Written evidence submitted by Rochdale
Metropolitan Borough Council
OLDHAM & ROCHDALE HOUSING MARKET RENEWAL
BACKGROUND
Oldham & Rochdale were awarded a joint Housing
Market Renewal Pathfinder programme (HMR) in 2004 to transform
neighbourhoods within the two boroughs and make them desirable
to live in, both now and in the long term. The pathfinder's objectives
were to:
— Create
a step change in housing diversity and choice.
— Transform
the quality of housing and deliver long term sustainability.
— Promote
and provide a range of affordable housing options.
— Support
the economic development of Oldham and Rochdale, and the wider
region.
— Promote
community cohesion.
— Provide
an excellent quality of life.
ROCHDALE MBC
Initially the Rochdale programme was focused on the
first wave neighbourhoods of Langley and East Central Rochdale
but this was extended to include two further neighbourhoods, Inner
Rochdale & Kirkholt, in 2006.
All new housing being developed under the initiative
will be built to Code for Sustainable Home Level 4 and construction
will be undertaken using a contractually agreed percentage of
local labour and suppliers.
In addition, to maximise the potential regeneration
effects local supply chain activity will be maximised by way of
targeted marketing to engage with local firms. This will also
be a catalyst to develop both training and employment opportunities
for the population of the boroughs and wider region.
FIRST WAVE
NEIGHBOURHOODS
Langley
Langley is a housing estate in Middleton on the edge
of the Borough of Rochdale. Following the stock transfer of former
Manchester City Council social housing to Riverside in 2002, a
programme of Decent Standard improvement to around 2,200 homes
was completed in 2008. A number of specific surplus sites have
also been developed, or identified for development for market
housing by Lovell, Riverside's development partner. Significant
sums have been invested to assemble other potential development
sites as part of the government's Housing Market Renewal Initiative.
An ambitious Vision and Masterplan for Langley has
been developed and these were refreshed in 2009. As the formally
adopted strategic guides for investment the Masterplan builds
on the investment made so far, including proposals for:
— Additional
new market and social housing, delivered to a high standard, to
meet growing demand in the borough;
— An
improved environment including a Green Space Corridor - a network
of new and improved green spaces; and
— Replacement
of the existing poor quality Central Core, with new retail facilities
and housing at an appropriate scale to meet local needs and create
vibrancy at the heart of the estate along with other public and
community services.
As part of the Oldham Rochdale HMR Pathfinder there
has been investment of around £15.5 million on the Langley
Estate in Middleton.
Work in the area has been undertaken in partnership
with the local RSL—Riverside Pennine, and their development
partner—Lovell Partnerships.
As part of the early wins funding in 2003 we acquired
a number of properties (25 houses, 24 flats and three empty pubs)
to create cleared sites and enable early development to take place.
When the main programme commenced in 2004 the focus
of HMR investment was on environmental improvements and over 600
homes received improved front boundaries and parking spaces in
key development or future development areas, thus lifting the
once poor perception of Langley as an area.
At the same time as this investment was taking place
Riverside Pennine were commencing a five year, £32 million
investment programme in their 2,200 homes and Lovell had commenced
the building of new homes for sale with a planned build profile
of 800 new homes over 10 years.
In order to deliver the objectives of the programme
we have been acquiring properties to create the necessary sites.
We have acquired and demolished 31 occupied homes, 190 empty homes
(includes 180 in the three tower blocks) and a former school,
library, community centre and church.
There is a clear development profile which is scheduled
to commence this year but it is anticipated that the market is
not strong enough in areas like Langley without financial support.
We are about to test this in the market.
Additional activity that has taken place on Langley
with HMR support has been the building of 72 new apartments for
rent in two phases by Riverside Pennine, the latter phase to code
level 4 standards. This has been mainly HCA funded with support
from HMR to improve the quality and sustainability.
Lovell have built and sold over 300 new homes in
the area but have suffered from the housing downturn, requiring
them to reduce prices significantly to enable people to get the
necessary deposits to secure a mortgage. They have also just completed
50 new homes as part of the recent Kick Start programme.
