A report on the region's housing markets from Birmingham University's centre for urban and regional studies said one in five homes are at risk of abandonment.
The report brings into question the government's commitment to renewal, even before its pathfinder projects get under way.
That amounts to more than 200,000 homes, mostly social housing and old terraced properties. Tyneside and Teesside are bearing the brunt but almost every council area is said to be affected.
Tyneside has only one pathfinder area for market renewal and two small Housing Corporation-funded demolition and rebuild projects. Teesside has neither.
The study was commissioned by the Northern Housing Consortium on behalf of a host of regional organisations.
It builds on the university's studies of the North-west, the Yorkshire and Humber area and the West Midlands.
Researchers say the growth in new homes offers opportunities to improve the overall quality of housing, but there is a dearth of strategies or cash to deal with unwanted old housing. They say the North-east's population is falling and the number of households will increase only 6% in the next two decades, compared to a 14% rise across the country.
Yet housebuilding in the North-east continues at about the average rate for the whole country.
Housing Federation North chair Colin Garbutt said communities are breaking down because people stay only a short time before moving on. "A lot of the accommodation is no longer what people want, and there are strong incentives to buy," he said.
"We must find money for demolition and improve working across council boundaries."
Charlie Hughes, chief executive of Endeavour Housing Association in Stockton-on-Tees, said Teesside had lost out because it was not among the leaders on public relations and the "political selling" of the issue. He said: "The centre for urban and regional studies has given us the big picture and now we must put together some scary detailed figures."
Source
Housing Today
No comments yet