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HATC News Archive

November 2007 - Resident Satisfaction with space 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 are working with Ipsos-MORI on this project, we should report in the Spring.

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 (I 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...)

 

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