Housing investment

The Homes and Communities Agency London Board, chaired by the Mayor, is responsible for the bulk of investment in housing in London, with a budget of over £5 billion during the period 2008-11. Details of how this funding is being used are set out in the HCA’s Regional Investment Plan.

The core of this funding is the Regional Housing Pot - London’s share of national housing resources for producing new and improving existing homes in the capital. The GLA Act 2007 gave the Mayor responsibility for advising the Secretary of State on the apportionment of the Regional Housing Pot, setting out how it could best be used to deliver local and regional priorities, within the broad framework of national policy.

The Regional Housing Pot amounts to £3.97 billion over the investment period 2008-11 and comprises three funding streams. The first and largest element of funding is for providing affordable homes, the second is for meeting the Decent Homes standard and the final element is for a range of programmes that make up the Targeted Funding Stream.

The London Housing Strategy sets out the framework, agreed by all of London’s public sector investors, for guiding decisions on which schemes to fund.

Providing affordable homes

Over £3.2 billion is available in 2008-11 to deliver new affordable and intermediate homes in London. The programme is currently distributed by the Housing Corporation, but from 1 December 2008 the Homes and Communities Agency will undertake this role.

The Housing Corporation's prospectus for potential bidders is available online.

Meeting the Decent Homes standard

This amounts to £440 million for 2008-2011 and is to enable London boroughs to meet the Decent Homes standard by 2010/11.

The Targeted Funding Stream

This comprises a range of programmes and amounts to £331 million for 2008-11. The Mayor will shortly make recommendations to the Housing Minister on individual funding allocations, and details of successful bids will be announced in due course.

Local authorities, Arms Length Management Organisations and Housing Corporation Investment Partners were all eligible to bid for Targeted Funding Stream resources.