Sustainable communities

Creating sustainable communities and tackling social exclusion have been major priorities of both the government and the Homes and Communities Agency (formerly the Housing Corporation) over the past ten years.

This means our job as a social landlord has become far removed from just building and managing homes; it is about creating strong communities in every sense. Over recent years we have been developing our approach by being both responsive and flexible in working through a range of issues with individual neighbourhoods, particularly in areas we identify as priority estates.

To effectively create and maintain sustainable communities, the government recommends that our neighbourhoods include:

• developments of a sufficient size, scale and density to support basic neighbourhood amenities

• a well integrated mix of decent homes of different types and mixed housing options

• a safe and healthy local environment with well designed public and green spaces

• a ‘sense of place’, and

• effective engagement and participation of local people.