English Partnerships (EP) was the nationalregeneration agency forEngland, performing a similar role on a national level to that fulfilled byregional development agencies on aregional level. On 1 December 2008 its powers passed to a successor body, the newHomes and Communities Agency.
It was responsible for land acquisition and assembly and major development projects, alone or in joint partnership with private sector developers. It was particularly active in major regeneration areas such as theThames Gateway and inexpansion areas such asMilton Keynes, where theDeputy Prime Minister (acting as Environment Minister) removed planning from local control and appointed them as the statutory planning authority.
It was anon-departmental public body funded through theDepartment for Communities and Local Government (CLG), and was previously by theOffice of the Deputy Prime Minister (the predecessor department to CLG).
English Partnerships was legally two entirely independent bodies set up under separate statutes. One was theCommission for New Towns, launched in October 1961, which was responsible for thedevelopment corporations established by the New Towns Act 1959.
The other was theUrban Regeneration Agency set up by the Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act 1993. The URA originated as the English Industrial Estates Corporation, which was "established in 1936 as North Eastern Trading Estates Ltd to help to alleviate the problems caused by the decline of heavy industries such as shipbuilding and coalmining"[1]
On 17 January 2007Ruth Kelly, theSecretary of State for Communities and Local Government, announced proposals to bring together the delivery functions of theHousing Corporation, English Partnerships and parts of CLG to form a new unified housing and regeneration agency, theHomes and Communities Agency (initially announced as "Communities England"); this became operational on 1 December 2008.
 | Constructs such asibid.,loc. cit. andidem arediscouraged byWikipedia's style guide for footnotes, as they are easily broken. Pleaseimprove this article by replacing them withnamed references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title.(April 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | This article about an organisation in England is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |