Just six months ago, Birmingham's housing policy was in disarray. Now it's bouncing back. In the first of a series of updates from the regions, Mark Beveridge checks out the council's new strategy and its chances for success.
Delegates to the urban summit this month needn't look far to find an example of regeneration in action. A stroll around the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, where the summit is to be held, will take them through offices, shops, apartments and restaurants beside the canals of Britain's largest mixed-use redevelopment scheme: Brindleyplace, which has been transformed from run-down to sought-after in less than 10 years.

Elsewhere in the city the story is the same. By next September, the notoriously ugly Bull Ring shopping centre should have been replaced by an airy steel and glass complex. Other new landmark buildings, such as Millennium Point, home to Birmingham's science museum, have enhanced both the city's skyline and its image, and there are plans afoot to give the former Dunlop tyre factory a £50m facelift.

Outside the city centre, however, in the deteriorated estates of Britain's largest housing authority, cause for optimism is less evident. It's the same city, but it looks like a different world.

Outdated stock, high debt
Last month the city council's strategy report painted a disturbing picture of Birmingham's housing situation. It identified chronic under-investment and declining demand as major problems in some areas and in others it found signs of overheated local housing markets, with council stock seriously depleted by right-to-buy sales. Housing professionals working in the area say the problems in the Midlands city are a complex mix of the contrasting conditions seen in the north and south of Britain: the obsolescence typical of the North and the lack of affordable homes usually associated with the South.

The strategy report estimated the council's housing debt to be in the region of £600m while, according to the council's public sector stock condition survey of 2000, £3.5bn is needed if the council's 80,000 homes are to be maintained for the next 30 years. To make matters worse, Birmingham's private housing sector is also far from healthy: a third is thought to lie below the decent homes standard, and the minimum investment required during the next 10 years was estimated, in the council's strategy report, to be in the region of £447m. Birmingham's problems have been around for a while, but they became even more pressing when council tenants rejected stock transfer in April – this passing up approximately £1bn of private finance and a government offer to write off the council's housing debt.

Divide and rule
Birmingham has, therefore, been forced to improvise. In May, the city council appointed Anne Power, professor of social policy at the London School of Economics, to head an independent commission into the future of its housing stock. The commission's verdict is due in December.

Meanwhile, the council has wasted no time in outlining its own strategy for tackling Birmingham's housing problems. September's housing strategy report represented an almost complete change of heart. With the rejection of the "one-size-fits-all" solution offered by stock transfer, the council now advocates a more pragmatic, locally-based approach. It has split the city up into nine housing market areas. For each of these the council has drawn up a list of problems and action that needs to be taken.

The strategy document is unequivocal: "Different areas and different needs require different solutions." Exactly what those solutions will be is not yet clear; partial transfer could still be on the cards for those tenants who decide they want it. For others, the solution may be less clear-cut.

However, the huge range of problems affecting the nine housing market areas will not be solved solely by better housing provision. Sandra Jenkinson, Birmingham council's cabinet member for housing, says the new approach must go beyond bricks and mortar.

"To have houses where people want to live demands that good housing be accompanied by good services," she says. "Flourishing neighbourhoods depend on the quality of education available nearby, and the absence of crime."

Unfortunately, "flourishing neighbourhoods" are easier to talk about than create. Jenkinson says the problems in Birmingham are too great for the council to tackle alone and that partnerships will be key to delivery – partnerships with tenants, with housing associations or with any other relevant body.

The council has already begun to cement existing partnerships. This month 13 housing associations were awarded approved partner status, having demonstrated they could help deliver on the council's regeneration priorities (see "The Players", page 29).

"By working with partners and residents we will not only improve our relationships but create neighbourhoods where everyone feels they belong," says Jenkinson.

Stumbling blocks
Alan Murie, professor of urban and regional studies at Birmingham University, supports the council's strategy. "Given that Birmingham is the biggest housing administration in the country, it's clear that different strategies are required in different areas," he says. "There is also the implication that other issues, like private sector housing, need to be seen alongside social housing."

But he foresees major stumbling blocks ahead. In particular, he believes finding the money to pay for the change will be difficult. Birmingham's approved development programme allocation has dropped from £40m for 2001/02 to £36m for 2002/03 and the difficulty of lining up funding from various sources, such as the single regeneration budget and the neighbourhood renewal fund, makes it difficult to address the full range of social difficulties at one time.

Achieving the coherent approach required for regeneration won't be easy, says Murie: "Grabbing funding from wherever possible sounds fine, but the council's plans will need sustained support. Things can't work through wheeling and dealing. Government backing may be needed."

Keynote Housing Group has a number of subsidiary housing associations in the Birmingham area. Regeneration director Bob Pringle agrees that securing funding can be complicated and difficult to predict. "Bidding for funding takes up resources. Just keeping track of the different funding streams is a major exercise in itself," he says.

This is where the council's commitment to partnership comes into its own. Partnerships can help produce action plans that are more comprehensive, and therefore more likely to attract funding and ultimately to succeed.

Calling all associations
But is it realistic to expect housing associations to pay less attention to their own interests and follow the city-wide agenda drawn up by the council?

Surprisingly, some are convinced. Last month both the Birmingham Social Housing Partnership, a representative body for the city's housing associations, and the National Housing Federation urged the council to develop a long-term regeneration strategy for that would allow housing associations to take a lead role. The message was simple: housing associations could do a lot more.

