The new Homes and Communities Agency is keen to help the housing market by considering buying land and building a mix of part-sale and part-rented homes as a way of boosting housing provision, it has emerged.

The agency's incoming chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake has signalled the organisation's priorities when he spoke at English Partnership’s first annual open meeting, held at Greenwich.

Sir Bob begins work at the new agency, which brings together EP and the Housing Corporation, later this year. He stressed that in the current circumstances of the credit crunch "the priority is to keep affordable housing going with the housing associations. But we also want to work with house builders to see what will keep schemes going.

"We are looking at sites that fall into three groups: those going ahead, albeit more slowly than they might have done; those that  were optimistic at the top of the market and now need a rethink; and a third group that with perhaps a bit more money, and a new view on risk-taking, could be kick-started and kept going."

He said that once the agency had exhausted those avenues and there was "some capacity" to look at land purchase "then we will look at that too".
 
Communities secretary Hazel Blears has stressed the need for the new organisation to have a "rigorous" focus on new jobs as well as well-designed new housing.