Although successful bidders in the Homes and Community Agency’s (HCA) massive housing development plan were given the good news last week, housing associations have been warned not to give details of how much they have received and how many homes they will be building and covering with landlord insurance.
The HCA intend to organise the building of a massive 170,000 homes across the UK in the next five years, the programme will attract £1.8 billion of Government cash and will be shared out between different regions. 146 winning bidders for a share of the cash were informed of their good fortune last week, and the successful bidders were each given details of how much they would get and how many homes they would be permitted to build.
Unsurprisingly many of the bidders, who ranged from local councils to private builders, were overjoyed with the news and were quick to inform the press about their success. However, within hours of the allocation of funds HCA regional managers warned the winning bidders to keep details of their success under wraps. A spokesman for the HCA said that although landlords were entitled to disclose the information they would prefer them not to because allocations could change once detailed contract negotiations start.
Many of the successful bidders are aware that the HCA hold the purse strings for the project and are keen not to be seen “rocking the boat”. Their mood was summed up by Keith Exford, Chief Executive of a housing association in the South East, who said: “This is a really important contract and we need to make sure it is sufficiently negotiated and agreed with our board before we make an announcement.”
Most winning bidders expect to get their projects under way in the autumn of 2011 and be busy building the homes, which it is anticipated will be split 75/25 between rented and private, for the following five years.