"Housing associations have shown they are willing to work together at market level to deliver innovative regeneration and development schemes," says Tom Murtha, chair of the Birmingham Social Housing Partnership. "I don't believe there is much scope for competition; there's a desire to take these plans forward."

"What happened [with stock transfer] enabled all agencies to step back and say – we have to do something different.

"We've got to take everyone, including the tenants, with us this time."

City CV

Population
977,100 (down 40,000 since 1991)
Council stock
80,915 homes
Council tenants
86,000
BME council tenants
8527
BME population
at least 210,000
Demolition
1500 clearances scheduled a year for the next five years
Average property price
£99,000 for a semi-detached house
Average social rent
£44.91/week
Average private rent
£115.38/week

The nine Housing Market Areas

Broadly speaking, the nine housing market areas fit into three categories:
  • The northern suburbs, city centre and the two suburban rings: Characterised by sustainable markets with high housing demand. To the north, affordability is the main problem, and there are few development opportunities, but the southern suburban ring has some of Birmingham’s most successful neighbourhoods, with a diverse mix of income levels, ages and ethnic groups.
  • East Birmingham and North-west Birmingham: Seriously affected by low demand, overcrowding and obsolescence.
  • Eastern, southern and northern peripheries: Here, much of the housing stock is costly to maintain, unpopular and home to a large proportion of older tenants. Some areas are isolated because of poor transport links.

Trust funds

North-west Birmingham and East Sandwell Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder
The first of nine national pathfinders to have its plans approved by the government and be awarded initial funding of £2.66m. Birmingham and Sandwell councils are expected to approve a plan of action in the near future. The pathfinder area has been identified as having a weak housing market with high levels of abandonment in council stock and high levels of disrepair in private sector stock. Around 60,000 houses – including owner-occupied, private rented, housing association and local authority properties – are set to benefit from coordinated action to tackle derelict, substandard homes. Handsworth Area Regeneration Trust
HART was formed in 1997 by five housing associations – Black Star, Birmingham Family Housing, HAMAC, Prime Focus and Midland Area – which between them own about 12,000 homes in the deprived area of Handsworth. In 2000, the partnership got round-six single regeneration budget funding of £17m over seven years. The partners have tried to integrate their attempts to address low demand, and have followed a broad regeneration agenda designed to improve residents’ quality of life. This has been supplemented with the development of tenancy support services and employment initiatives. “The problems here are huge – crime, unemployment and poor education,” says Prime Focus chief executive Richard Clark. “Individual agencies are not equipped to deal with them on their own. “HART has shown how community content can be linked to regeneration,” he adds. “It has helped to raise the profile of north-west Birmingham, and led to the of the housing market renewal area.”

Where more money could come from

New Deal for Communities
Two areas within Birmingham – King’s Norton and Aston – have had grants totalling £100m approved under the government’s New Deal for Communities programme. Improved housing is one of the themes of the programme designed to tackle social inclusion and deprivation. The programme is delivered through partnerships formed between local people, community and voluntary organisation, public agencies and the council. Advantage West Midlands
Advantage West Midlands, the regional development authority that covers Birmingham, has no specific powers in relation to funding for social housing, but the 2002 spending review did outline a greater role for them. The details of this are yet to emerge, but housing is part of the RDAs’ regional regeneration agenda. Advantage West Midlands is also responsible for administering the single regeneration budget, which has provided funding to local partnerships involved in housing improvement. Neighbourhoods in north-west Birmingham got about £40m from the final round of SRB funding, which is due to run until 2007.

The players

The council heavyweights
  • David Thompson, director of housing
  • Councillor Sandra Jenkinson, cabinet member for housing
  • Lisa Trickett, head of housing strategy
  • Steve Wise, assistant director of resource management
  • Ian Finlay, assistant director of housing investment and improvement.
The council plans to work with the housing associations listed, right, in the nine housing market areas identified in its housing strategy report. The aim is to develop local plans with residents and tenants to tackle the range of issues affecting specific neighbourhoods. Major housing associations
  • Bromford Carinthia HA
    Chief executive: Michael Kent. Birmingham stock: More than 1300 homes. Granted approved partner status by the council.
  • Midland Area HA
    Chief executive: Tom Murtha. Stock: roughly 3600 homes. Granted approved partner status. Part of the Keynote Group.
  • Optima Community Association
    Chief executive: Simon Kimberley. Amount of stock: More than 1700 homes.
  • Focus Housing
    Association Chief executive: Richard Clark. Amount of stock: roughly 8000 homes. Granted approved partner status.
  • Waterloo HA
    Chief executive: Tony Taylor. Stock: More than 1100 homes. Other housing associations
    Adullam Homes, Bournville Village Trust, Ashram, Black Star, HAMAC, John Grooms, Mercian, Family, FCH Housing and Care and Harden (Midlands) are all also approved partners Developers
  • William Davis Homes
    Selected with Bromford Housing Association by tenants of the Wychall Farm estate to redevelop the area. As part of a phased demolition programme, 500 defective properties are to be replaced over the next five years by the same number of mixed-tenure properties. Work is expected to begin by the end of November, with the first 100 homes due for completion within 18 months.
  • Lovell
    Worked in partnership with the city council and Waterloo Housing Association to develop the Pype Hayes estate, completed last year. A phased redevelopment strategy for part of the estate, comprising more than 1300 defective properties, was agreed with local residents. More than 200 homes were built, almost half of which were subsequently taken on by social landlords Other developers that have worked, or are working now, with Birmingham city council include Crest Nicholson, Barratt, Wimpey and Beazer Homes.