A £30m regeneration project has been scrapped because the Housing Corporation refused to fill a £3m funding gap.
Ridgehill Housing Association hoped to replace 176 flats on the 278-home Stratfield Road Estate in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, with 330 state-of-the-art homes.

Instead, Ridgehill will implement a separate plan to revamp the existing 278 homes, starting in spring 2005.

Paul Eastwood, chief executive of Ridgehill, said: "Our bid to the Housing Corporation was unsuccessful but we are still to invest several million."

Ridgehill will spend £7m in the next seven years to bring homes beyond the decent homes standard. It has written to residents informing them of the failure to get corporation funding.

Ridgehill Housing Association was taken over by William Sutton Group after going into Housing Corporation supervision last year.

Some Stratfield Road residents believed the scheme was being dropped because William Sutton had a different development policy from Ridgehill management.

But Eastwood said: "William Sutton had absolutely nothing to do with this. I'm not sure whether it was always made sufficiently clear [to tenants] that the scheme depended on the finances being available."

Source

Housing Today