<p>Housebuilders have urged the government’s new housing delivery agency, Communities England, not to “dilute” the roles of English Partnerships (EP) and the Housing Corporation, which will be combined in its creation. Linden homes chief executive Philip Davies said: “EP and the Housing Corporation have significant strengths. The key to their successful amalgamation is to ensure these attributes are not lost at the expense of delivering sustainable communities locally.” Communities England should “increase transparency and have a much closer involvement with local authorities,” said Davies. </p> <p>He added that EP and the Housing Corporation needed “to think more strategically… which would be more easily achieved through a single agency with one common aim.” British Property Federation director Ian Fletcher said: “The devil will be in the detail. We would be less supportive if the restructuring leads to a dilution of certain roles, for example the excellent work EP does on land remediation and site assembly.” Fletcher added that one of the “key questions” the new agency needed to address was how it “could bring in new forms of private sector investment and widen the market for housing provision.”He said that although the proposed agency was a step in the right direction …