Partnerships

A number of Housing Associations  (Registered Social Landlords) work within the borough providing affordable homes for residents of the borough. 

We act as central link between the council, Housing Associations and other agencies to:

• ensure the council gets an agreed level of nomination rights to the Housing Association properties
• monitor the costs / progress and completion of Housing Association developments across the borough
• ensure Housing Associations maintain an affordable level of rental charge by managing cost of developments via our joint commissioning arrangements.

The Housing Corporation are responsible for overseeing the activities and standards of registered social landlords. It monitors their performance and financial viability and provides funds for new developments.

A register of housing associations (by name and local authority area) can be found on the Housing Corporation's website.
 
Nominations - a part of the council's partnership with Housing Associations. 

We have nomination arrangements with all housing associations operating in the Borough. The housing associations under the Joint Commissioning Partnership offer us a higher proportion of nominations than other housing associations do.

Nomination arrangements are where the council identifies applicants from its housing list, in accordance with its allocation policy, to be housed in a housing association property. This arrangement of nomination rights between housing associations and councils exists across all local authorities. Most councils no longer build new homes because of changes in the way government funding for building new homes works. Instead councils have what is defined as an 'enabling' role with housing associations and other agencies. This means that councils, like Brent, work in partnership with housing associations and other agencies to jointly provide affordable homes.

The council, as the strategic housing authority, supports housing association developments and in return receives an agreed percentage of nomination rights to the new homes. This enables the council to access affordable homes to house those people on our waiting list in most need.

Joint commissioning

The joint commissioning arrangements allow the council to identify RSLs to work with developers where planning policy requires provision of affordable housing. The partnerships achieve value for money by minimising abortive costs and by setting cost ceilings for new developments which ensure that the limited amount of available development finance is 'stretched' as far as possible. Joint commissioning arrangements have other advantages as they maximise the council's access to affordable homes by means of formal nominations agreements with each RSL

This helps the council meet demand for housing and deliver our duty to house those in most need. The RSLs understand that the council has a commitment to delivering affordable housing and that the council values the contribution made by the RSLs towards this. This in turn gives the RSLs confidence in committing resources to the borough.

The council has recently reviewed joint commissioning. The purpose of the review was to evaluate the achievements of the joint commissioning process and further develop future arrangements in relation to:

• management of the partnership
• performance monitoring and strengthening respective responsibilities of the key players in the process
• resourcing of joint commissioning
• strategic development
• reducing the gap between housing need and supply
• nominations and tenancy allocations criteria
• private sector renewal
• social, economic and environmental regeneration.

Section 106 agreement

A section 106 agreement is the legal framework which sets out the terms and conditions for the provision of affordable housing and other facilities. This agreement is part of the planning requirements that the local authority will have with the housing providers.

Brent Housing Group

For information on the Brent Housing Group visit the Brent Housing Group page.