But although Stoke is showing many of the symptoms of a housing market collapse, it is far from being considered a lost cause. Under the banner of the North Staffordshire pathfinder, the area has been selected as one of nine regions to benefit from the housing market renewal fund.
The fund has allocated £500m over three years to nine regions stretching from Birmingham Sandwell to Newcastle Gateshead. As in North Staffordshire, the pathfinders have been placed in areas that are regarded as suffering from chronic but not acute collapse – places where swift intervention could still arrest decline.
Brendan Nevin, visiting professor of housing at Sheffield Hallam University, conducted the research that led to the creation of the market renewal fund. He sees the North Staffordshire pathfinder as "a strategic body with a commissioning role" that will invite housing associations to put forward regeneration proposals.
Nevin also hopes the pathfinder's work will be integrated with broader regeneration goals by exploiting Stoke's assets – two universities, excellent transport links and the surrounding greenbelt.
On the controversial issue of demolition, it seems the pathfinder wants many of the inner-city Victorian terraces to go. "It's not about trying to preserve the existing fabric," says Nevin. "The idea is not to re-roof everything and hope the market returns because it clearly won't. But it's not a clearance programme either, although clearance will be a significant issue."
Mixed bag of problems
Bentilee, an estate of some 4000 homes on the eastern periphery of Stoke, is a microcosm of the city's problems. The estate is a curious mix of deprivation and solid, if aesthetically very average, 1950s stock. About 1000 of the homes have been sold under the right to buy, around 2000 are owned by the council and Bentilee Community Housing manages 950.
According to the 1991 census, male unemployment on the Bentilee estate stands at 22%. Len Gibbs is chief executive of Bentilee Community Housing, which was launched by Stoke-on-Trent council five years ago as a not-for-profit organisation owned by the council and tenants. He's sure unemployment on the estate has risen further since then, although latest census figures are not yet available to confirm this. Bentilee Community Housing's figures for hidden unemployment, which includes those on sickness benefits and those not claiming, is far higher at around 45% .
One of the key problems, both at Bentilee and throughout the industrial heartlands, is that women seem to respond better to the new service-based economy. Men, in particular young men, are suffering from what Nevin calls "a crisis of masculinity".
Gibbs agrees. "This is a city where people relied on their hands. Only a third get more than five C-grade GCSEs and only 5% go to university," he says. "Miners saw their income halve from mining to driving a van and some people knew they could earn £500 a day from selling drugs and thought 'I could do that'. The issue is what to do with men. They don't turn up to focus groups."
Gallway Road is one of the hardest-to-let streets on the estate. The homes are well built and fully modernised, with central heating and new kitchens, but nonetheless many are boarded up. Drug dealing and car theft – a significant problem across the estate – are particularly prevalent here. The estate's shopping centre is derelict and largely deserted. At least half of the dozen or so shops are boarded up.
But despite all these problems, the Bentilee estate, and Stoke itself, is not considered to be beyond hope. "This is a homogenous area. There are no ghettos; it's a solidly working class city," says Nevin. "The problems are chronic but not acute. This is no Salford or Langworthy, which have completely collapsed. But it is very worrying, because if it is left for 10 years it would entirely collapse."
The pathfinder's answer for the Bentilee estate lies in a strategic approach that aims to improve not only tenants' homes and employment opportunities, but also transport and diversity of tenure. "The question is not just getting economic growth and keeping people in Bentilee," says Nevin. "We're not going to save it just by improving incomes. We need to remodel the estate, increase diversity and improve transport."
Gibbs has a radical solution on how to achieve this. It involves transforming the tenure mix, which currently comprises 75% social housing. Gibbs proposes a shift to home ownership, a policy he feels makes sense as housing association rents in the area run at £65 a week – higher than the cost of a mortgage on a similar home.
Social housing's future
The rationale for this, he says, is that social housing has two main functions: to provide housing for those unable to afford the private rented sector, and to provide homes for those who struggle to live independently. Since owner-occupied and private rented housing in Stoke is so cheap, Gibbs does not see "a great role" in the city's future for social rented housing.
The North Staffordshire pathfinder, Stoke council and local registered social landlords are also likely to make significant changes to management of the estate. "We can't have three to four agencies managing the stock on Bentilee – it doesn't make sense," says Gibbs. "The current fragmented nature of management is not the best option for the estate and the people of Bentilee would benefit from a more cohesive approach. That means neighbourhood management for the area and an appropriate single agency identified to manage the stock."
Until such management changes occur, some schemes on the estate are already having mixed results. Although a new warden service employing local people is working well, a project to employ caretakers from the local community has ended in redundancy for all four of the caretakers, after unusually high absentee rates and persistent disciplinary problems.
It is still too early to say whether the pathfinder initiative will lead to the renaissance of Bentilee but with crucial management changes already taking shape, it is hoped the next couple of years will lead the estate off the road to ruin and onto a path to success.
Pathfinder areas
Nine pathfinders areas were announced by the government in April this year, following a lengthy campaign by councils in the North and Midlands concerning the problems of low demand:- Manchester (Salford)
- Merseyside
- East Lancashire (Blackburn, Burnley, Hyndburn and Pendle)
- Oldham and Rochdale
- South Yorkshire (Sheffield, Barnsley, Rotherham, Doncaster)
- Hull and East Riding
- Newcastle Gateshead
- North Staffordshire
- Birmingham Sandwell.
- have a clear view about intentions
- set milestones
- nominate a banker such as a local authority
- establish a governance structure.
Source
Housing Today
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