skip to: page content | links on this page | site navigation | footer (site information)
HATC


HATC News

April 2010 - HATC reported in The Times & BBC1’s The One Show

We were pleased that the findings of our recently-published research, Room To Swing A Cat?, were reported in The Times, on The One Show, and in the technical press, including Inside Housing.

April 2010 - New research on dwelling sizes published: Room to Swing A Cat?

We have published our most recent research, Room to Swing a Cat? It analyses the sizes of dwellings for sale developed by private housebuilders in London and the southeast, looking at how much internal space is provided, and how that space is allocated between habitable areas, circulation areas, kitchens etc. This report is linked to our previous research Resident Satisfaction with Space in the Home, and is a significant addition to the limited evidence base on the nature of housing being currently produced.

Jan 2010 - London Plan: responding for the NHF

The London Mayor, Boris Johnson, has published a draft Replacement Plan which will have a significant effect on planning decisions in the capital. We have been commissioned by the London region of the National Housing Federation to review the draft Plan and comment on behalf of London Housing associations.

Dec 2009 - Training Needs Analysis for Genesis HG

Genesis Housing Group have commissioned us to undertake a training needs analysis of their entire new business and project management teams. The analysis will identify any significant shortfalls of knowledge against a selection of Topics in HATCs Competency Framework. GHG are considering adopting a version of the HATCs Competency Escalator to help grow the competency of the teams.

August 2009 - CABE publishes HATC report Resident Satisfaction with Space in the Home

Click here to download this report.
Click here to download CABE’s Briefing that accompanies this report.

This report, commissioned by English Partnerships and CABE is now published. It investigates the levels of resident satisfaction with the amount of space in a sample of dwellings developed in London and the South East between 2002-2007. It identifies where residents expressed satisfaction and dissatisfaction on a range of questions that asked about the functionality of various spaces in the home.

July 2009 - Developing Affordable Housing published by National Housing Federation

The NHF launched the second edition of this publication at their Development Conference at Warwick University in July 2009.

Developing Affordable Housing provides a reasonably detailed overview of the players, tasks, issues and events involved in delivering affordable housing projects. It also covers the main issues in running programmes, as well as topics of particular interest to Board members.

This guide is essential reading for Board members with responsibility for overseeing the Development function of their organisation, and for Development and Regeneration staff with less than 3 years experience.

The Guide can be purchased from the National Housing Federation website.

January 2009 - Procurement review for Ocean Housing

Procurement review for Ocean Housing Ocean Housing has appointed HATC to undertake a review of their procurement processes, to help them continue to reflect best practice.

January 2009 - Updating NHF Development Guide

HATC and Portfolio Consultancy are updating the National Housing Federation’s guide to property development Developing Affordable Housing. The update will draw upon OPMP (Online Project Management Procedures for HAs), also jointly written by Andrew Drury of HATC and Richard Broomfield of Portfolio Consultancy. Developing Affordable Housing provides an overview of the stages and issues in publically subsidised property development. It is essential reading for Board members and senior officers who need to have a detailed overview of the topic. It does not, however, constitute a set of Development procedures. Affordable Housing Providers undertaking property development, regeneration or significant re-investment will need procedures such as OPMP. Developing Affordable Housing will be launched at the NHF’s Development Conference at Warwick University in July 2009.

December 2008 - Market Opportunity Schemes for Manningham HA

Firebird Homes Ltd, part of the Manninghan HA group, have appointed Dai Howells of HATC to help them work up a number of Market Opportunities bids to the HCA.

December 2008 - HATC Project Management course: 100% Pass Rate

HATC held it’s first APM-accredited course leading to the Introductory Certificate in Project Management in early November. We are delighted that all the candidates passed the APM examination, and that we achieved a 100% pass rate. Three HATC staff took the course, to help maintain out project-management approach. We will be running more of these courses in 2009/10. For details click here.

November 2008 - Market research for LAPN Training Academy

We have been appointed by the London Area Procurement Network (LAPN) to undertake market research to help them establish the feasibility of launching a Training Academy for the sector. Aimed at ALMO’s, Councils and Housing Associations, the proposed Academy could provide a range of courses, focussing particularly on LAPN’s expertise in Partnering, performance measurement and co-operative working arrangements.

October 2008 - EP commission a Dwelling Size Survey

English Partnerships have commissioned HATC to research private housebuilder’s developments for sale, and analyse the amount of internal space provided, and it’s distribution between uses. The research is to be targeted in the London and SE area. We expect to report before Christmas, and that the report will be published early 2009.

