Inventing our future Collective action for a sustainable economy

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Thematic targeting of investment
8.51 To aid those taking future funding decisions, it is essential for the RHS to provide direction and
prioritisation for targeting the different investment themes. For practical convenience, it is
advisable to consider this on both longer and short-term scales.
8.52 The East of England Plan and central Government policy provide little guidance on thematic
targeting – essentially only on Key Workers (see below). Equally, the evidence base on housing
need and related factors is also not sufficiently well developed to provide clear guidance. For these
reasons, the long-term prioritisation underlying targeting in this RHS is essentially a reflection of
views emerging from the initial development of the sub-regional strategies. For this longer-term
perspective, this is presently sufficient, given that there will be opportunities to refine the picture
on the basis of future research.
8.53 Short-term targeting is also sufficiently robust, but for different reasons. As is set out in the next
section, there are so many factors dictating what should or can be achieved in the short-term, that
thematic targeting has proven to be relatively straightforward.
8.54 The RHS is addressing all public investment in new affordable housing. As a consequence,
provision through investment of resources outside the SRHP is also covered, although the decisions
on targeting of this will be in the hands of organisations other than the RHB or EERA. This is
anticipated to apply principally to capital investment by local authorities and English Partnerships
(EP), although others may emerge during the period of the RHS. The low cost home ownership
programme for First Time Buyers and announced in ‘Homes for All,‘ is being run by English
Partnerships and is programmed to start in 2006–07. It is important that all such bodies work in
cooperation to ensure that their investments complement one another, and are coordinated within
the framework of the RHS to address common objectives. This applies particularly where the
investment, such as EP’s in low-cost home ownership, is geared to specific products or sectors of
the market.
8.55 The table below sets out the thematic targeting proposed in the RHS. It should be remembered
that its purpose is to set the emphasis or focus of key outcomes being targeted through the public
investment. A large proportion of the schemes benefiting from investment will inevitably produce
outcomes under more than one theme, so that the overall benefit under each theme will tend to
be considerably greater than implied by the figures in the table. In other words they would appear
to add to more than 100%, because the outcomes of investment are not simply a division of a
total benefit.
8.56 However, for practical reasons, it is important for the RHS to provide clear guidance. Therefore the
table does divide up the overall pot of funding in simple terms, and it should be remembered that
this establishes the primary outcome targeted, but not all the beneficial outcomes taken into
consideration when selecting schemes for investment. In other words, the percentage figures
should be seen to represent a minimum share of investment targeted on each theme.
8.57 The Government has confirmed that arising from the 2004 Spending Review and in recognition
of the housing pressures in the Region, the East of England will see a substantial increase in
resources for housing for the investment period 2006–08.
8.58 The process to develop an allocations methodology to direct this investment has been subject to
separate regional consultation and has had to take account of both what the Government expects
to see from its increased investment to the Region (particularly for the Key Worker Living
Programme) and what stockholding local authorities need to deliver the outcomes of their