The Housing Corporation

The Housing Corporation wants to be renowned for helping England have the most respected national affordable housing programme in the world. It is this ambition that has defined the four priorities at the heart of our corporate plan: more quality homes; improving landlord performance; providing expertise and building a can-do culture.

The affordable housing system is complex. We work with, through, and for a large number of stakeholders to achieve our purpose. We have four main categories of stakeholders: residents and communities; the affordable housing sector, which includes private sector partners; government and public agencies and staff/Board members. The Housing Corporation supports communities across England by subsidising the supply and regulating the quality of affordable homes and associated services for householders whose circumstances make it difficult for them to meet their housing needs in the open market, including the homeless, low income families, key workers and those in need of supported accommodation.

We want to improve access to homes people can afford and help create or re-create vibrant, mixed use, mixed tenure developments with excellent community facilities, an attractive public realm, strong local economies and an inclusive environment.

We undertake our role by:

Investing

We help develop and implement regional and national housing strategies, using public subsidy to procure affordable housing which provides quality homes in the places where our help is most needed
Regulating

We are the statutory regulator for housing associations. We drive improvements in housing association efficiency and performance, and help to ensure that associations continue to attract private finance at competitive rates to build and improve affordable homes
Influencing

We help shape housing, community and regeneration policy nationally, regionally and locally

The Housing Corporation is organised to deliver nationally and regionally. We have a team of around 500 people based in the nine English regions, working on a daily basis with local authorities, housing associations and other partners and agents. We have accumulated knowledge and developed information systems to support our investment and regulatory activities. We have an expert and diverse non-executive Board who agree our strategic direction with the Government, and ensure we perform.

In 2004, the Government conducted an 'End to End' review of the Housing Corporation's role in the affordable housing system. The review reaffirmed our pivotal role in the housing supply chain of the future and praised our excellent track record in delivering the affordable homes programme and consistently hitting challenging targets for completions. Our role as an effective regulator of the sector – particularly the impact of our work enabling housing associations to borrow at low interest rates – was also highlighted. Seamless delivery of the regional agenda and increased efficiency of housing associations were at the crux of the action plan announced at the conclusion of the review in July 2004. Much of that plan is already delivered.