There has been a range of other investment in the
area ranging from remodelling of two schools, a new £17 million
Academy, new Children's Centre and Library and most recently investment
from Tesco in the form of a new Express store.
In addition to the work above we have entered into
an innovative arrangement with Riverside Pennine to produce a
Land Pooling Agreement (LPA). This agreement relates to land ownership
of both parties within the area and ensures that we are able to
develop jointly owned sites without any problems. It also ensures
that all receipts for land sales are reinvested back into Langley
in the future.
All of this shows that confidence has been building
in the area with people now wanting to move to Langley who previously
would have not considered it an option. Our big concern is that
without the right investment the planned programmes will stall
and there is a risk that Lovell may move away leaving a number
of vacant sites which, if added to the HMR sites, will start to
create a worsening image again and potentially undo a lot of the
good that has been done.
It has been estimated that investment of around £2.4
million over the next three years could unlock around four times
that amount in private investment on at least two of our preferred
sites.
Over many years there has been a lot of public sector
investment in Langley and the HMR programme, working alongside
other partners, has really started to make a difference. The strategy
for Langley has always been a slow burn one that envisaged a 15
year investment plan that would eventually become self funding.
The strategy is at the point of development now but with the continuing
uncertainty in the housing market we are unlikely to succeed without
further financial support.
East Central Rochdale
East Central Rochdale has been a priority Housing
Market Renewal (HMR) Intervention Area over the last seven years
and has benefited from over £20 million of investment. This
has assembled, cleared and de-risked a number of housing development
sites, which were on the cusp of being made available to the market,
with the potential of creating some 300 new homes. The Council
and partners remain committed to achieving long lasting and wide
ranging physical, social and economic improvements across the
area with the ultimate aim of reducing deprivation and increasing
individual choices.
East Central Rochdale falls within the bottom 5%
of the IMD, with certain super output areas within the bottom
3%. The worklessness rate for the local authority area is 16.4%
which is above the North West Regional average of 14.1%. Market
failure has been recognized over a period of years with the designation
of this area as a Housing Market Renewal intervention area. The
cessation of the HMR programme has compromised the ability of
the public and private sector to propose joint initiatives for
housing led regeneration.
The community of East Central Rochdale suffers from
high levels of deprivation, low levels of income and significant
problems of overcrowding of the housing stock.
The regeneration of East Central Rochdale is a key
component of Boroughwide policy as enshrined within the Sustainable
Communities Strategy for Rochdale (formerly the Community Strategy),
Rochdale Borough Renaissance Masterplan, Rochdale Economic Development
Strategy and the emerging Core Strategy for land use planning
across the Borough. It is also a key component of Rochdale and
Oldham's Joint Investment Plan—"Investing in jobs,
homes and communities" (Oldham and Rochdale Economic Skills
Alliance 2010) which ties in to Greater Manchester's strategic
plans for economic growth in the city region. The Oldham &
Rochdale Joint Investment Plan has been endorsed by the Homes
and Communities Agency and was seen as a model of best practice
for the Greater Manchester city region.
The regeneration of East Central Rochdale has followed
a consistent and logical vision since the start of the HMR programme.
The initial vision can be traced back to the East Central Rochdale
Physical Regeneration Framework (PRF) which was commissioned in
2003 and was used to guide and shape the nature of HMR intervention
in East Central Rochdale in the early years of the programme,
which commenced in 2004-05.
The PRF recognised that the potential for large-scale
housing clearance in the ECR was limited, and that sites yielded
by such clearance would not result in a net increase of housing
stock. In order to cater for the growing demand for houses (and
particularly larger households), the PRF outlined a programme
of fundamental structural change to land use patterns in the area,
utilising sites that were in declining industrial or other employment
use for new housing development. In this way it is anticipated
that over 900 new homes could be created in the area. The PRF
proposed unlocking sites in the River Roch Corridor previously
occupied by low grade industrial uses and utilizing them for new
residential development, which would remove existing amenity problems,
open up the river to the residential community and maximize the
development potential of the area.
