The team overseeing the establishment of Communities England is exploring ways of using its 拢4bn a year budget to obtain City money for housing and regeneration.

Trevor Beattie, the southern England director of English Partnerships (EP), said he estimated that the organisation鈥檚 budget could attract an additional 拢10bn in private investment.

鈥淚n housing and regeneration we don鈥檛 attract enough institutional investment. We now have the chance to do things with the serious sums of money that we will be able to commit through Communities England,鈥� said Beattie, who is a member of a joint Housing Corporation/EP transition board.

He said the increased budget would provide more opportunities for borrowing and for setting up partnerships with the private sector, such as EP鈥檚 English Cities Fund tie-up with Amec and insurer Legal and General. Beattie and John Walker, the caretaker EP chief executive, have been exploring mechanisms for attracting private capital.

While institutions like pension funds and insurers are big investors in commercial property, they represent a huge but relatively untapped source of funds for residential development.

Jon Rouse, the chief executive of the Housing Corporation, who is also a member of the transition board, said the increased budget would give the agency the opportunity to enter into longer term, strategic relationships with investors and developers.

This is the chance to deliver the sort of strategic regeneration we have been striving for for a long time

Trevor Beattie

Beattie said: 鈥淭his is the chance for EP to deliver the sort of strategic regeneration we have been striving for for a long time. EP and the corporation have both punched above their weight, but this will make it easier to achieve our ambitions.鈥�

Nick Ebbs, director of the regeneration investment fund Blueprint, said there was a large appetite in the City for housing and regeneration investment. 鈥淭he Treasury has come to the conclusion that there鈥檚 a huge weight of money that wants to find ways of investing in property. It鈥檚 the way forward,鈥� he said.

Rouse refused to rule himself out of the running for the chief executive鈥檚 post at the agency.

鈥淭he job is a very attractive and enticing prospect, but I鈥檓 not going to make a decision on it yet,鈥� he said.

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