HART Credit Introduced to Stakeholders

HART Credit introduced through meetings with stakeholders

Summary

In April, the Housing And Regeneration Tax (HART) Credit (www.hartcredit.org.uk) was introduced to a broad range of stakeholders via a series of small, candid meetings with key officers in a broad range of essential stakeholders. Reaction was uniformly positive, although it is far too early for commitments, with most participants identifying clear next steps they will take, in concert with HART's proponents, to evaluate the proposal further in anticipation of a pilot scheme being funded to test the concept, and a Treasury consultation paper to be circulated late this year should government concur in HART's merits.

Stakeholders introduced and their reaction

Over the course of three days Andrea Titterington, CEO of Maritime Housing Association Ltd., and David Smith of the USA's Affordable Housing Institute presented the HART Credit to key executives from the following organisations and groups:

English Partnerships (EP), as a prime mover in urban regeneration, via their economic consultant whom EP has briefed to prepare a business case evaluating HART's compatibility with EP goals.
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), charged broadly with housing and urban regeneration policy in Britain.
Liverpool City Council (LCC), as a potential test site for one of two pilot schemes (the other to be in the Southeast) testing, via a real-world on-the-ground scheme, HART's viability as a risk-shifting flexible financing tool in both (1) urban regeneration and (2) long-term affordability across many tenure possibilities.
Northwest Development Agency (NWDA), one of nine regional development agencies (RDA's), a possible HART allocator once it is enacted.
A major national bank, as a potential investor in HART Credits once enacted and in the pilot proxy-funded scheme.
A small national seminar whose attendees included borough councils, private sector developers, major national lenders to RSL's, and associated professionals.

Although some of the participants were informed about tax credits from the Liverpool Symposium Report, most were having their first exposure to HART as proposed. Reaction was uniformly positive, with participants readily grasping how HART represents a step change in delivery, an opportunity for government to go beyond grant and provide complementary alternatives to grant. Feedback was candid, pointed, and constructive, much of it probing how tax credits' success in the US (more than 1,000,000 apartments produced over 17 years, more than 80% Congressional support) could apply to the UK – and how it must be adapted to fit UK requirements and improved over the US model.

We anticipate a further round of more substantive conversations, leading to approval of a pilot scheme, during late spring and early summer.