Vistry Group: Regeneration Projects & Planning Process

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That sounds excellent. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Now, moving on to the next topic. I understand that the partnership approach was introduced by Countryside decades ago. I'm curious about how this approach addresses the issue housing associations faced in securing sufficient capital to refurbish their outdated, non-compliant affordable housing stock.

This approach was indeed introduced a long time ago. Traditionally, housing associations were directly funded by the government. As we discussed last time, pre-1980, if the acquisition cost of a property was £50,000 sterling, the local authority and government would provide grants of the same amount. Consequently, the acquisition cost was essentially zero, allowing all rent generated by a housing association to be used for property maintenance.

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That sounds excellent. Your assistance is greatly appreciated. Now, moving on to the next topic. I understand that the partnership approach was introduced by Countryside decades ago. I'm curious about how this approach addresses the issue housing associations faced in securing sufficient capital to refurbish their outdated, non-compliant affordable housing stock.

However, over time, the grant rate has significantly decreased. It's now around £30,000 or slightly more. Considering the value of a property can reach half a million pounds, a small grant doesn't stretch far. As a result, most housing associations and registered providers have become developers. They generate surpluses and profits from non-social housing activities to fund the maintenance of their properties.

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And regen is slightly different?

The regeneration process involved the housing association balloting their tenants, winning a vote, and getting approval. This usually involved moving people out, demolishing the old properties, rebuilding them, and moving those customers back in. However, you would typically introduce higher density than what was there before. After the war, when London was developed, it was very much four, five-story tenement blocks with lots of open spaces. When you regenerate, you go high and dense, and you have a mixture of affordable homes, intermediate homes, like shared ownership, and outright sell, which then cross-subsidizes both the affordable and the shared ownership.

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