Memorandum by Urban Living Birmingham
Sandwell Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder (EMP 18)
1. INTRODUCTION
Urban Living is one of nine Housing Market Renewal
Pathfinders. Spatially it is the smallest of the Pathfinders,
covering an area of 3,295 hectares that extends from the inner
city areas in Birmingham of Aston, Lozells, Handsworth and Winson
Green, through Smethwick and West Bromwich in Sandwell. Like all
the Pathfinders, Urban Living has it's own individual characteristics.
One feature that distinguishes it from others is its ethnically
and culturally diverse population—35% of the population
is white, the majority population being Black, Indian, Pakistani
and Bangladeshi.
A comprehensive evidence base makes clear that
the Urban Living area is a housing market that is at risk. Had
it not been for the clearance and refurbishment programmes in
Birmingham and Sandwell in previous decades, and the more recent
temporary placement of asylum seekers and refugees in the Urban
Living area, the market would declined much more substantially
by this point in time. Housing market analysis undertaken by the
Centre for Urban and Regional Studies only in the last few weeks
has confirmed that the area designated in 2001 will require long-term
public and private sector investment in order to create a sustainable
housing market.
2. SCOPE AND
SCALE OF
INITIATIVES PROPOSED
AND UNDERWAY
Urban Living's prospectus to the ODPM was approved
in the summer 2004, with £50 million allocated for 2004-5—2005-6.
A substantial delivery programme is now underway. We understand
that details of the individual Pathfinders programmes are to be
submitted to the Committee by the ODPM's Market Renewal Team.
There are two strategic elements to the Urban
Living Programme:
— Catalytic projects that are capable
of transforming an area beyond the "footprint" of the
project itself, taking advantage of local and regional economic
opportunities.
— Neighbourhood stabilisation projects
that will respond to and anticipate housing market issues at the
neighbourhood level, and that will improve perceptions of neighbourhoods.
One of the first catalytic projects to come
forward is the redevelopment of the Cape Hill Brewery site. Demolition
of the brewery buildings is due to begin in January 2005. The
site is likely to provide in excess of 900 new homes, and will
mark a step change in housing design, quality and sustainability
in the area.
Urban Living has a number of Active Neighbourhoods
pilot projects that will stabilise areas through intensive neighbourhood
management. Urban Living shares the desire of other Pathfinders
for revenue support to be available through the Housing Market
Renewal Fund, to enable interventions such as neighbourhood management.
For the local authorities involved in market restructuring there
is a greater call on revenue funding, and Urban Living would endorse
the view expressed by Ian Cole and Brendan Nevin in their recent
review of the Pathfinder programme that Government needs to consider
the issue of revenue support to Pathfinder local authorities.
3. COMMITMENT
AND CONTRIBUTION
OF GOVERNMENT
DEPARTMENTS AND
OTHER AGENCIES
The commitment of the ODPM to the establishment
and funding of the Pathfinders is widely recognised, and the very
positive approach taken to allowing local discretion in devising
Pathfinder programmes has been very welcome.
For the Market Renewal Pathfinders to be successful,
they must address all of the factors that adversely affect perceptions
of neighbourhoods and access to quality and choice of housing.
There is a need therefore for other policy areas to be considered
alongside housing within Pathfinder programmes, including crime
and disorder, employment and skills, transport and the environment.
Clearly the local authorities have considerable influence over
some of these policy areas, but it does also require the alignment
of strategies and funding priorities by the RDA's, police, LSP's,
LSC's, English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation amongst
others.
The re-alignment of strategies and re-prioritisation
of funding does realistically take time, and the pace at which
the Pathfinders had to prepare their first prospectuses meant
that work would have to continue on this beyond the summer of
2004. Urban Living is currently refining its strategy and programme
in anticipation of a scheme update being requested by the ODPM
in the summer of 2005. All of the organisations referred in the
preceding paragraph are active members of the Urban Living Partnership
Forum, and the alignment and prioritisation of strategies and
funding will be a matter for decision by the Forum in due course.
A particular issue for Urban Living is that
of NASS accommodation for asylum seekers and refugees. The Urban
Living area has in recent years become a focal point for the placement
of asylum seekers and refugees. Excluding refugees, from 1997
the asylum seeker population in the Urban Living area had grown
to an estimated figure of 9,200 in March 2003. In a very positive
sense this has helped to limit outmigration from the area (the
population nevertheless reduced overall by 8,941, or 5%, between
1991 and 2001), but because this is a very transient population
it leaves the housing market in a vulnerable position.
The vast majority of asylum seekers and refugees
are living in privately rented accommodation, and NASS are responsible
for contracting with landlords for this accommodation. NASS contracts
are to be re-negotiated this year, and it has been suggested to
the Home Office that the responsibility for these contracts should
in future rest at the local authority level. Urban Living would
strongly support this, as it would provide direct control over
the selection of landlords and the placement of asylum seekers
in particular neighbourhoods. Potential impacts on the housing
market, and community cohesion issues, could be better managed
in this way. The problem is illustrated by events in October 2004,
when 200 houses came back onto the market together because of
a contract being cancelled by NASS. The local authorities had
no control or influence over this.
