Ready for kick-off The HCA’s East Midlands regional director tells Lisa Pilkington the recession is as much an opportunity as a problem
“There are opportunities as well as threats from this recession,” says Margaret Allen, the Homes and Communities Agency’s regional director for the East Midlands. “This is a really difficult time, but sometimes the best things ever are planned in times of recession and, collectively, we can all use this period to make fantastic delivery plans for when the market returns.”
The former chartered accountant has had to hit the ground running since the HCA was created last December. As one of the original four who set up the quango under the direction of Sir Bob Kerslake, Allen spent last year in London finalising all the details before landing the job as regional director for the East Midlands in January.
Sitting in the HCA’s outdated and compact offices above the rather dingy Willie Thorne Snooker Club in Leicester’s city centre, it is hard to hear Allen above the constant drone of traffic outside. The setting is a million miles away from the more salubrious HCA headquarters in London’s swanky Buckingham Palace Road in SW1.
Critics have lambasted England’s lead body for urban regeneration in its first year for being tightly focused on social housing to the detriment of delivering commercial schemes. They point to the HCA’s nationwide budget breakdown for 2009-10, where affordable housing has a budget of £147m, while property and regeneration has just 28.5% of that total – at £42m (see box).
Allen’s response is conciliatory. “Yes, we are focused on housing at the moment,” she says, “but that’s because we’ve had to respond to what’s happening in the wider economy – not because commercial regeneration isn’t important.”
Allen’s background is hardly commercial, with a solid 16-year stint working for the Housing Corporation (see CV box) before it merged with English Partnerships last year to create the HCA.
Nonetheless, she is unperturbed by the challenges ahead. Allen believes commercial regeneration and housing must go hand in hand. “Regeneration will be back. You can’t have houses without regeneration, and vice versa,” she says.
And she isn’t fazed about working with private sector partners. “I’ve had a really positive experience of working with commercial developers. We’ve been involved in a good two-way dialogue, including frank discussions and understanding of the issues on both sides,” she says.
“Corby is a brilliant example of this. That’s what regeneration is about, because all of the housing growth figures for Corby would not happen unless commercial regeneration had taken place.”
Replan and rephase
She continues: “We have to replan and rephase what we’re doing to meet the new needs of the market and the appetite of others for investment but, importantly, we have to sustain our regeneration pipeline through this really difficult time.
“We’re looking very closely at how we can keep our regeneration programme going but it is very, very difficult as the resources we have are not as great for regeneration as they are for housing.”
With most of the HCA’s £5bn annual budget allocated for social housing, it does not look as if the agency will be providing large amounts of gap funding for commercial developers any time soon.
Allen agrees. “It’s not within our gift to choose to take money out of housing to put it into regeneration,” she says. “I can’t make a conscious choice to take money out of the HCA’s Kickstart programme for affordable housing and put it into a programme for regeneration, even though eventually regeneration would unlock housing sites.”
With income from capital receipt returns on land sales at an all-time low, private sector development has stalled. Allen believes the HCA’s regeneration programme is also restricted.
“Effectively, my regeneration programme is constrained by the amount of money I can get in by way of receipts, which means that I have to prioritise all of my regeneration money into what is committed, what is the priority and then everything else has to be rephased so that it’s running at a pace that matches the market – and that is a very difficult conversation that we’re having with local authorities at the moment,” she says.
Back in March, Allen was appointed to the board of specialist regeneration developer Blueprint. The HCA owns 25% of the public/private sector partnership, which also includes property fund Igloo and EMDA.
Blueprint is working on a number of residential and mixed-use schemes across the East Midlands, including the recently completed Phoenix Square in Leicester, Nottingham Science Park and Sadler Square in Derby.
The 50:50 joint venture is also looking at opportunities in Lincoln, Northampton and Corby.
Allen explains: “We’re talking to organisations about different types of delivery vehicles. For example, in Lincolnshire’s growth point, we may set up a special purpose vehicle specifically to deliver that project.
“We’re also talking to Nottingham council regarding setting up a city housing company, and we’re already involved with the North Northamptonshire Development Company for Corby and West Northamptonshire Development Company.”
Back at the HCA, Allen is overseeing a “massive restructure” for the East Midlands region and says: “It’s all a bit stressful, really. I should have a team of 45 people but, at the moment, I have just 30, which means we’re stretched.”
Under the restructure, the Leicester office will close and all staff will relocate to new offices in Corby. “Corby is a big regeneration project of ours,” says Allen. “By moving our office there, it signals our confidence in the town’s regeneration.”
Regional offices
In a typical week, Allen divides her time between regional offices in Leicester, Nottingham and Milton Keynes, and she meets the eight other regional directors and boss Kerslake in London once a month. “We meet regularly to discuss and reflect on each others’ regions,” she explains.
Her time is divided between making corporate decisions, restructuring the agency in her region and making sure that the HCA is strategically placed to invest more money. “We have a focus on delivery – we want to get things done,” she says.
When asked what is at the top of her “to do” list, Allen says without hesitation: “Making sure Kickstart delivers.”
The HCA’s Kickstart programme was launched in the 2009 Budget with £400m of funding to unlock stalled projects hit by the economic downturn. An additional pledge of £660m was made at the end of June.
Allen explains that there are two main stages to the Kickstart programme: “The current phase is where developers and housing associations are making a bid for gap funding for a stalled site. We’ve had a lot of bids for Kickstart assistance.
“In fact, Corby had the highest number of bids for Kickstart assistance in the UK, except for London. We’re now at the due diligence stage, where we’re looking at the design quality and detail of these schemes one by one and making decisions. Every week, projects are being reviewed.”
In July, housing minister John Healey announced the shortlist of 270 nationwide developments in line to receive funding through the £925m Kickstart programme. Corby’s Stanion project was one of those chosen.
Stanion is an urban extension to Corby where, in the long term, 1,200 homes are to be built. While the infrastructure is in place, housing development has stalled. The gap funding will bring the project back to life.
Kickstart remains a firm priority for Allen in the year ahead, for which she wants to see tangible results.
“Kickstart is investing money over a very short period of time,” she says. “I expect to see lots of houses being built that would otherwise not have been. We’re forecasting 3,500 housing completions in the East Midlands for the period 2009-10. This figure could go over 4,000, which would be great.”
CV: Margaret Allen
Born 1959, Manchester
Education Preston, Liverpool and Trent polytechnics, qualifications in ONC Public Administration (distinction) and as an accounting technician, CIPFA. Member of the Chartered Institute of Public Financial Accountants since 1987
1984-86 Lancaster city council, trainee accountant
1986-88 North West Leicester district council, finance officer
1988-90 Leicester city council, housing accountant
1990-92 de Montfort Housing, head of finance
1992-2008 The Housing Corporation. Various roles, from senior financial supervision officer to director – central field area
2008-present Homes and Communities Agency, regional director East Midlands
Lifestyle Married, no children
What is the HCA?
The Homes and Communities Agency was formed last December to be England’s single national housing and regeneration agency.
It is intended to act as a bridge between national government targets and local ambitions, harnessing the public, private and voluntary sectors.
The agency is headed by chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake. It has nine regional directors and three corporate directors who form its senior team.
Homes and Communities Agency 2009-10 programme resources
National affordable housing £147m
Property and regeneration £42m
Community infrastructure £4m
Decent homes (gap funding) £2m
Growth funding £36m
Gypsies & travellers £4m
Other £1m
Total £236m