Following an extensive procurement process, a developer
partner was selected for this area. As part of their submission,
they proposed a review of the PRF to ensure that it is a deliverable
and viable masterplan and as such the East Central Rochdale Strategic
Regeneration Framework (SRF) was prepared. In summary, the SRF
reaffirms the relevance of the strategy being pursued and confirmed
that the previous masterplanning work remained commercially viable
and realistic. This includes the general thrust of acquiring the
outmoded and marginal industries in the River Roch Corridor and
developing new high quality residential schemes which provide
increased access to the river.
The adoption of the East Central Rochdale Supplementary
Planning Document (SPD) in May 2008 by Rochdale MBC has given
a statutory legal status to the regeneration policy and principles
for East Central Rochdale. The presence of the SPD also provides
statutory support for any acquisitions that need to be pursued
using Compulsory Purchase.
The key objectives for the ECR programme are defined
within the SRF as:
— Assembling
and developing sites close to inner areas.
— Enabling
communities to take advantage of modern new development nearby
whilst still being able to remain near family and community facilities.
— Redeveloping
targeted social rented estates to provide additional homes and
greater diversity.
— Transforming
land use patterns and the urban form replacing old low value and
non-conforming industrial land with higher quality, mixed use
sites close to town centres.
— Making
strong linkages with an improved Rochdale Town Centre and other
improvements in the economy (Kingsway Business Park) which will
in turn support Housing Market Renewal.
— Aligning
key services such as health and education to support Housing Market
Renewal.
HMR activity has been on going in East Central Rochdale
for some six years and is showing positive results. These include:
— Construction
of 25 new homes at Nelson Place (Trafalgar Street).
— A developer
partner appointed for the Dean Street Housing Site.
— Cleared
and re-mediated sites available for development at Dale/Arkwright
Mill and Gowers Street.
— Cleared
development sites at Nile Street, Kitchen Street and Belfield
Road.
— Acquisition
and clearance of 16 commercial properties covering 2.91 hectares
of land which is available for new housing development.
— Acquisition
and demolition of 117 houses.
— Refurbishment
of 796 houses.
— Ongoing
community support for and involvement in the programme of intervention.
Given the position within the HMR programme, which
was forecast to end in March 2011, there was a focus on the de
risking of sites, the procurement of a development partner and
construction of new build housing units up. Activities that were
pursued in the last 12 months of the programme focussed on:
— a limited
acquisitions programme to meet existing commitments, to complete
the assembly of developable sites or complete the acquisition
of entire residential blocks were they have already been part
purchased;
— a de
risking approach by way of remediation of sites to make them more
attractive for future development; and
— the
procurement of a development partner for a site at Dean Street
which will deliver approximately 70 houses using the Homes and
Community Agency Delivery Partner Panel (Northern Cluster). The
implementation of this scheme will act as the catalyst to kick
start the local market to deliver other schemes in the area, by
demonstrating viability.
Evidence collected in the recently completed Rochdale
Strategic Housing Market Assessment indicates a clear need to
deliver additional housing. Future development would help to address
the identified shortfalls and help encourage economic growth by
providing a diversified housing offer in the borough and attract
and retain economically active households through the provision
of aspirational housing.
There are two main drivers in East Central Rochdale
for the delivery of housing. These are:
Overcrowding—East Central Rochdale exhibits
a need for larger properties to accommodate families currently
occupying overcrowded properties—this is evidenced by the
large number of terraces with one or two dormer extensions. There
are strong links between overcrowding and poor living conditions,
poor health and lower levels of educational attainment.
Aspirational Housing—to attract more economically
active residents into the area, to increase the earning potential
and when coupled with an improved Rochdale Town Centre to retain
more of the income that is earned within the Borough.
The Housing Market Renewal programme to date has
focused on site acquisition. As such, there are a number of sites
that are now cleared, and in some cases remediated, which are
available for development. A boroughwide Housing Development Sites
prospectus is in preparation and includes the following sites
in East Central Rochdale.
— Dale
and Arkwright Mill, 1.8 ha site in mixed private and council ownership.
Capacity 80 dwellings.
