Back from the brink

Gravesham council has a big job on its hands. As part of the Thames Gateway, it is gearing up for major development. The council’s population of 95,000 is expected to double by 2016. By that time, it needs to have built an extra 50,000 homes.

Situated on the Thames estuary in Kent, only a few miles from where a Eurostar station will open in 2007, the ex-industrial borough is one of the largest regeneration sites in Europe.

Glyn Thompson, executive director of community services, admits it is all a bit daunting. “We’re a small district council but we’ve got this massive regeneration taking place, so it’s a big pressure for us,” he says.

Housebuilding is now steaming ahead, much of it carried out by joint ventures. The council and Countryside Properties are building 1000 homes, 25% of which will be affordable, as part of the Canal Basin Regeneration Project.

Gravesham is also redeveloping the Christian Fields estate, made up of 178 units of rented stock, in the centre of Gravesend. To bring it up to the decent homes standard would have cost the council £8m, so it has brought in Moat Housing Group to develop 180 affordable and 40 shared-ownership homes.

However, developing new homes without forgetting existing council tenants has been a real battle. In April 2003, the council’s repairs and maintenance service received a no-star rating with uncertain prospects for improvement from the Audit Commission. For a council that received beacon status for its town centre regeneration in 2001, this was a wake-up call.

“I was gutted,” says Andy Chequers, head of housing for the past three years. “In the pursuit of securing and allocating funds for new housing developments, we got caught out not focusing on our existing homes. We quickly became aware that we needed outside help to get us back on track, so we brought in [housing management company] Pinnacle Housing. They helped us re-focus attention onto our tenants.”

The 170-home Wallis Park estate in Northfleet was highlighted by the Audit Commission as being in extremely poor condition. There were several void properties, smashed windows, broken lights and burned-out garages, although the estate had been renovated the previous year.

Gravesham’s strategy to turn around estates such as Wallis Park has been to concentrate on creating good basic services and encouraging tenant participation on issues such as vandalism and litter.

“We went onto the estate and brought tenants together to decide what kind of things they would like to see happen,” says councillor Ernie Brooks, lead member for housing and neighbourhood renewal, who was instrumental in improving Wallis Park.

“We got a good response and, as a result, we ripped out all the broken security equipment and opened the estate up. We also introduced two community wardens who are on hand to deal with any problems.

“They also organise regular activities, such as football, for younger residents to keep them occupied. The estate is now a nice place to live,” says Brooks.

After 11 months, Gravesham’s maintenance service was reinspected and awarded one star with “promising” prospects. The council is now planning to spend £10.36m by the end of 2005 on continuing to improve its repairs.

“We now have a report the whole council is proud of,” says Chequers, whose achievements, along with those of his colleagues, Thompson and Brooks, earned them the title “the three musketeers” from fellow council staff.