|
Home > Regional Housing
Strategy > Urban renaissance and dealing
with changing demand
Regional Priority 1: Urban renaissance and dealing with changing
demand
Issue
Changing demand for housing has been an increasingly high profile
issue at both regional and national level over recent years, and
is central to the challenges faced by the North West in achieving
our ambitions for an urban renaissance. While overall demand for
housing across the region remains strong, there is a growing contrast
between the hot spots and other communities where increasing numbers
of vacant and abandoned properties, static or falling prices, and
often high levels of turnover are found. The North West has the
biggest concentrations of low demand areas in the country, with
some of the extremes of housing market collapse being found in parts
of Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside.
The causes of low demand are complex, and include structural economic
and demographic changes; the interactions between rising aspirations,
increased prosperity, and increased housing choice; and the long
term impact of planning policies. This has helped fuel the decentralisation
of population from the urban cores to the high demand suburban and
semi-rural housing markets, and the affordability issues they face.
Previous interventions have focused on the on the renovation of
existing property rather than a gradual restructuring of markets
necessary to keep them in tune with changing aspirations.
The case for action
Both Regional Planning Guidance and the Regional Economic Strategy
place great emphasis on the need to achieve an urban renaissance
in the North West, as a key contributor to both economic success
and to the achievement of a more sustainable, higher quality physical
and social environment for the North West's communities. The impact
of housing market failure is a threat to the health, well being
and economic competitiveness of the region, as well as having a
devastating effect on quality of life in the worst affected communities.
Confirmation in the Communities Plan of resources totalling £500
million for the nine Market Renewal Pathfinders nationally between
2003/04 and 2005/06 is a clear signal of Government's intention
to deal with low demand and abandonment. Four of the Pathfinders
are in the North West - East Lancashire (Blackburn, Burnley, Hyndburn,
Pendle and Rossendale), Manchester and Salford, Merseyside (Liverpool,
Sefton and Wirral), and Oldham and Rochdale. Our four Pathfinder
partnerships are working on long-term strategic plans to achieve
sustained and radical improvement in the housing markets in their
areas and, more importantly, the quality of life for the people
who live there. The success of these strategies will, in the medium
term, depend upon their ability to attract back the investment by
private sector organisations and individuals that has drained away
over recent years as local housing markets have collapsed. At localised
level, the importance of factors such as the quality of local schools
and childcare facilities, the incidence of crime and anti-social
behaviour, accessibility of retail and health facilities or affordable
public transport is often much greater than the physical quality
of the housing stock in determining the popularity of an area. Adopting
the broad approach set out in the national Neighbourhood Renewal
strategy , looking for a comprehensive approach to the whole range
of issues at play within communities, is clearly essential.
As the Communities Plan acknowledges, the Pathfinders nationally
cover only about half of the homes affected by low demand and abandonment.
There are significant areas across the North West in this category.
We also have a great deal of housing which, while not suffering
from the worst extremes of low demand, can objectively be assessed
as being "at risk". The latest CURS report finds a total
of 1.038 million households to be at risk from changing demand,
or 37% of the region's homes. While many of these are within the
Pathfinders, significant numbers are not. Outside the M62 corridor,
in addition to East Lancashire, parts of West Cumbria, Furness,
Morecambe and the Fylde coast, Skelmersdale and Preston are among
the areas showing similar characteristics (see Figure 2). Local
authority estimates of properties already in low demand at 1 April
2002 in the North West total 438,000.
Figure 2: Areas at risk from changing demand: Stage 3 (CURS,
2003)
Delivering change
The issues facing many urban areas in the North West are, as
outlined briefly above, complex and challenging. Achieving a successful
urban renaissance is vital to the economic and social future of
the region. The region's strategic priorities will be to:
Priority 1.1
Maximise the positive impact of the market renewal Pathfinders
in their local housing markets.
Priority 1.2
Develop a targeted programme of strategic activity to prevent
market failure in other areas at risk from low demand, applying
and adapting lessons from the Pathfinders and elsewhere for use
in other areas suffering from low demand. These activities should
form part of comprehensive neighbourhood renewal strategies, specifically
in:
- the North West's coastal towns;
- other Neighbourhood Renewal Fund areas; and
- the remainder of the North West Metropolitan Area.
These priorities will be delivered by a combination of investment
and other activity by local authorities, the private sector, housing
associations and many other local and sub-regional players, including
the market renewal Pathfinders themselves. At regional level, the
North West Development Agency, English Partnerships and a variety
of Government and European programmes delivered by the Government
Office and its partners will all have important parts to play. The
planning system at regional and local level will also be crucial
if the objective of transforming housing markets is to be achieved.