— Gowers
Street, 1.5 ha site in council ownership. Capacity 60 dwellings.
— Nile
Street, 2.0 ha site in council ownership. Capacity 70 dwellings.
Others sites not included in the prospectus but which
will deliver new housing units are:
— Dean
Street, 1.5 ha site in council ownership. Developer appointed.
Capacity 70 dwellings.
— Kitchen
Street, 0.25 hectares in council ownership. Housing Association
to develop. Capacity 12 units
— Ramsey
Street, Various infill sites total 0.4 hectares in council ownership.
Capacity—20 units
In total, if all of these sites were developed, approximately
300 new units would be developed.
In order to remove barriers to housing development
and ultimately occupancy by local residents, targeted funding
would be required in the following areas:
The Nile Street site is contaminated and costs estimates
suggest that for around £400,000 this site could be remediated,
making it more attractive for developers.
Nile Street and Gowers Street are adjacent to the
River Roch and the developable area would be increased by the
construction of flood defence mechanisms. This is estimated at
around £200,000.
In order to stimulate the local housing market, equity
products need to be made available to overcome the problem of
poor local access to traditional methods of raising finance, as
it will give more finance options for potential purchasers. This
approach will then enable money to be recycled in the longer term
whilst also enabling Rochdale MBC to access the "Homes Bonus"
of enhanced council tax as a result of constructing new homes.
Applying a blanket 15% equity product per unit, this
gives broad brush maximum investment figures of £4.6 million
to deliver the 230 units that are not already linked to specific
developers. This would be over a period of some five to seven
years, given the necessary phasing of development to ensure that
the market is able to accommodate the number of units being delivered.
In total, an investment of some £5.2 million,
the majority of which could be capable of being recycled would
unlock private sector investment of around £30-35 million
over a period of the next five to seven years.
SECOND WAVE
NEIGHBOURHOODS
Inner Rochdale
Inner Rochdale has been a priority Housing Market
Renewal (HMR) Intervention Area over the last four years and has
benefited from over £5,000,000 of investment.
The area is located immediately to the south of Rochdale
Town Centre and a short distance to the west of Kingsway Business
Park. It comprises mixed employment, housing and retail uses and
is bisected by the Rochdale canal and the railway line. The housing
in the area is dominated by terraces.
Oldham Road, a major arterial route into Rochdale
town centre from the south, passes through the area. Rochdale
Railway station is at the heart of the area and the new Metrolink
stop (due to be in place by 2012) will be located outside the
railway station.
HMR funding has been utilized to assemble a number
of housing and mixed use development sites. These sites have the
potential to deliver around 135 new homes. The Council and partners
remain committed to achieving long lasting and wide ranging physical,
social and economic improvements across the area. The regeneration
of Inner Rochdale is a long term strategy which seeks to create
a sustainable mixed community, making the area a better place
to live and work, and creating a wider choice of housing and improving
the economic future of the area. Within the wider Inner Rochdale
area, a core area around the Oldham Road Corridor, the railway
station and the Canal Basin, has been identified as an area where
physical regeneration will be focussed.
The housing market in the area suffers from dysfunction,
where there is a mismatch between available housing and householder
aspirations. Housing in the area is dominated by terraces and
the level of overcrowding is high (20% compared to 7% for Rochdale
Borough as a whole). Baseline information and evidence in the
area (including consultation with local residents) demonstrates
the need for larger houses. There are problems in the area associated
with litter, poor maintenance and a lack of quality open space
/ public realm, resulting in a poor image and appearance. In parts
of the area industrial uses often sit inappropriately close to
existing homes.
The regeneration of Inner Rochdale is a key component
of Borough wide policy as enshrined within the Sustainable Communities
Strategy for Rochdale (formerly the Community Strategy), Rochdale
Borough Renaissance Masterplan, Rochdale Economic Development
Strategy and the emerging Core Strategy for land use planning
across the Borough. It is also a key component of Rochdale and
Oldham's Joint Investment Plan (ORESA) which ties in to Greater
Manchester's strategic plans for economic growth in the city region.
