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Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders
Background
In April 2002 the Government announced the creation of nine Market Renewal Pathfinders in the North of England and the Midlands. All exhibited housing market weaknesses, evident through high vacancy rates, low sales values/low demand and, in some cases, neighbourhood abandonment.
Evidence suggested that the traditional neighbourhood approach to urban policy would not be sufficient to reverse decline.
A holistic approach to the economy, environment and housing at a sub-regional level has been promoted and the then Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) encouraged the local Pathfinder partnerships to develop with relative freedom, without a set Whitehall driven framework in response to local evidence bases and drivers. Partnerships of local authorities and other key stakeholders (which include English Partnerships, the Housing Corporation and Regional Development Agency (RDA) officials on their boards), developed strategic plans for whole housing markets, to ensure problems were tackled permanently and not just displaced or deferred
The Pathfinders
- Bridging Newcastle Gateshead - Newcastle and Gateshead
- Gateway Hull and East Riding - Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire
- Transform South Yorkshire - Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster
- Urban Living - Birmingham and Sandwell
- Renew North Staffordshire -Stoke, Newcastle u Lyme & Staffordshire Moorlands
- Manchester Salford - Manchester and Salford
- Newheartlands - Liverpool, Sefton and Wirral
- Partners in Action - Oldham and Rochdale
- Elevate East Lancashire - Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale
The programme
The Sustainable Communities Plan Sustainable Communities: building for the future of February 2003 confirmed that “Government and its agencies, including the Housing Corporation, English Partnerships and the RDAs, will support the pathfinders” with the creation of the Housing Market Renewal Fund (from SR02) amounting to £500m.
SR04 funding – announced in the Homes for all 5 year plan in January 2005 confirmed that the HMR Fund would increase to total of £1.2 bn for the period up to March 2008. £65m of the £1.2 bn was also confirmed as earmarked for areas outside Pathfinders, to be available through Regional Housing Boards (RHBs) to:
- West Yorkshire,
- Tees Valley Living
- West Cumbria/Furness.
Over a 10- to 15-year timeframe, the HMR “schemes” set out plans for radical and sustained action to replace obsolete housing with modern sustainable accommodation, through demolition, refurbishment and new building. They have also aimed to ensure the other essential requirements of sustainable communities are addressed, such as good quality customer-focused services, good design and delivering clean, safe, healthy and attractive environments in which people can take pride.
English Partnerships' role
English Partnerships has Board representation in all of the Pathfinders and has assisted in other HMR areas. As such, we have worked on ways in which we can share experience and expertise (especially masterplanning / strategies / area development frameworks), taken forward some strategic brownfield acquisitions particularly early in the programme as well as assist with new delivery mechanisms.
Where relevant we have also been working closely with existing Urban Regeneration Companies and other adjacent initiatives e.g. in East Manchester and Hull to maximise the synergies with the HMR schemes.
Audit Commission role
In December 2002 the Audit Commission was appointed to provide independent scrutiny of prospectus and delivery plans - a “critical friend” during the development of their prospectus in a completely new process, described by the Commission as “a trusted, credible person who asks provocative questions, provides insight as a fresh pair of eyes and offers confidential critiques of the work.” It has also published scrutiny reports on each prospectus.
Current status
The scheme “prospectuses” were updated by each HMR area to secure an allocation from the £1.2m HMR Fund.
HMR partnerships submitted reviewed business plans to Communities and Local Government (CLG) in Autumn 2007 to inform CLG decisions on continued HMR support from CSR 07 funding (confirmed in autumn 2007 as a further £1bn for the programme overall). This is in light of Government’s declared intention for HMR to “provide greater focus on areas where there are deep seated structural problems” confirmed in the Housing Green Paper of July 2007.
See the 2007 Housing Green Paper Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable from the Communities and Local Government website.
What are they achieving?
Ecotec’s Baseline Evaluation report was published by CLG on 1 March 2007and shows that the Pathfinders have made a strong start in reviving housing markets in their areas.
More detail is available on the CLG and Audit Commission websites.
A full list of the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders' addresses can be found in the contacts section.
