The government has awarded the Manchester Salford market renewal pathfinder £125m to tackle low demand in the cities.
It's the first of the nine pathfinders to get the go-ahead. The award was announced as the Newcastle Gateshead pathfinder submitted its own bid on 22 September.

The other pathfinders will submit bids soon for their share of the £500m allocated by the ODPM to cover the first three years of the intiative.

However, after the Manchester Salford award, there will be just £375m left for the other eight pathfinders.

A source close to pathfinder strategymakers said the government had awarded Manchester Salford so much – £12m more than it had asked for – because it was concerned about underspending by the pathfinders.

The same source said it would look to allocate more than the existing £500m budget in the expectation that not all would be spent.

The government awarded Manchester Salford so much because it was concerned about underspending

Source close to pathfinder strategymakers

Manchester's plan would result in 13,400 homes being refurbished, 1700 being cleared and 1000 being built by 2006.

The Newcastle Gateshead bid, covering 78,000 homes, has outlined a core development of a new "urban village" in the Benwell and Scotswood areas.

With £6.6m already secured from the ODPM, it has started environmental regeneration schemes and has commenced the demolition of homes in the West End area of Newcastle and the Sunderland Road area of Gateshead.

Source

Housing Today