Supplementary memorandum by Leicester
Housing Association (LHA) (COA 10(a))
Leicester Housing Association, a housing and
regeneration agency, has developed (and now manages) 7,600 homes
across the East Midlands Region since its inception in 1975.
In addition to its housing role, LHA is substantially
involved in regeneration and social enterprise activities across
a number of key Policy Action Team themes that underscore the
National Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy (social exclusion, neighbourhood
governance, financial exclusion) and across a number of key geographical
areas where deprivation/exclusion is concentrated (Braunstone
Pathfinder NDC area, Meden Valley coalfield SRB6 area).
In 1987-88 LHA led a consortium of housing associations
in the purchase of 1,800 properties from British Coal during a
Government directed open market disposal. This purchase, achieved
primarily through the deployment of private finance, and on the
assumption that publicly financed improvement grants would follow,
led LHA to become a major stake holder within the former North
Derbyshire and North Nottinghamshire coalfield. LHA's original
engagement in this area dated from early in 1978 when it executed
the survey work on behalf of Mansfield District Council leading
to their first declared Housing Action Area encompassing former
"pit" properties in George Street.
The acquisition of the former British Coal properties
was followed by a Secretary of State embargo on public money being
made available to the improvement of the portfolio. This embargo
lasted for a decade during which time LHA campaigned with local
village representatives to see the embargo lifted and the raising
of the areas priority for much needed public investment, a position
achieved successively in 1997 by the lifting of the embargo by
the then Minister of State for Housing, and the subsequent setting
up of the Coalfields Task Force by the Deputy Prime Minister in
October 1997.
The Coalfields Task Force published its findings,
"Making the Difference" in June 1998, this document
predicated the Deputy Prime Minister's detailed response on 1
December 1998, which amongst other things provided (through the
Coalfields Regeneration Trust) financial support to the notion
of Village Companies as vehicles for neighbourhood governance
and regeneration. The latter was an idea submitted to the Task
Force by LHA during its evidence and then explored by the Task
Force at a subsequent meeting.
Since 1998 the Regional Development Agency (EMDA)
has established the "Coalfields sub region" as a priority
within its Development Strategy, the Housing Corporation briefly
(the so called "window of opportunity") established
the improvement of former British Coal housing stock held by housing
associations as an investment priority for grant receipt, and
latterly with the creation of a Regional Strategy for Housing
Investment related to the new Single Regional Housing Pot, the
"Coalfields sub region" features as a priority both
within that Strategy and the inter-related "Integrated Regional
Strategy" being formulated by the East Midlands Regional
Assembly.
Not-withstanding the Sheffield Hallam University
research on the Meden Valley that underpinned the Coalfields Task
Force review, and the University of Birmingham Centre for Urban
and Regional Studies study entitled `Background Information on
the Housing Market in the East Midlands: Final Report' issued
in March 2003, the newly proposed Regional Strategy for Housing
Investment, amongst other things, suggests further research into;
the balance of housing markets, exploring the capacity of the
construction industry with regard to regional and sub-regional
skills shortages, and exploring local issues around market renewal
and changing demand. The Strategy also indicates the need for
further work; in promoting energy efficiency and affordable warmth,
in relation to supporting the old and vulnerable, in ensuring
that the private sector play a part in securing mixed tenure areas,
and regarding supporting people, in ensuring appropriate provision
for specific vulnerable client groups. Indeed the Meden Valley,
where the Sheffield Hallam University research revealed that eight
out of nine wards are in the worse 10% wards in England according
to the DTLR index of Multiple Deprivation 2000, where 81,000 live
in 35 villages, and around 3,600 houses are unfit for human habitation,
with a further 10,300 in need of major repair, is specifically
mentioned in the Strategy by name and yet is only scheduled to
receive a targeted £4,500,000 in investment from the Single
Regional Housing Pot which totals £149,000,000 (excluding
the £20,000,000 growth bid for the Milton Keynes/South Midlands
growth area).
The Deputy Prime Minister has just launched
a £15,000,000 project through Meden Valley Making Places
Limited, a special purpose vehicle created through the partnership
of the East Midlands Development Agency, English Partnerships,
Bolsover and Mansfield District Councils, that body selecting
South Yorkshire Housing Association and Leicester Housing Association
as its social housing investment partners. This £15,000,000
project, roughly made up of £5,500,000 from the East Midlands
Development Agency, £5,500,000 from English Partnerships,
and £1,500,000 each from Mansfield and Bolsover District
Councils, is intended to deal with the renovation and/or demolition
of around 900 run down privately owned houses in a cross boundary
master plan which envisages "spinning up" a £28,000,000
total investment plan. It is believed that the £4,5000,000
total investment earmarked within the Regional Housing Investment
Strategy for the "Northern Sub-Region" does not sit
well with the notion of co-ordinated regeneration and unified/complementary
funding.
To put these figures into some kind of context
LHA alone, since the publication of the Coalfields Task Force
Report has refurbished its own part of the former British Coal
property portfolio acquired in 1988 (544 homes) at a self funded
investment cost of around £9,000,000 (total cost £14,500,000).
These figures exclude the original acquisition costs. There are
no problems associated with the letting of these properties. In
addition, following the relatively modest allocation of some £480,000
by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, six Village Companies have
been established covering six of the targeted eleven settlements
within the Meden Valley SRB6 targeted communities. These Village
Companies not only harness neighbourhood governance in the interests
of the quest for sustainable regeneration but also seek to "bend"
mainstream programmes in the creation of employment opportunities
through social enterprise.
In terms of value for money such schemes are
exceedingly cost effective when compared with schemes that have
carried more public notoriety (and here we refer to a scheme with
which LHA has close knowledge as the Accountable Body, namely
the £49,500,000 Braunstone NDC Pathfinder).
How do all these comments fit together?
There has been a great deal of research. Local
people are tired of research and are looking forward to the promise
of concerted action that not only provides investment opportunity
and related jobs at strategic sites but also in relation to their
neighbourhoods and in a manner that enables the resurrection of
local jobs through local enterprises. This in turn suggests reinforcing
the recently launched Meden Valley Making Places Limited initiative
with resources from the Single Regional Housing Pot commensurate
with the defined sub-regional priority for renewal, regeneration,
and economic growth. It also suggests that if neighbourhood and
sub-regional economic markets are to be harnessed in the interests
of sustainable enterprise initiatives that this Special Purpose
Vehicle is given a more extensive brief across the complex County
Council and District Council boundaries than it currently enjoys.
As the Chairman of a leading private sector
regeneration development company said at a Coalfields Task Force
meeting: "markets are about creating a sense of destination."
In this context critical mass and quality are
all important. Delivering on this agenda requires action, co-ordinated
action now, and sufficiently resourced momentum. Progress since
the Coalfields Task Force Report has been slow. The presently
proposed Single Housing Pot allocation of £4,500,000 is insufficient
to create the momentum for real change. And the existing delivery
structures require greater co-cordination and cohesion if the
strategic vision of change, growth and sustainability is to be
achieved.
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