Pulling the leavers

The violence brought the dire state of many British cities to the attention of Westminster for the first time, and what would eventually become the urban renaissance was born.

So what have 20 years of initiatives, taskforces, reports and research meant for an area that remains a byword for everything that was wrong with the inner cities?

Despite its grim image and many problems, Toxteth – also known as Liverpool 8, after its postcode – has a lot going for it. Just minutes from Liverpool city centre, it includes street after tree-lined street of attractive, if crumbling, Victorian houses and a waterfront with spectacular views across the River Mersey. In fact, the Housing Corporation has been so impressed by Toxteth's potential and the local successes of the single regeneration budget that it has picked Liverpool 8 as the site for one of five pilot housing regeneration companies.

The company is called Include, and it could not have picked a more symbolic site for its headquarters: the brand new Rialto complex. The rebuilt Rialto is a powerful embodiment of the area's aspirations, but is surrounded by reminders of the work that still has to be done. Across the road, the steel roof and fortifications of the only bank in the area are more reminiscent of embattled parts of Belfast than an English inner city. Next door to the bank is an area of wasteland demarcated by corrugated iron and just a stone's throw away are whole streets of abandoned and boarded-up properties.

Toxteth's problems are typical of those faced throughout the band of poverty that's wedged between the two relatively affluent strips of Liverpool's city centre and its suburbs. Maria O'Brien, divisional housing manager for regeneration at Liverpool council, says: "People within the city centre, which has a soaring housing market, actually leap over the 'inner core' to the suburbs because the choice isn't there."

Recent research into abandoned homes in Liverpool and Manchester by Birmingham University's Centre for Urban and Regional Studies backs up what she says. It showed that as people get new jobs they move away, often to newly built homes on greenfield sites, leaving this "inner core" to decay.

Of the 26 neighbourhood renewal fund priority neighbourhoods in Liverpool, 21 are in this "core". They comprise 70,000 properties, of which 12,000 are in Toxteth – 8000 in Include's area – and 80% of which are in the two lowest council tax bands. In some areas vacancy rates are twice the city average, running as high as 20% of stock.

Fine-tuning the housing mix
This is where the housing regeneration company comes in. Include's slogan is "clean, safe and managed". What that means in practice is getting housing associations, local authorities, cooperatives, private landlords and other agencies working across all types of housing, including the private sector, to work together on improving an area's housing stock and environment.

This can mean fine-tuning the tenure and housing mix in an area to better fit local demand, regenerating and developing properties using existing methods, and involving the community in everything it does. In short, it's about making sure everyone in an area that needs better housing is singing from the same hymn sheet.

Private investment
The priorities are to make areas look better and feel safer and there have been some early successes. A choice-based lettings scheme operated from the Rialto building has cut the number of voids in the area by 70% in the past four months. Include has taken control of 54 abandoned sites, set up 20 neighbourhood safety projects and put up 13 CCTV cameras; it has employed 12 long-term unemployed people – all aged over 50 – to run environmental services and it's enrolled 30 of the area's most delinquent children in education and training programmes run by the police and community organisations.

Malcolm Williams, executive director of strategy at housing association CDS – Include's parent company – is enormously positive. "The reason the area was selected was because it it was not deemed irretrievable," he says. "It has got problems of low demand and community safety issues but it is susceptible to investment and private investors are interested."

I’m trying to reflect what the people who live here say, rather than the regeneration experts 

Gerard Murden, Director, Include

So much so, in fact, that Include plans to set up the area's first estate agency next year, to take advantage of a buoyant private sector where prices have doubled in the past 12 months. Currently, 80% of the area is made up of social housing and half the remainder is privately rented to tenants on housing benefit. Include and the council hope to increase owner-occupation to include half the area's properties, but admit that this will be a big challenge.

This manipulation of tenures is fundamental to Include's long-term strategy, but highlights a paradox at its heart. Part of Toxteth is known as the "Welsh streets", attractive terraces of late-Victorian houses that have tons of what architect Lord Rogers describes as "kerb appeal". One of Include's aims is to knock through pairs of period properties to create "loft-style" interiors. The plans, initially for a couple of streets, are at design stage. "It's an experiment. If it's going to change the market we'll change the properties," says Gerard Murden, director of Include.

Regeneration or yuppie invasion?
But the locals, the very people that regeneration is supposed to benefit, are sceptical about the yuppie invasion they expect to result from this, and uncertain about the value of draughty, leaking period houses. They would much prefer living in the cosy new-build bungalows that CDS provides.

Councillor Richard Kemp, Liverpool's executive member for housing, sits on the Include board. He says there is less demand then ever before for the traditional two-up, two-down and he argues that the views of local people who want new homes are more important than preserving the existing buildings.

Maria O'Brien, on the other hand, says : "We want to keep a lot of the urban form that makes Liverpool unique." But she also admits that vacancy rates mean stock will have to be cleared right through the "core", pointing to research from the Centre for Urban Studies that concluded 10,000 properties might have to go. "The city will have a demolition programme, done with full consultation. We know areas at risk will have to go," she says.

This apparent contradiction only reflects the fine line that Include must tread in its efforts to please as many people as possible. Director Gerard Murden explains that demolition will be looked at "property by property". Although this answers the need for local consultation, it raises questions about whether there is a lack of strategic vision for the area. This has a direct bearing on another concern: that of maintaining aesthetic coherence through all the development.

The aim, says Murden, is to build a demographically balanced neighbourhood, "by bringing people back, by bringing new people in and by raising the aspirations of the kids". No easy task, with 158 independent community groups in the area.

Facilities: commerce or community?
Two key problems are a lack of shops and a public perception that Include is mainly interested in buying land up for commercial housing development. Gabriel Muis, community worker at the Granby Toxteth Development Trust, says: "Three post offices have closed in the last few years. We've got to have community facilities, and a post office is one of the main ones."

Mr Saleh, one of the few shopkeepers on Northhill Street, says: "They are improving the housing but they are doing nothing for small businesses." Mr Nawaz, who runs a general store, the only surviving business on the corner of a row of boarded shops on Granby Street, echoes this view. "They are building new houses but they've done nothing with the shops. They said they wanted to build a community in Liverpool 8 but there's no sign of that."

Community worker Gabriel Muis remains concerned that Include does not cover crucial issues of economic viability and employment but he says he is beginning to feel more positive about its work. "The first year was all about buying land but they have only just got started. They've just employed six wardens straight off the dole and when they get round to refurbishing the homes around the Welsh streets, that will create more jobs," he says.

In any case, economic initiatives might not be what the area needs, says Include's Murden. He points out that, although the single regeneration budget introduced a number of successful skills, training and employment initiatives that are still in place, it also encouraged people to leave Toxteth because they didn't have the option of buying into the local housing market. In all, around 15% of the young population moved out.