September 2008 - Launch of HC's Achieving Building for Life

The Housing Corporation has published HATC’s guide Achieving Building for Life. Wayne Hemingway, Chairman of Building for Life launched the guide which is available here. The guide offers advice on what the Building for Life questions are seeking, and sets out a series of Expectations to help affordable housing Providers design for success. As Building for Life is a Grant compliance issue, this is essential reading for all Development staff.

July 2008 - Launch of NHF’s Guide to Standards & Quality in Development

Sunand Prasad, President of the RIBA launched the new edition of the NHF’s Guide to Standards & Quality, written by HATC. This is the Fed’s good-practice design guide for affordable housing Providers. It covers Skills & Knowledge, Managing the Design Process, the External Environment, Shared / Communal Areas, the Internal Environment, Costs in Use, Environmental Sustainability and Accessibility. A must-have for all Development staff! The Guide can be ordered from:

https://www.housing.org.uk/OnlineStore

November 2007 - Resident Satisfaction with dwelling standards

English Partnerships have recently published their new minimum standards for residential development. We are delighted that they have incorporated good-practice minimum dwelling space standards. We are very pleased to have been invited by EP and CABE to undertake some research on levels of resident satisfaction with the space standards in their newly-built private housing for sale. We have commissioned Ipsos-MORI to help on this project, we should report in the Spring 2009.

August 2007 - HATC hits GOLD

Andrew Drury of HATC has been asked by the Housing Corporation to be an Expert Panel member for the 2008 Gold Awards for Excellence. The Award was launched in 2005 to support continuous improvement in social housing. The initiative is already widely recognised as a leading and prestigious award scheme in the sector. We are delighted to be part of this process. Andrew is one of the two Expert Panel Members on the Joined Up Development theme. The two other themes in the 2008 Gold awards are Building Cohesive Communities and Tackling Worklessness. For further details on the Gold Awards for Excellence click here.

August 2007 - Updating the NHF’s Guide to Standards & Quality

We have been commissioned by the National Housing Federation to update the Guide to Standards & Quality. We originally developed the Guide for the NHF in 1997, and we are delighted to have been asked to update it. The update will focus on the Code for Sustainable Homes and the Building for Life criteria, as they have been adopted by the Housing Corporation in their new Design & Quality Standards. The updated Guide will be available in spring/summer 2008.

January 2007 - Swing A Cat website

Designed to help home-buyers understand how much space they need in the home. HATC, Design for Homes and website designers Touch Creative were commissioned by Sunderland Housing Group to produce a web site guide aimed at helping house-buyers assess whether or not the dwelling they are thinking of buying is likely to have enough space. The web link is: http://www.swingacat.info/. Try it!

January 2007 - New professional Project Management course launched

The NHF-supported course in Project Management has now been established, and is being run by the College of Central London in February 2007! For more details click here"

October 2006 - Updating HC Capital Funding Guide

HATC has been appointed by the Housing Corporation to update their Capital Funding Guide and design an improved web-based format to make it more user-friendly.

This work builds on HATC’s experience with OPMP (Online Project Management Procedures). The new Guide will be published as part of the Corporation’s new IT Content Management System. It is scheduled to be ready by the end of March 2007.

October 2006 - New Guide to Valuing Land

HATC has been commissioned by the Housing Corporation & Local Government Association to produce a guide on land valuation for local authorities selling land for affordable housing purposes.

In the course of the last bidding round the Housing Corporation noticed significant differences in the bases upon which local authorities determined the price for land they were selling to housing associations. A need for greater consistency was identified, and so a short Guide has been commissioned. It is likely to be of interest to housing associations as well as local authorities.

Trowers and Hamlins will provide specialist legal advice and the specialist valuation advice will come from Mazars.

The Guide is due to be drafted by the end of March 2007 and published shortly after that by the Housing Corporation.

October 2006 - Review of Client Charter

We were commissioned by Constructing Excellence (on behalf of the DTI and Housing Corporation) to report on the views of existing users of the Client Charter. 95% of existing users are housing associations.

We have send out over 100 questionnaires (1 in 3 sample) and interviewed by telephone or face to face nearly 30 users. We are due to report by the end of October. Constructing Excellence are then planning to seek views of potential new users, and in the light of both exercises to decide what changes to make to the current version of the Client Charter product and process.

