Saltwell and Bensham Residents Association is pleased to announce a public meeting and Annual General Meeting of the association.
The meeting will take place at 7pm on Thursday 7th December 2006 at Whitehall Road Methodist Church Hall.
As well as the latest campaign news and what is being done to fight Gateshead Council's mass demolition policy there will be elections for the principal officers and nominations for the executive committee. All our 1,300 supporters and residents are welcome to come along and make your voice heard. As usual we extend an open invitation to local councillors, Members of Parliament, and members of the BridgingNewcastleGateshead "quango".
So if you care about your community being bulldozed come and listen to the very latest information.
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Friday, November 24, 2006
Cash Runs Out: Birmingham Pathfinder In Crisis
Saltwell and Bensham Residents Association have long made the point that pathfinder, with its emphasis on demolition, is unsustainable. The steady rise in house prices throughout the north has made buying property for demolition an expensive farce. In Birmingham the pathfinder has now run out of money.
Government cash ended in September and for the last few weeks the pathfinder has survived on an emergency £12 million cash bailout. Spending commitments are being unwritten by Birmingham and Sandwell Councils. Meanwhile Hull and East Riding pathfinder is drifting toward insolvency with only half the cash it needs.
Meanwhile the Oldham and Rochdale pathfinder is awaiting a settlement based on a new spending review.
In Saltwell and Bensham an estimated £40 million is required to buy the 440 homes for demolition at current market prices. If the Council honours its pledge to match market prices for homes it can expect to see prices rise at 5% or more per year - more than twice the rate of inflation. At the same time if pathfinder funding on Tyneside follows the other areas the budget will be halved.
The only sensible policy for housing renewal in an atomosphere of rising costs and lower than expected grants is to maximise the funds you have. In other words remove the threat of demolition and renovate existing properties.
Will councils see sense and abandon the most expensive strategy or will they simply carry on until they run out of cash sometime before the next General Election?
Links:
Inside Housing
Government cash ended in September and for the last few weeks the pathfinder has survived on an emergency £12 million cash bailout. Spending commitments are being unwritten by Birmingham and Sandwell Councils. Meanwhile Hull and East Riding pathfinder is drifting toward insolvency with only half the cash it needs.
Meanwhile the Oldham and Rochdale pathfinder is awaiting a settlement based on a new spending review.
In Saltwell and Bensham an estimated £40 million is required to buy the 440 homes for demolition at current market prices. If the Council honours its pledge to match market prices for homes it can expect to see prices rise at 5% or more per year - more than twice the rate of inflation. At the same time if pathfinder funding on Tyneside follows the other areas the budget will be halved.
The only sensible policy for housing renewal in an atomosphere of rising costs and lower than expected grants is to maximise the funds you have. In other words remove the threat of demolition and renovate existing properties.
Will councils see sense and abandon the most expensive strategy or will they simply carry on until they run out of cash sometime before the next General Election?
Links:
Inside Housing
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
How Thatchers' Law Is Saving Working Class England
Mrs Thatcher may well be shocked to find one her laws is now being used to defeat mass demolition under the government pathfinder programme throughout the north in defence of working class communities. The woman who claimed there was no such as society would find today that the The Local Government and Planning Act 1980 is doing a lot to preserve communities - even if it wasn't intended at the time.
A PROD (Public Request to Order Disposal), part of the Local Government and Planning Act 1980, is a request to the Secretary of State to force owners to do something with their empty and abandoned property. It is designed to stop public bodies simply sitting on housing or other buildings and allowing them to go to ruin. As it happens this is exactly what councils are doing all over the north in order to pressurise owner-occupiers in pathfinder areas to sell their homes. Councils have been successfully challenged when they try to use compulsory purchase orders so many have now resorted to blight and abandonment in order to pressure local residents into selling. They then claim home owners have "volunteered" to sell the property and were happy to do so.
In this context it is not surprising that Saltwell and Bensham's own example of blight, Armstrong Street, is boarded up and owned entirely by the Council. Some properties have sat there unoccupied since 2002. Cynical residents suspect the Council of little more than property speculation waiting for rising land values to net them a tidy profit. At the same time those waiting for social housing or opportunities to buy starter homes are in a very long queue.
Due to the dribble of pathfinder cash coming from central government the demolition of these blighted streets is not going to happen for years. Meanwhile the Council has announced the "renovation" of its own 1970s Council housing stock in the same area. Only a small amount of renovation would turn Armstrong Street into a desirable area.
Saltwell and Bensham does not need social engineering from the Council but rather a kickstart of investment to help along a moving housing market.
So if a PROD is successful Gateshead Council may be forced to sell housing and return to the business of local government rather than house price speculation. Saltwell and Bensham Residents Association will be devising their first PRODs this week in hope of pressurising the council to do what the residents really want the council to do - renovate not demolish.