The Oldham & Rochdale Joint Investment Plan has been endorsed
by the Homes and Communities Agency and was seen as a model of
best practice for the Greater Manchester city region. The regeneration
of the Inner Rochdale area in a comprehensive and sustainable
manner is therefore a key objective of the Council and its partners.
A Regeneration Investment Strategy for the area has
been prepared, which provides the context to help deliver the
regeneration of the Inner Rochdale area. The Regeneration Investment
Strategy is a multi functional document which provides a framework
for a holistic approach to the regeneration of the area to be
progressed and identifies opportunities for new housing and employment
developments.
In order to ensure a planning framework is in place
to support the Regeneration Investment Strategy, a Supplementary
Planning Document has been prepared. The SPD provides a "masterplan"
document for the area. The SPD identifies opportunities for new
housing and commercial development to help achieve the regeneration
of the wider area. The SPD has given a statutory legal status
to the regeneration policy and principles for Inner Rochdale.
The key objectives for the Inner Rochdale programme
are:
— increase
housing choice for existing residents and attract new higher income
residents to achieve a diverse and sustainable housing market;
— create
affordable, attractive and high quality mixed tenure housing;
— create
opportunities for modern employment sites;
— improve
open space, design quality and the public realm; and
— enhance
key gateways and corridors.
HMR activity has been on going in Inner Rochdale
for around four years and has achieved a number of positive results.
These include:
— Acquisition
and clearance of a housing development site at Process Plastics
(Norwich Street). This 1.57 hectare site has potential to provide
around 65 new homes.
— Acquisition
and clearance of a housing development site at Isherwood Street
and Durham Street. This 1.79 hectare site has potential to provide
around 70 new homes.
— Acquisition
and clearance of a number of mixed use development sites along
the Oldham Road frontage.
— A comprehensive
area improvements programme focussed on the Oldham Road corridor.
— Refurbishment
of around 300 houses.
Given the position within the HMR programme, which
was forecast to end in March 2011, the main focus was on completing
the assembly of two large comprehensive housing sites (Process
Plastics and Isherwood Street); the adoption of a Supplementary
Planning Document to provide a planning framework for future development;
and area improvements to help improve the appearance of the area
in advance of new development.
Funding was not available during 2010-11 to remediate
and de-risk the acquired sites in advance of development to make
them more attractive for future development.
Evidence collected in the recently completed Rochdale
Strategic Housing Market Assessment indicates a clear need to
deliver additional housing. Future housing development would help
to address the identified shortfalls and help encourage economic
growth by providing a diversified housing offer in the borough
and attract and retain economically active households through
the provision of aspirational housing.
Baseline information and evidence in the area (including
consultation with local residents) demonstrates the need for larger
houses. Housing in the area is dominated by terraces and the level
of overcrowding is high. There are strong links between overcrowding
and poor living conditions, poor health and lower levels of educational
attainment.
The Housing Market Renewal programme to date has
focused on site acquisition. As such, there are sites that are
now cleared, but not remediated, which are available for development.
A boroughwide Housing Development Sites prospectus is in preparation
and includes the following sites in Inner Rochdale.
— Process
Plastics (Norwich Street)—a 1.57 hectare site in Rochdale
Council ownership with potential to provide around 65 new homes.
— Isherwood
Street and Durham Street—a 1.79 hectare site in Rochdale
Council ownership with potential to provide around 70 new homes.
In order to remove barriers to housing development
and ultimately occupancy by local residents, targeted funding
would be required in the following areas:
The Process Plastics and Isherwood Street / Durham
Street sites are contaminated. Costs estimates suggest that for
around £450,000 and £500,000 respectively these sites
could be remediated, making them more attractive to a private
sector developer.
In order to stimulate the local housing market, equity
products need to be made available to overcome the problem of
poor local access to traditional methods of raising finance, as
it will give more finance options for potential purchasers. This
approach will then enable money to be recycled in the longer term
whilst also enabling Rochdale MBC to access the "Homes Bonus"
of enhanced council tax as a result of constructing new homes.
