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Address to the Housing Corporation staff conference

Date of speech	8 May 2008
Event summary	Housing Corporation staff conference

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Draft text of the speech - may differ from the delivered version.

Back in 1964, Beatlemania was sweeping the country, the Rolling Stones were recording their first album, Julie Andrews was blooming on our cinema screens as Mary Poppins.

So perhaps it's no surprise that few people noticed a low profile housing act making its way through the Houses of Parliament.

But within that Act - buried beneath all the descriptions of functions and definitions and regulations - are the roots of the Housing Corporation.

This is an organisation that has weathered immense change in the country's political and economic life. Evolving while remaining true to its values. And delivering a consistently excellent service over more than forty years.

"When we reflect on the legacy of the Housing Corporation, it shouldn't be about money invested and homes built... But in lives improved, families helped, communities better off."

Today, at your last staff conference, I want to look back over the past forty-odd years to consider what your legacy will be.

I want to thank you for your hard work over the past few years in particular.

And I want to look to the future - to think about how the vast experience of the past forty years has laid the foundations for the new Homes and Communities Agency and the new social regulator.

Back in 1964, as the Corporation had its first meetings, housing was one of the major political priorities of the day - as it had been for a generation.

In the general election that autumn, Douglas-Home and Wilson vied with each other over their housebuilding records, each competing over who would build more.

So although the Corporation was set up by a Conservative government, it was seized on by Richard Crossman, the new Labour housing Minister, as a way to fulfil his own ambitions. In fact, it ended up with far greater powers and a broader remit than anyone had anticipated.

Over the intervening years, the Corporation's role has changed as housing needs have changed. In the early years, the focus was very much on cost-rent homes and co-ownership.

Today, the emphasis is much broader - from promoting sustainable communities, to tackling social exclusion, and pioneering greener housing.

But it's only very recently that housing has had the same level of political attention as it did during the Corporation's early years.

And it's thanks to your efforts that we can point to some major achievements over that time.

People say that the public sector doesn't deliver targets - and certainly not to time or to budget. But you've only got to look at the Housing Corporation to see the truth.

Over the past couple of years in particular, you've delivered - and often exceeded - on everything that Government has asked of you. And these were stretching tasks.

You've more than met your housing targets - with thirty three percent more homes for only fifteen per cent more money. And you've made an important contribution to some very difficult issues. Everything from delivering homes for rural communities to better supporting vulnerable people.

I think that what makes your work so successful is that your first concern has always been for people, rather than buildings.

You've consistently looked to improve the service on offer from social housing - whether helping to cut the use of temporary accommodation, to promote community cohesion, or to tackle unemployment.

And I think that's what people should remember.

When we reflect on the legacy of the Housing Corporation, it shouldn't be about money invested and homes built. Your real achievements don't lie in abstract facts and dry statistics. But in lives improved, families helped, communities better off.

I'm sure everyone here has a story to tell about a direct contribution they have made, a difference that they have helped make. And there are few organisations which can say that about their staff.

Indeed, I've seen some of this for myself in my first few months in this job. In St Helens, I saw the work that you were doing with Helena housing association.

People were genuinely excited about the plans for a small community with properties for young single people, growing families and elderly people alongside self contained units for homeless people.

Similarly, in Dorset, I was pleased to see the excellent development you funded in Portland. It wasn't just the design quality that stood out - it was the emphasis that had been placed on making the project as green as possible.

It's these projects, and thousands more like them around the country, that are something to be really proud of. Your work has laid the strongest possible foundations for a strong start for both the Homes and Communities Agency and Oftenant.

I have to say though, that I'm really not a fan of the name Oftenant - and I'd prefer something with a little more imagination than 'the social housing regulator'. If anyone has any good ideas, do let me know.

Of course, I recognise that for some of you, these might be uncertain times.

Institutional change is never an easy thing - especially involving such a long standing organisation.

So I want to reassure you, that over this transitional period, I want to continue to listen to you and work with you to make this change a success.

But I am very clear, that with the challenges we fact now, this is the right change to make. Many of the issues we need to tackle through housing today are entirely different to those faced in 1964. Concepts like climate change and zero carbon housing hadn't even been thought of.

Let me just remind you of the scale of the challenge ahead. Three million homes to be built by 2020. A vast increase in the number of affordable homes. And the kind of funding - over eight billion in the next three years alone - beyond the wildest dreams of the founding staff members.

That is the context in which the two new agencies will operate.

The former Chair Lord Goodman described the role of the Housing Corporation as being to build;

"homes of the right kind, in the right places, for people who need them."

And I think that could equally become the motto of the new Homes and Communities Agency.

The major difference is, that for the first time, you'll have all the tools you need to achieve that, in one place.

That means far fewer frustrations over different funding pots. Fewer difficulties in getting the right people around the table. Instead, you'll have the skills, the expertise, the money and the responsibility for land all together. Bringing in staff from English Partnerships and elsewhere, it will be far more than the sum of its parts.

Similarly, the new social regulator Oftenant will be much better able to champion the interests of tenants. It will have stronger and wider powers to intervene and stamp out poor performance.

And with the powers to cut red tape and bureaucracy, it will give good landlords the freedom they need to get even better.

So I don't want you to think of this change as about creating new institutions - replacing one set of structures and processes with another.

It's about working in the most effective way possible to meet the immense challenges we face in housing.

It's about giving you the freedom, the flexibility and the funding you need. Not only to deliver more and better homes, but to make sure that social housing offers the best possible service to its tenants.

And although undoubtedly it's a difficult job to get a new organisation up and running, it's also incredibly exciting. If we get it right, we can make a profound difference.

With the depth of talent and the clear dedication in this room, I have every confidence that we can achieve that end. And I am sure that the next forty or so years will be every bit as successful as the last.

Thank you very much.