The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has set out its commitment to community engagement, and how it will utilise its Single Conversation business model to empower communities. This in turn will create places where people want to live and work – the Agency’s key objective.

For People and Places: our approach to Community Engagement, launched at the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) annual conference in Birmingham, addresses three main policy areas:

• embedding community engagement in housing and regeneration delivery
• ten guiding principles for community engagement
• the key tasks the HCA, as an organisation, will undertake to implement its approach to community engagement.

The HCA’s pledge includes consulting with key stakeholders on its overall strategies and programmes; ensuring that requirements for community engagement in strategies, programmes and projects are an integral part of its investment appraisal process; working with local authorities and their partners; sharing best practice with staff; working with the TSA to champion the rights of tenants; and regular monitoring.

Key to this will be the Single Conversation, the first point at which the HCA will look to see that any Local Investment Plans and Agreements are informed by a robust community engagement strategy; essential to creating successful and sustainable places where people can afford and want to live in.

HCA chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake said: “Our Single Conversation approach, in essence, means delivery in partnership; in other words, enabling housing and regeneration activities to be more joined up between the public, private and voluntary sectors. Community engagement is a vital link in this chain, and must sit right at the heart of any decision-making.”