Links:
BBC News
BBC Radio 4 You and Yours (Sample Letter)
A PROD (Public Request to Order Disposal), part of the Local Government and Planning Act 1980, is a request to the Secretary of State to force owners to do something with their empty and abandoned property. It is designed to stop public bodies simply sitting on housing or other buildings and allowing them to go to ruin. As it happens this is exactly what councils are doing all over the north in order to pressurise owner-occupiers in pathfinder areas to sell their homes. Councils have been successfully challenged when they try to use compulsory purchase orders so many have now resorted to blight and abandonment in order to pressure local residents into selling. They then claim home owners have "volunteered" to sell the property and were happy to do so.
In this context it is not surprising that Saltwell and Bensham's own example of blight, Armstrong Street, is boarded up and owned entirely by the Council. Some properties have sat there unoccupied since 2002. Cynical residents suspect the Council of little more than property speculation waiting for rising land values to net them a tidy profit. At the same time those waiting for social housing or opportunities to buy starter homes are in a very long queue.
Due to the dribble of pathfinder cash coming from central government the demolition of these blighted streets is not going to happen for years. Meanwhile the Council has announced the "renovation" of its own 1970s Council housing stock in the same area. Only a small amount of renovation would turn Armstrong Street into a desirable area.
Saltwell and Bensham does not need social engineering from the Council but rather a kickstart of investment to help along a moving housing market.
So if a PROD is successful Gateshead Council may be forced to sell housing and return to the business of local government rather than house price speculation. Saltwell and Bensham Residents Association will be devising their first PRODs this week in hope of pressurising the council to do what the residents really want the council to do - renovate not demolish.
Links:
BBC News
BBC Radio 4 You and Yours (Sample Letter)
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Splash!
When you talk about urban regeration and pathfinder it isn't long before a consultant mentions "Urban Splash". Splash are heroes of Salford Regeneration and sure enough when GVA Grimley were paid £680,000 to "consult" about the needs of Saltwell and Bensham it wasn't long before their advisers were muttering how all those ugly back lanes could be improved with a bit of clearance (meaning demolition) and nice new extensions from Urban Splash.
The pathfinder agenda is supposed to deliver "affordable" homes. By the measure adopted by the Deputy Prime Minister this means affordable by local people and, by implication, significantly close to the £60,000 home he challenged housebuilders to create.
In Salford Urban Splash have done their work and lowest priced properties are now £99,000. Those members of the community thrown out by pathfinder cant afford the new properties.
Fortunately organisations like the BBC are predicted to move into Salford with high earning staff that can "splash out" on renewed property. The poor of society making space for the rich through economic ethnic cleansing.
You can read more about pathfinder ethnic cleansing in the Guardian here.
Link: The Guardian
The pathfinder agenda is supposed to deliver "affordable" homes. By the measure adopted by the Deputy Prime Minister this means affordable by local people and, by implication, significantly close to the £60,000 home he challenged housebuilders to create.
In Salford Urban Splash have done their work and lowest priced properties are now £99,000. Those members of the community thrown out by pathfinder cant afford the new properties.
Fortunately organisations like the BBC are predicted to move into Salford with high earning staff that can "splash out" on renewed property. The poor of society making space for the rich through economic ethnic cleansing.
You can read more about pathfinder ethnic cleansing in the Guardian here.
Link: The Guardian
Friday, November 03, 2006
Pathfinder Areas - Now They Are Unaffordable For First Time Buyers
Pathfinder areas have gone up in price at up to 30% between the last quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of 2006 according to government figures published by Inside Housing. Oldham pathfinder experienced a 61% increase in price over a year.
Areas labelled "market failures" prices are now going up so quickly that affordability is the big question rather than failure.
This echos the experience of Saltwell and Bensham where £65,000 is the starting price for flats. However the question is whether the strategy of pathfinders has brought this about or whether improved economic performance has simply stimulated the market.
Link: Inside Housing
Areas labelled "market failures" prices are now going up so quickly that affordability is the big question rather than failure.
This echos the experience of Saltwell and Bensham where £65,000 is the starting price for flats. However the question is whether the strategy of pathfinders has brought this about or whether improved economic performance has simply stimulated the market.
Link: Inside Housing
Hull's Pathfinder In Trouble - Recieves Government Bailout
Pathfinders are in trouble. The original business plan was to pick up properties for a song, hang on to the land for a while and then sell brownfield land to millionaire property developers. The problem is that pathfinder areas are going up in value and its costing millions to buy people out.
However rather than let market forces do their work the pathfinder chiefs have called for government cash injections to save their social experient in housing.
