Review urges stronger partnerships between housing associations and housebuilders

The review of mixed-tenure agreements - by Martin Willey, of strategic regeneration consultants YTP and colleagues at specialist solicitors Bevan Ashford - is being made available free of charge over the internet as part of the Foundation’s work on easing the increasingly severe shortages of housing predicted for the next 20 years.

Noting the evidence from JRF research that ‘planning gain’ procedures (Section 106 Agreements) are not as effective as they could be in securing a plentiful supply of affordable housing, the guide demonstrates how housing associations can establish a more positive relationship with housebuilders and cooperate with local authority planners in creating sustainable, mixed tenure developments.

In addition to examples of existing good practice in Britain and Europe, the authors make longer term policy recommendations for policy and regulation changes aimed at increasing the supply of land for housing and for promoting more strategic partnering.

Lord Best, Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “A cornerstone to achieving better results is for housebuilders and housing associations to learn to operate better together. Less hassle and more co operation would save time and money initially and make better use of the different skills of these two key players in the longer term.”

He added: “The Government’s Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill, currently before Parliament, suggests a new system of tariff payments – ‘planning contributions’ - that would enable developers to by-pass Section 106 Agreements. This report advocates staying with the system but improving it. If housebuilders and housing associations could learn to operate better together Section 106 would deliver better results all round.”