EP has started building homes on only one of the seven millennium community sites – seven years after the first projects were devised. The developments were supposed to show the private sector how to create high-quality, eco-friendly homes with innovative design.
Launching the scheme in 1997, EP promised to build 5000-6000 homes in 7-10 years.
Seven years later, only the Greenwich site in south-east London has any homes completed: 668 of the 2500 homes planned.
Of the other communities, only New Islington in Manchester and Allerton Bywater in Leeds have started site preparation.
According to the ODPM update released last Friday, none of the schemes will be finished within 10 years. The last two communities – East Ketley in Telford and Hastings in East Sussex – are due to be finished in 2012, 15 years after the programme was announced. In all 6915 homes are now planned, the update said.
Many have been beset by difficulties. At Allerton Bywater, the original plans for the 520-home site were rejected by local residents.
Labour MP Andrew Bennett, chair of the ODPM select committee that heavily criticised the millennium communities programme in a report in April last year, said: "It does appear that English Partnerships is eventually getting its act together, but they need to show some results, and they need to show some results quickly. It's time they actually got things built."
Rob Pearson, EP's head of national programmes, denied the agency was disappointed at progress, saying there would be huge moves forward in the next year.
"This is a crucially important year for the programme where the momentum is really going to increase," said Pearson. "The inception has taken some time but by this time next year we will have houses built in New Islington and Allerton Bywater."
EP recently conducted a stock-take of the projects, and has appointed regeneration consultant Stephen Hill to draw out the lessons from them for the rest of the organisation.
Source
Housing Today
No comments yet