4. THE DISSEMINATION
OF GOOD
PRACTICE, INNOVATION
AND CO
-ORDINATED INTERVENTIONS
Dissemination mechanisms have been in place
since the early days of the Pathfinders, and no doubt these will
be added to as time progresses, when a larger body of innovation
and good practice emerges. The Pathfinders meet regularly at the
Pathfinder Policy Working Group and it's respective Sub-Groups,
and Pathfinders and other stakeholders have attended three conferences
so far with the fourth scheduled for February 2005. The role of
the Audit Commission's "critical friend" has been useful
in signposting good practice and innovation. The Audit Commission
has produced bulletins and has also hosted a number of seminars,
and a range of conferences and seminars have also been arranged
by others.
Part of the function of Pathfinders is to develop
and test new approaches, and the Audit Commission scrutiny reports
are seen as providing very clear and valuable insights into what
works and what doesn't.
5. HAVE COUNCILS
SUFFICIENT POWERS?
One of the policy tools that Pathfinders are
using to bring about market renewal is clearance, and this is
facilitated by the use of CPO powers. Clearance has been stigmatised
by the inadequacies of the process in past decades, and the Pathfinders
have a very positive role to play in making it work better. Experience
has shown that clearance can be well received by residents provided
that; it is timely, residents receive close support throughout
the process, the level of compensation is reasonable and the available
housing options provide acceptable outcomes.
New approaches to clearance are being explored
by Urban Living and other Pathfinders. In order to be effective
the Pathfinders will also need to have available the appropriate
CPO powers to support them in their work. Concerns have been expressed
in the past about the adequacy of the powers, and Urban Living
raised this issue at the Select Committee Inquiry into the Housing
Bill in 2003. The Committee recommended that "the Bill should
recognise the range of circumstances, such as housing market renewal,
where clearance is necessary." In its formal response to
this, the Government acknowledged that the clearance powers offered
at that time by the proposed Housing Bill may not always offer
the best fit when dealing with properties affected more by low
demand or obsolescence than health and safety hazards. The Government
also said that it would "consider what additional mechanisms
may be necessary to ensure that clearance is readily available
as a means of addressing the wider policy objectives mentioned
by the Committee".
The Government went on to include provision
in the Housing Act for the Secretary of State to make regulations
that could extend the power to declare a clearance area to deal
with circumstances other than the health and safety of residents.
It is not clear at this stage whether there is an intention to
make these regulations. With the recent introduction of the revised
planning CPO powers within the Planning and Compulsory Purchase
Act, Pathfinders are looking at their applicability to market
renewal and it is too early to judge whether additional powers
might be needed.
6. PRIORITY GIVEN
TO THE
DEMOLITION OF
HOMES AND
EFFECTIVE METHODS
OF REFURBISHMENT
A balanced programme of clearance and refurbishment
is planned by Urban Living. In many instances the detailed assessments
that are needed to make decisions about these interventions have
not yet been undertaken. In broad terms however, what is clear
is that:
— The refurbishments carried out on
privately owned houses in GIA's and HAA's in the 1970s and 1980s
are now time expired.
— Some terraced homes, and the locations
that they are set in, do not fulfil modern day housing aspirations.
In a recent Urban Living survey of householders living in newer
houses in the area, only 1% of respondents said that they would
want to move to a traditional terraced house. The commonest reasons
given for not wanting to move were "the wrong image, having
neighbours both sides, too few bedrooms and poor condition."
Urban Living is examining potential solutions
to these issues. Of particular concern is the preponderance of
very low-income households occupying pre-1919 terraced homes.
Given the age of the properties that they occupy, and the repair
liabilities facing them, there are serious implications for sustainable
home ownership.
7. AVAILABILITY
OF THE
NECESSARY SKILLS
AND TRAINING
There is an increasing shortage of people with
the right skills and experience, affecting not only the Pathfinders
but other areas of regeneration too. The Urban Living core team,
local authorities and other partner organisations have all experienced
difficulties in this respect. It would also appear that the pool
of experienced consultants available to Pathfinders for support
is also quite limited. Construction skills are also an issue.
8. HOW MARKET
RENEWAL IS
ADDRESSED IN
OTHER STRATEGIES
The re-alignment of strategies and re-prioritisation
of funding within the Urban Living area was covered in 3 above.
There is of course a very strong regional market context for each
of the Pathfinder areas. In terms of the Urban Living housing
market, there is an area of influence that extends out into the
region. This does mean that the policies and strategies of adjacent
local authorities, the Regional Housing Strategy, Regional Economic
Strategy, Regional Spatial Strategy will all have a bearing upon
the long-term success of market renewal in the Urban Living area.
Urban Living has been working with partners at the regional level
to ensure alignment. Where further work is required is in the
relationship with growth areas that lie in the vicinity of Pathfinder
areas.
9. THE INVOLVEMENT
OF THE
PRIVATE SECTOR
IN THE
PATHFINDERS LONG-TERM
PROGRAMMES
A substantial part of Urban Living's interventions
will be delivered through private sector investment, particularly
towards the latter part of the 15-year programme. Urban Living
is taking steps to ensure that the private sector is involved
in the planning of its programme. The private sector is represented
at the Urban Living Partnership Forum, and developer consultation
is continuing. Special Purpose Vehicles are being explored that
will maximise private sector investment, and work has been undertaken
to examine how institutional investors can be attracted.
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