The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is “unconcerned” about comments made by shadow housing minister Grant Shapps at the NHBC annual lunch that the agency is too large with many offices and is dabbling in matters that should be left to the private sector. “We’re happy to be judged on performance and are open about what we spend,” said the HCA’s chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake, speaking to Housebuilder on the eve of the agency’s one-year anniversary. “As we inherited a number of organisations when we came into operation, naturally we inherited a number of offices. However, our plan is to reduce the number – inevitably changing offices takes time.” But as the key to the agency’s success was a strong local presence, it would retain regional offices to help “keep focus on delivery.” With the issue of training, which Shapps cited as a private sector concern, Kerslake commented: “Training is linked to employment. A lot of public investment is going into housing regeneration where employment has been affected. We need to demonstrate the link between training and the direct labour market and it’s in the interests of the sector and beneficiaries that we concentrate on this.” Speaking of the …