English Partnerships and Housing Corporation join up to test deputy prime minister鈥檚 call for affordable homes

English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation are to launch nine pilot projects to test the feasibility of John Prescott鈥檚 call for developers to build houses for 拢60,000 apiece.

EP and the corporation want to use the pilots to try out innovative methods of procurement and design, as well as to look at the issue of affordability.

The intention is to combine EP鈥檚 role as a provider of public sector land with the corporation鈥檚 knowledge and increasing interest in modern methods of construction. Each pilot will be handled jointly in the relevant regional offices of the two bodies.

Trevor Beattie, EP鈥檚 director of corporate strategy, confirmed that the 拢60,000 house would play a part in the pilots and added that the schemes were inspired by the success of the Broughton project in Milton Keynes, where EP is working with registered social landlord the Guinness Trust to create a community with mixed tenures and sustainable design.

He said: 鈥淲hat we wanted to do was see if there were any obvious ways for bringing together EP sites and the corporation鈥檚 know-how.鈥�

The scheme is one strand of the government鈥檚 campaign to build 10,000 拢60,000 houses. EP has the job of finding ways of implementing the policy, which was announced at the Labour party conference in September.

A three-storey house can cost as much as an exhibition stand

Trevor Beattie, EP

It will announce its results at the ODPM鈥檚 Delivering Sustainable Communities Summit in Manchester at the end of the month. EP鈥檚 stall at the summit will be inside a model of their pilot house, designed by PRP Architects.

Beattie said a row of the houses would then be built at Allerton Bywater Millennium Community in West Yorkshire. He emphasised that the 拢60,000 price tag dealt only with construction costs, not the cost of land and infrastructure.

He said: 鈥淢odern methods of construction are a very good way to speed up the building process. We can build a three-storey house in the time it would take to build an exhibition stand, and for the same price. But it is not a panacea for every site.鈥�

Beattie added that the government was also looking to use the idea on the London Wide Initiative.