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‘Yes, they can,’ seems to be the overwhelming verdict on the agency’s first 100 days – not that it’s been a cakewalk exactly. Simon Brandon reports.

A new administration gains power. Taking control at a time of unprecedented crisis, its commander-in-chief carries the hopes of millions on his shoulders.

Expectations ran high before the inauguration – but now the new incumbent has had time to get his feet under the table, it’s time to ask whether those hopes have been met.

Homes and Communities Agency chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake (pictured) has been in charge of housing delivery and regeneration in England for 100 days. He heads around 1,000 staff in 21 offices spread across nine regions. The agency was originally due to begin operating next month but launched exactly four months early on 1 December, with a three-year budget of £17.3 billion – slap in the middle of a financial meltdown that has brought house building to its knees.

At a more recent inauguration across the Atlantic, President Obama confessed himself ‘humbled by the task before us’. Sir Bob was similarly never in any doubt about what the HCA was facing. ‘Now more than ever we need an integrated approach to housing and regeneration in this country,’ he said at its launch. ‘We are ready to tackle this challenge and will support our public and private sector partners through these difficult times.’

The first 100 days of the HCA era have seen those early promises and assertions severely tested. But it would seem that Sir Bob and his staff have so far satisfied the expectations vested in them.

Negative opinions of the HCA’s performance to-date are hard to come by.

Martin Wheatley, programme director in charge of development at the Local Government Association, is especially fulsome. The HCA had made an ‘overwhelmingly, very, very positive impression, particularly given that the agency came into being at such a difficult time’, he says.

Mr Wheatley is not alone in praising the fledgling agency. ‘The general view is that the HCA has hit the ground running,’ says London & Quadrant’s chief executive David Montague. Meanwhile National Housing Federation boss David Orr praised the HCA for an ‘excellent start, with Sir Bob Kerslake leading tirelessly from the front’.

It’s not just the launch in tricky conditions that has won the sector’s admiration. The HCA was formed from three bodies – English Partnerships, the development arm of the Housing Corporation and parts of the Communities and Local Government department – with inevitable cultural and organisational upheaval. ‘For an organisation undergoing a seismic change, it is doing pretty well,’ says Matthew Harrison, deputy chief executive at Great Places Housing.

The first 100 days haven’t passed entirely without incident, however. The first hiccup came earlier this month. Boris Johnson, London mayor and chair of the HCA’s London board, announced £93 million of HCA investment to reinvigorate five major developments in the capital. The problem? The government hadn’t given it the go-ahead (Inside Housing, 6 March).

And some critics have suggested that the agency has not been as flexible as it could be.

These blips aside, Sir Bob et al look set to enjoy continued support for now. ‘There is a tremendous amount of goodwill behind the HCA at the moment,’ Mr Montague says. ‘Long may it last.’