Applying a blanket 15% equity product per unit, this gives broad
brush maximum investment figures of £2.7 million to deliver
the 135 units that are not already linked to specific developers.
The release of these sites would need to be phased to ensure that
the market is able to accommodate the number of units being delivered.
In total, an investment of some £3.65 million,
the majority of which could be capable of being recycled in support
of regeneration, would secure the development of around 135 new
homes and unlock private sector investment
Kirkholt
Kirkholt is a predominantly council estate (managed
by RMBC's housing ALMO Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, RBH) with
a population of approximately 12,000, housed in some 2,900 properties
and is dominated by post 1930's garden estate housing. Ethnically,
the area is home to a mixed community but with a majority of people
from a white British background.
Kirkholt Estate forms one of five priority regeneration
areas for Rochdale Council across the Borough. The Council and
partners are seeking to achieve long lasting and wide ranging
physical, social and economic improvements across the area with
the ultimate aim of reducing deprivation and increasing individual
choices.
The area is one of the key Housing Market Renewal
Intervention Areas and falls within the bottom 5% of the Index
of Multiple Deprivation, with certain parts of the areas falling
within the bottom 3%. The estate has been a priority Housing Market
Renewal Intervention Area over the last five years (phase 2) and
has benefited from over £6 million of investment.
This has assembled, cleared and de-risked a number
of housing development sites, which were on the cusp of being
made available to the market, with the potential of creating some
650 new homes.
Under the development of new homes on the estate
two sites are underway and have started on site while the third
has an exclusivity agreement with a development partner.
The first development is for the construction of
6, 2 bed bungalows on the site of existing garages on Romney Avenue
which is now on site with an estimated completion date of December
2011. This development is due for completion in mid 2012.
The second early win development is for 30 units
on Curzon & Cumberland. This development is due for completion
in mid 2012.
The third development site is the ex Queensway primary
school site (Hartley Lane site). This site has been tendered through
the HCA Northern Panel and a report seeking permission of exclusivity
was approved by Cabinet in March 2011. It is expected that the
site will yield 40 units with a start on site of in late 2011
and a 16 month development timeline.
It has been estimated that investment of around £2.6
million over the next three years could unlock around five times
that amount in private investment on at least three of our preferred
sites.
The Main development site, the Hill Top development
opportunity, comprises the school and adjacent RMBC training facility,
both of which have been decommissioned and represents a significant
development opportunity on the Southern edge of Kirkholt estate.
The school and training facility buildings remain and are presently
rented to a television production company but can be vacated on
short notice. The site also includes substantial school playing
fields and open space. The main site comprises approx. 8.01 ha
(net available with buffer 5.6ha) with an indicative capacity
of 224 dwellings. On development of this site the capital receipts
would be reinvested to bring forward the other identified sites
including the main shopping and community area of the estate.
This scheme will be delivered by the private sector.
Its location and profile are such that it will have a significant
impact on the local community, by way of being the largest housing
new build scheme in the area within the last ten years and a demonstrable
benefit of the Housing Market Renewal programme of site acquisition
and remediation (de-risking).
The scheme itself will meet the needs of supporting
the change of tenure on the estate by way of providing much needed
private houses to this part of Rochdale.
Over many years there has been limited public sector
investment in Kirkholt and the HMR programme, working alongside
other partners, kick started the development opportunities. The
development strategy for Kirkholt has always been a slow burn
one that envisaged a 10 year investment plan that will eventually
become self funding. The strategy is at the point of development
now but with the continuing uncertainty in the housing market
we are unlikely to succeed without further financial support.
WIDER REGENERATION
PRIORITIES
Employment & Training
The development of the various sites will directly
create a number of jobs as either trade or apprenticeship positions.
In addition RMBC will work both directly and through contractual
clauses in the development for support from J21's.
J21 is jointly funded by the two neighbouring boroughs
(Oldham & Rochdale), offering comprehensive support to the
local construction community and local residents seeking employment
in construction. The aim has been to support and promote local
contractors into the supply chain of National contractors working
on major capital projects across the two boroughs, thus creating
sustainable local employment.
April 2011
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