October 2006 - Space Standards Report for Greater London Authority is published

HATC’s report to the GLA on housing space standards has been published.

We recommended that the GLA use their planning powers to set a “safety net” set of minimum space standards in all new housing developments. These standards would not impede Grant-funded schemes (as they are lower than Housing Corporation requirements), nor would they affect most private housing proposals. However, they would prove a barrier to extremely low standards.

The Report recommends that space standards are set for bedrooms (7m2 and 12m2 for single occupancy of two-person occupancy respectively), and that there are minimum areas required for the combined cooking / eating / living areas. We think it should be up to the designer and developer to decide how the total space is distributed between the cooking area, the eating area and the living area. Indicative dwelling floor areas are included, as is a review of the history of space standards in England, and the standards in other countries.

Specialist planning advice was provided by Robin Tetlow of Tetlow King Planning, and case study work was undertaken by Levitt Bernstein Associates

A copy of the report is available on the Publications page. Click here

October 2006 - Advising Developer on S106

We have been retained by a developer to advise them on the meaning – and financial effect – of affordable housing policies. Our first piece of work involved a site in the West Midlands in which we were able to clarify the likely requirements of a S106 Agreement, so the developer had more reliable figures to use when determining their view of the land value.

October 2006 - Partnering Audit

Look Ahead Housing & Care have commissioned an audit of their Development and Maintenance Partnering arrangements. With Partnering relationships of up to 5 years duration, the Association wishes to review whether they are improving efficiency, and how further improvements can be made.

October 2006 - Governance Investigation

A major London housing association asked us to conduct an investigation into a governance issue. The investigation had to be undertaken at short notice and was completed quickly.

October 2006 - Finding the Right Partner for Southwark

Southwark Council have appointed HATC to develop their selection process for choosing a regeneration partner. The Aylesbury Estate in Southwark is to be regenerated, and a pilot project of approximately 250 dwellings and office space is in its early stages. The Council will be tendering for a partner and wishes to ensure that the selection process encourages high quality design as well as clearly explaining Southwark’s priorities.

October 2006 - HATC Competency Development Framework Implemented at Southern Housing Group

How do you get a rise and a promotion without waiting for a vacancy in a higher-grade job? The answer is to work in the Southern HG Development & Reinvestment Teams. SHG are starting to use the HATC Competency Development Framework which allows staff the opportunity to demonstrate that they have increased their competence in key areas, and so earn Credits. Salaries are linked to Credits, and so an immediate pay rise will follow – to recognise and reward the member of staff’s greater ability to deliver their projects efficiently and effectively. (read more...)

Earning enough Credits will lead to a promotion – without waiting for someone in a higher post to leave and create a vacancy.

The advantages for staff are obvious. The ability to earn more and achieve higher status simply by getting better at the job, not having to wait on vacancies to arise. What is the advantage to SHG? Staff retention. Losing good staff is very inefficient for organisations. So what is good for staff should be good for Southern HG.

October 2006 - Design Brief & Consultants Procedure Guide

Newlon HT commissioned us to review and update their Design Brief, and their Consultant’s Procedure Guide. The Consultant’s Procedure Guide sets out the Trust’s detailed requirements of their various consultants, so that everyone is clear what information has to be provided by whom, when! A simple but very effective way of avoiding wasted time and misunderstandings that we would encourage other housing associations to adopt.

The Design Brief needed to be updated to reflect changes in funding requirements and market expectations. The Consultant’s Guide was re-structured so that it reflected the reader’s perspective and language (the consultants) rather than the Trust’s, to make it clearer.

October 2006 - Helping Out in Cairo

The Egyptian Government is planning to build 500,000 affordable apartments over the next 6 years. There is limited design guidance available, and HATC were invited to make a number of presentations on how we regulate standards in England. The invitation came from the Housing and National Building Research Centre (HBRC) in Cairo, and was extended because of our experience in co-author in the National Housing Federations Guide to Standards & Quality, and the recent work on space standards undertaken for the GLA (read more...).

This brief visit to Cairo was an intensive and extremely interesting. We look forward to continuing to be able to assist the HBRC in their work.

March 2006 - HATC wins GLA study on Housing Space Standards

HATC Ltd has been commissioned by the Greater London Authority (the GLA) to research into the possibility of the GLA setting space standards for housing developments in London through the planning system. The research is part of the current review of the London Plan policies. (read more...)

 

Home | Contact Us | © HATC Ltd. No part of this site may be reproduced without permission.