Clause 42
Housing and Regeneration Bill
10:00 am
Nick Raynsford (Greenwich and Woolwich, Labour)
This is a supplementary point about the Academy for Sustainable Communities, the body that is likely to become Cinderella to the new agency unless we draw attention to it. All our discussions have been about the merging of the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships, the two big components of the new body, but the third component is the academy, which has an important role in advice, education and training—the subjects of the clause. I should be grateful if my hon. Friend the Minister could indicate the areas where the academy, in its new role as part of the agency, will address the challenges that we face, not least of appropriate skills for the achievement of the Government’s ambitious housing and regeneration targets.