The overall Government policy on neighbourhoods and communities is set out in Sustainable Communities: building for the future - the Sustainable Communities Plan - and subsequent associated policies and strategies.  They have also published strategies under the Together we can and Respect Action Plan headings.

Within this context and the strategic roles of local authorities, we want to help ensure that the homes we fund, and the way they are managed, contribute to helping individuals and families that live in them contribute to the success of their local communities and neighbourhoods.  We have developed an approach which is aimed at enabling housing associations to play increasingly effective roles in delivering the wide range of services necessary to achieve and maintain mixed sustainable communities.

Our approach

We have published our Neighbourhoods and Communities Strategy which:

• Explains our objective of enabling housing associations to play their parts in successful sustainable communities; 
• Sets out our key themes as the means to reaching such communities: 
• Working together 
• Sustaining mixed communities 
• Adding community value 
• Building respect 
• Empowering communities;
• Suggests that there could be a Communities Standard for housing associations so their activities could be monitored to know whether they are achieving sustainable communities in different circumstances; 
• Emphasises the need for associations to actively consider their roles in different communities.
• Proposes further consultation on specific proposals
• Asks for comments on our Strategy.

Our overall object is to create the framework for housing associations to improve the quality of life of individuals and communities, by working within, and contributing to, local and neighbourhood strategies through providing affordable housing along with community facilities and services. 

Adrian Moran, Policy Manager