In Hull, reported by Inside Housing, the financing has doubled. Meanwhile worries still exist about the badly perfoming Sandwell pathfinder.
Link: Inside Housing
However rather than let market forces do their work the pathfinder chiefs have called for government cash injections to save their social experient in housing.
In Hull, reported by Inside Housing, the financing has doubled. Meanwhile worries still exist about the badly perfoming Sandwell pathfinder.
Link: Inside Housing
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Radio 4 Tackles Pathfinder
Radio 4's "You and Yours" consumer affairs programme tackled pathfinder this week. Concentrating on Liverpool they interviewed Yvette Cooper, the housing minister, and later on had a debate involving Adam Wilkinson from SAVE.
Saltwell and Bensham Residents Association have never doubted that there might be the case for demolition in some parts of the UK. In the radio item one person was highlighted as living in a house with only cold running water and an outside toilet. The problem has been that pathfinder has become the only way councils can get money for housing issues and the perception of councils is that they have to have a degree of demolition to get the cash.
Minister Cooper denied that demolition was a requirement on air. However when she visited Gateshead the council carefully made sure that she didn't meet representatives of the 1,000 strong residents association to discuss renovation. The minister was shown a whole street in disrepair but was not told that the council owned all the boarded up houses. Cynics suggest that the boarded up homes were to encourage the run-down of the area as part of a council strategy to persuade residents to leave.
Here in Saltwell and Bensham flats are selling for more than £60,000 and Gateshead Council recently bought a house for demolition at £117,000. The total cost of demolishing 440 homes is close to £40 million.
There are no abandoned streets in Saltwell and Bensham except the one the council bought up so that it could invite ministers and TV crews to see deprivation! Even the council figures show just 9% empty property, just above the national average, and easily explained by the combination of a large student population within the pathfinder and the rapid rise in house prices locally causing builders to renovate propeties and thus have them empty.
House prices in pathfinder areas are now rising so rapidly that pathfinder chiefs need more taxpayer cash to buy out people so they can demolish.
What the Radio 4 programme failed to question was the value for money of all this. Why is the taxpayer funding demolition so that millionaire property companies can come in and make huge profits building replacement homes. If demolition were cost effective then why didn't the private builders simply buy these "abandoned" streets and why are taxpayers subsidising housebuilding businesses?
Of course the answer is that the government has overplayed the issue of abandonment and in most places it requires the intervention of local authorities to push out reluctant private householders who are perfectly happy with their homes.
Radio 4 raised some of the issues but somehow missed the bigger picture of the human rights of people. People should feel safe in their own homes and are entitled to quiet enjoyment of their property. Why should government have the right to steamroller through proposals to change communities without at least a referendum of all residents on the plan?
Link: You and Yours
Saltwell and Bensham Residents Association have never doubted that there might be the case for demolition in some parts of the UK. In the radio item one person was highlighted as living in a house with only cold running water and an outside toilet. The problem has been that pathfinder has become the only way councils can get money for housing issues and the perception of councils is that they have to have a degree of demolition to get the cash.
Minister Cooper denied that demolition was a requirement on air. However when she visited Gateshead the council carefully made sure that she didn't meet representatives of the 1,000 strong residents association to discuss renovation. The minister was shown a whole street in disrepair but was not told that the council owned all the boarded up houses. Cynics suggest that the boarded up homes were to encourage the run-down of the area as part of a council strategy to persuade residents to leave.
Here in Saltwell and Bensham flats are selling for more than £60,000 and Gateshead Council recently bought a house for demolition at £117,000. The total cost of demolishing 440 homes is close to £40 million.
There are no abandoned streets in Saltwell and Bensham except the one the council bought up so that it could invite ministers and TV crews to see deprivation! Even the council figures show just 9% empty property, just above the national average, and easily explained by the combination of a large student population within the pathfinder and the rapid rise in house prices locally causing builders to renovate propeties and thus have them empty.
House prices in pathfinder areas are now rising so rapidly that pathfinder chiefs need more taxpayer cash to buy out people so they can demolish.
What the Radio 4 programme failed to question was the value for money of all this. Why is the taxpayer funding demolition so that millionaire property companies can come in and make huge profits building replacement homes. If demolition were cost effective then why didn't the private builders simply buy these "abandoned" streets and why are taxpayers subsidising housebuilding businesses?
Of course the answer is that the government has overplayed the issue of abandonment and in most places it requires the intervention of local authorities to push out reluctant private householders who are perfectly happy with their homes.
Radio 4 raised some of the issues but somehow missed the bigger picture of the human rights of people. People should feel safe in their own homes and are entitled to quiet enjoyment of their property. Why should government have the right to steamroller through proposals to change communities without at least a referendum of all residents on the plan?
Link: You and Yours
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