agency
Richard Kulczak
07 March 2013

9. Constraints Conditions or Implementation
 Housing shortages and population
issues
 Economic and employment issues
 Increasingly challenging targets
 Regeneration is not always
housing-led
 Sustainable construction ≠
sustainable behaviour
 Sustainable regeneration relies on
‘second-degree’ unsustainable
inputs and externalities

10. Constraints Institutional or Structural
 On-going changes and developments
in government policy
 Coalition austerity measures
mandated HCA 50% budget cut,
reorganisation
 Coalition's lack of engagement with
the sustainability agenda
“
[the HCA has to become] …
smaller, more strategic –
with the HCA's functions
being delivered under
local leadership.
”
– Grant Shapps
 Confused use of SD terminology =
‘sustainable building & construction’
 Regeneration has become a ‘poor
relation’ to affordable housing
provision
Source: Mark Easton, bbc.co.uk

11. Challenges
 Integration of sustainability principles
throughout the agency
 Delivering government’s green
promises through continued austerity
 Continuing to deliver satisfactory
standards of projects and services with a
50% reduced staff and budget
 Advancing the regeneration agenda and
housing quality and quantity targets
©changemakers.com
> A broad scope of somewhat limited depth remains
uncoordinated with certain key premises of sustainability
> Holistically incorporating natural environment interfaces,
biodiversity and urban ecology

12. Key Messages
MAIN NEGATIVES
MAIN POSITIVES
Delivering all their Objectives
Knowledge and practices are
well-informed and sufficiently
broad
Failing on regeneration
Social housing targets unmet
Human and Financial Resources
highly stretched
Challenged by Decentralisation
Targeted Social Housing
continues to benefit local
communities
Commitments to Sustainability,
Design, etc. are questionable
Focus on appropriately diverse
areas for Sustainability deficient
HCA website
HCA housing © BDmag.co.uk

13. Key Messages
MAIN NEGATIVES
MAIN POSITIVES
Delivering all their Objectives
Knowledge and practices are
well-informed and sufficiently
broad
Failing on regeneration
Social housing targets unmet
Human and Financial Resources
highly stretched
Challenged by Decentralisation
Targeted Social Housing
continues to benefit local
communities
Commitments to Sustainability,
Design, etc. are questionable
Focus on appropriately diverse
areas for Sustainability deficient
HCA website
HCA housing © BDmag.co.uk

14. Part III
Moving Forward
How can we strengthen the HCA to
address these challenges?
Homes and Communities Agency
Richard Kulczak
07 March 2013

15. Strengthening But HOW?
Efficient, targeted expansion of, or concentration on,
regeneration remit, in combination with community remit
HCA could Regroup or Redirect under the regeneration umbrella to:
 Focus on implementation of regeneration for
sustainability
 Concentrate on enabling and delivering mixeduse community regeneration projects
 Integrate sustainable regeneration or sustainable
communities initiatives
 Promote greater pre-emptive engagement of
local authorities and delivery partners

16. Strengthening FIVE POINT PLAN
1
Divest regulating capacity and/or non-critical
responsibilities for social housing providers, codes,
standards, and design-related issues
2
Adopt alternative governance strategies that enable
much greater integration of cross-sector sustainability
3
Revise organisational objectives and internal policies
to support embedding sustainability more effectively
Seek and implement alternatives to housingled regeneration, focusing more on localised,
targeted interventions, and more mixed-use

17. Strengthening FIVE POINT PLAN
4 Engage a more INTEGRATED agenda that:
mandatorily links sustainable
regeneration + every housing project
5 Create a holistic delivery model that:
 Addresses responsibilities for environmental sustainability
individually by location;
 Provides social infrastructure where locally required to form
the critical mass necessary for social sustainability; and
 Enables greater self-sufficiency through such measures as
on-site ‘urban agriculture’ and ‘energy production’;
 Targeted programme focus > HOLISTIC SUSTAINABILITY
 External communication and promotion

18. Strengthening Anticipated Outcomes
P O S I T I V E S
 Creation of more Resilient Communities responding to change
 Social cohesion through improved facilities and infrastructure, and
increased attention to local development needs, case-by-case basis
 Less long-term investment required in social and utilities
infrastructure through creation of more self-sufficient communities
 Reduced life-cycle costs to individuals, communities, government
 Better use of resources throughout project life-cycle: embedding
holistic sustainability on a much larger scale & much deeper than
simple collections of buildings for social housing
 Improved national sustainability associated with providing
programmes with positive long-term impacts

19. Strengthening Anticipated Outcomes
N E G A T I V E S
Resistance from housing-led organisations and HCA staff, who would
continue to see the delivery of affordable housing, with or without a
“critical social mass” or ‘successful communities’, as paramount goal
Political Support or rather the difficulty finding government support
for divesting responsibilities to other quangos / NDPBs
Financing any change goes against the grain, disrupts the status quo
and usually requires cost/benefit assessments, political backing, etc.
Project costs likely to increase in the short-term due to mandatory
social and environmental sustainability requirements, reflecting the
true cost of development and environmental and social welfare
Existing and previous projects will lose out on this suite of benefits

20. Part IV
What next?
Final thoughts,
Further Questions…
Homes and Communities Agency
Richard Kulczak
07 March 2013

21. X
Principles of Sustainability
not central driving forces
> function of housing delivery
> building regs + central government
SUSTAINABILITY INTEGRATED
AS A DRIVING PRINCIPLE =

> shift towards regeneration
> holistically sustainable communities
central
guiding
role
= wider scope sustainable development
= greatly improved results
= overall sustainability, in both short- and long-term

22. 1
Is the problem of embedding holistic sustainability internal,
external or hybrid and compound, and realistically can it be
addressed with current resources and within current structures?
2
Can a department continually challenged by diminishing fiscal
and human resources be expected to deliver objectives of
increasing variety and complexity?
3
How can we talk sensibly about budget funding redirection from
external ‘insurance policies’, such as National Defence, to
‘internal insurances’ such as public welfare and environmental
sustainability within the country?
4
Can we really engage the political elites with these critically
important, widespread and urgent issues within an economic
and political system currently aligned with the interests of big
business and moneyed elites?
rpk201@exeter.ac.uk