Repossession, Repossession, Repossession

This week the BBC reported that repossessions in the UK have shot up to 40,000 by the end of last year. This is a rise of 54% according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders.

On Channel 4 this week former government minister Lord Digby Jones explored the help ordinary families can get to help pay their mortgages when they lose their jobs. It seems that Jobcentre Plus know nothing about government schemes to help. The Council of Mortgage Lenders put up a spokesperson who gave away the truth when he said really the government schemes are there to help the banks with repayments.

Pathfinder, the government demolition scheme, is accelerating the home loss programme by demolishing homes people want to live in to create new brownfield development sites. Unfortunately developers are going to the wall faster than car manfacturers are making people redundant so the only route for local councils is to grass over the newly demolished space.

Pathfinder money could be used to buy homes off struggling mortgage payers and then provide them for rent so people dont lose their homes. Instead it's being used to provide areas of grass and add new families to the armies of homeless.

"We're putting in place this comprehensive package of measures to try and reduce the risk of repossession as much as we can"
Iain Wright, Housing Minister


Perhaps Ian Wright could join up government and, as minister for demolition, use pathfinder funds to provide genuine help rather than a financial gravy train for bureaucrats, planners, millionaire developers and assorted hangers-on.

Demolition Sites Stay Empty Says Government Advisor

The Government appointed Professor Michael Parkinson of Liverpool's John Moores University to report on pathfinder housing projects and he now says that housing renewal is in deep trouble.

Inside Housing is reporting that pathfinders are leaving plots empty as private builders can no longer afford to build. Professor Parkinson has also found that the residential schemes promoted by pathfinder have been the hardest hit by the economic downturn.

The reason for this is quite obvious for those of us who have been sat in the middle of pathfinder developments. Most pathfinders are not built on genuine community engagement. Instead they have been developer led based on speculation and the housing has too expensive for local people. In other words the discredited "housing for investment" model. In Gateshead the populist cry is "family homes" yet building projects have ended up with homes that cost 10 times more than the average salary. Hardly a sustainable position.

Professor David Byrne of Durham University recently addressed the residents association and confirmed this grim view stating that pathfinder was really designed to help small areas of Manchester and had no role in Saltwell and Bensham.

Link

Inside Housing