The Board will seek to influence and co-ordinate other strategies,
decisions and investment impacting on the urban renaissance of the
North West, including economic development, transport, education,
health and the forthcoming Regional Spatial Strategy, to maximise
their collective contribution to these priorities to help achieve
sustainable, successful urban communities.
The Board will, through the single housing pot, seek to invest
in the restructuring of the North West's housing stock to meet future
patterns of demand and aspiration, and to encourage similar investment
from others, particularly the private sector. It will engage with
the four housing market renewal Pathfinders as their strategies
emerge, to ensure alignment between the Pathfinders' plans and broader
regional and sub-regional strategies. It will encourage neighbouring
authorities to develop complementary strategies.
In setting out its own investment strategy, the Board's priorities
for the use of the single housing pot will be:
SHP Priority 1. Maximising the positive impact of the market
renewal Pathfinders by continuing to direct mainstream housing capital
investment in support of the additional Pathfinder resources as
part of the overall package available to those areas. This will
apply both to resources for local authorities and for investment
via the Housing Corporation for housing associations, in the Pathfinder
areas :
SHP Priority 2. Supporting the prevention of market failure
in other areas at risk from low demand. This investment will be
focused on West Cumbria and Furness, Blackpool, Fleetwood and Morecambe.
The Board recognise the need for further work in developing the
strategies in Pathfinder local authorities, but expect intervention
to concentrate increasingly on dealing with low demand and related
issues in support of the Pathfinders. An Urban Regeneration Company
for West Cumbria and Furness is at an early stage of development,
and more work with the Development Agency and others will be required
to establish both the priorities for housing intervention and their
relationship to the achievement of the broader regeneration vision
for the area. A similar strategic approach is required in the coastal
towns of Blackpool, Fleetwood and Morecambe, building upon work
already underway with local authorities, the North West Development
Agency and other partners.
Outcomes
The programme of collective interventions, including the Board's
own contributions, is intended to help secure outcomes including:
- Reduction in the incidence of low demand for housing and prevention
of low demand from occurring in 'at risk' areas
- Stabilisation and strengthening of local communities
- Building integrated communities across social, racial and faith
divides
- Improvement in the design and condition of the housing stock,
and resulting benefits in:
- Improving energy efficiency and reducing fuel poverty
- Improving public health through reduction in incidence of
damp, cold, overcrowded and unsanitary living accommodation
- Contributing to the achievement of the Government's Decent
Homes targets
- Improvements in the design and quality of the physical environment
in neighbourhoods
In the medium term, ongoing investment by the public and private
sector and a co-ordinated strategic approach should deliver broader
outcomes, including an enhanced contribution to the economic potential
of the region as the urban areas become increasingly attractive
places to live, work and invest. This should in turn relieve some
of the pressure currently experienced in high demand, high value
areas of the North West.
The Board expect investment of single housing pot resources under
this priority to be focused mainly on:
- remodelling or demolition of obsolete housing stock;
- repair and renovation of housing stock with a long term viable
future; and
- construction of new and replacement housing or use of released
sites for other uses as appropriate.
Investment using the 'New Tools' and Regulatory Reform Order powers
will also be encouraged, as will the adoption of Lifetime Homes
principles in both new build and renovation projects.
More work
While leading the debate on housing market renewal over the
last few years, the region is still at a relatively early stage
in developing approaches to dealing with the multiple challenges
of changing demand for housing. A mixture of local, sub-regional
and regional tools are now available or being developed. Greater
freedoms for local authorities on private sector renewal are a step
forward, and may produce local good practice and innovation to be
shared with others. The use of the planning system as part of the
response to changing housing markets is a particular challenge,
and will require careful monitoring.
More substantially, the impact of four Pathfinder projects within
a single region means that detailed monitoring of housing markets
across the North West will be a vital task if we are to try to manage
what we hope to be a transformational change in those four areas
without undermining what are sometimes already fragile markets around
them. As announced in the Communities Plan , ODPM are working on
a housing demand assessment guidance tool. Regionally, the North
West Regional Intelligence Unit are funding a research project into
housing and migration issues, aimed at developing a system which
might be used to regularly monitor the operation of housing markets
within the region, including the links between the low and high
demand areas and the impacts of developments in one on the other.
This could be an important tool for the Board and the region as
a whole.
|
