ODPM unveils three social engineering pilots

The government has unveiled three pilot schemes to transform Britain’s most deprived estates into mixed communities.

The initiative, announced on Monday as part of the second half of the ODPM’s five-year plan (“And another thing”, below), will create a mix of tenures and housing by either demolishing existing stock, selling homes or carrying out complete refurbishments.

The pilots will be in Harpurhey in Manchester (statistics, right), Gipton in Leeds and Canning Town in east London, all of which are in the 2% most deprived neighbourhoods in the UK.

The initiative was first mooted in chancellor Gordon Brown’s pre-Budget report last December.

It is similar to Hope VI, an American social engineering scheme set up by the Clinton administration in the early 1990s. Hope VI rebuilds a community from scratch and ensures new homes are occupied by a mix of the unemployed, low-income earners and the better-off.

The three pilots will include action to reduce unemployment, crime and poor health and boost educational achievement.

The ODPM will work with social landlords on allocations policies to ensure that the most disadvantaged people are not concentrated in one area.

Details of the total number of homes that will be knocked down and rebuilt, how much the pilots will cost and when they will start have yet to be announced.

However, Newham council has been working on the initiative for the past three years. It will demolish 1900 council homes in Canning Town and build 7000 new homes as part of a £1.8bn scheme. All council tenants will be rehoused in social housing, but not necessarily in council homes.

Funding for the Newham development will come from regeneration agency English Partnerships – which is expected to invest £25m – the Housing Corporation and private investors.

Work is due to begin in 18 months’ time. The council has yet to decide how many properties will be set aside for shared ownership, housing association tenants and private ownership. However, it aims to make about half of the new homes affordable.

Naomi Newstead, major project manager for the Canning Town regeneration project team, said: “The aim of this scheme is to diversify tenure in order to increase spending in the area, improve housing stock for existing council tenants and create a vibrant and viable town centre.”

Chika Swaby, a member of the Canning Town resident steering group, said: “The main things I want to come out of this are better housing, more jobs and more places for young people to go so they don’t get bored and vandalise things.”

The three pilots were welcomed by many in housing. However, some feared that buy-to-let landlords could exploit the plans.

Richard Kemp, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat group at the Local Government Association and chair of Liverpool’s Plus Housing Group, said: “Unless you’ve got very good lawyers, it will just lead to speculation, with people buying to let to people on the dole, which will exacerbate the problem, as happened a lot with right to buy.”

Phil Morgan, chief executive of the Tenant Participation Advisory Service, said: “We’ve always thought that mixed communities were a good idea, but it shouldn’t just be about moving people in because they’re affluent. It should be people who will make a real commitment to improve areas.”