Report lists danger signs for areas in decay

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has produced a checklist of indicators that councils can use to identify a declining area and intervene before it reaches “tipping point”.

Large sums of public money could be saved if councils were able to tackle problems in an area before it begins to “spiral downwards”, according to the RICS report, Spot the Grot.

The checklist highlights factors that characterise areas in danger of abandonment. They include:

• unemployment twice the national average and below-average wages
• a vacancy rate of more than 4.5%
• low property prices n voter turnouts of less than 15%
• more than 200 recorded crimes for every 1000 people
• levels of long-term illness that are 10% higher than the national average.

Ken Dytor, chief executive of regeneration specialist Urban Catalyst, said: “Decline tends to start in pockets, then spread. Once an area falls past a certain point, it is difficult and very expensive to turn things around.”