Minister for Demolition Ian Wright has announced that £350 million has been put aside for 9 pathfinders and 3 other housing projects in the country. The last time Ian Wright was interviewed on regional television about the controversial pathfinder programme he engaged in an incoherent babble of New Labour slogans about community. Little has changed with the current funding statement.
At a time when the country is suffering from housing market failure the idea that spending £350 million on demolishing more property will jump start the housing market puts Mr Wright somewhere between Mars and Pluto. Dividing roughly by 12 the £350 million will work out at approximately £29 million per area. In NewcastleGateshead the Newcastle side has traditionally taken about 60% of the cash which leaves £11 million for Gateshead over 5 areas. So assuming Saltwell and Bensham is equal to the rest we are looking at about £2 million for our area.
The 440 homes that the Council want to demolish will cost them about £39 million. So only £37 million short of the Council's dream option of a wasteland of grass for private developers to make a mint.
So in the next year they can afford to demolish one more street in Saltwell and Bensham or provide renovation money for hundreds of families. Logic would say that renovation is the best option. However pathfinder isn't about logic. Pathfinder is the process of spending public money to enrich large developers. This week's Channel 4 Despatches programme showed how PFI projects were unavailable for renovation of schools but were available for demolition. This is because PFI and Pathfinder share the same dogmatic ideological mindset of doing what is necessary to bring profit to the hands of private developers rather than what is necessary for building communities.
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