The story so far

Newcastle Gateshead: a pathfinding pace-setter

It’s been a hard slog since Newcastle Gateshead was given pathfinder status in February. The project has been handed £4m of ODPM cash for its initial projects and been promised much more, but this hasn’t exactly been a ticket to easy street. It has, however, got further than most. At the end of September, it became the second of the nine regional partnerships to submit its full funding bid to the ODPM. It has asked for £93.4m of the £500m available in the first three years. It is still one of only three – Manchester Salford and Merseyside (New Heartlands) are the other two – to have submitted its full prospectus, and the scale of this task should not be underestimated. Newcastle Gateshead’s prospectus runs to 500 pages, with four supporting area development frameworks (detailed plans of action), an executive summary and “technical appendices”. It took a van-load of large boxes just to deliver one copy of the documentation to the ODPM. John Robinson, director of development and enterprise at Gateshead council, is managing the effort from the south side of the Tyne. He says: “It was a very complex process; aligning transport, education, crime, planning – an endless list. It requires a huge amount of work and it’s ongoing.” And this is not all the pathfinder has done. The £4m of “early wins” money, awarded by the ODPM in July, has allowed it to start work on a number of schemes. Its successful private sector project in Newcastle’s West End, which released void properties by working with private landlords, has been rolled out across the city, costing £20,000. Gateshead council used some of the money to speed up its programme to clear 350 “Tyneside flats”, antiquated housing built for miners more than a century ago. They will be replaced with 120 new houses, but the process has not been straightforward. Despite securing widespread community support for the clearances, some landlords and homeowners are holding on, forcing the council into a public inquiry on compulsory purchase early next year. Robinson says: “It’s typical of the kinds of problems pathfinders face. We’re working with local people, but it’s not easy because of the negative equity people have on these houses.” Housing associations, too, are starting to play their part. Local registered social landlords have been working together to coordinate their response to the pathfinder’s aims, leading to what one described as “an absolutely unprecedented level of cooperation”. This will start to deal with the sticky issue of stock rationalisation. All that is for the future, though. For now, the priority is working with the ODPM and the auditors to formulate the detailed strategy for the £93.4m. Government sign-off is hoped for, but not expected, before the end of the year. As Leo Finn, chair of the pathfinder and the ex-chief executive of Northern Rock bank, puts it: “The ODPM could give us a very nice Christmas present. However, at my age, you don’t get many presents.”

Cambourne: resident power

Cambourne’s bonfire night celebrations this year had an unusual twist. The figure on one fire wasn’t a traditional Guy, but a dummy painted with the word “section 106”. A group of residents staged the protest because developer Bovis Homes, builder of the five-year-old village, has not yet produced the facilities promised in its section 106 planning gain agreements. The Cambridgeshire village is in the heart of the London-Stansted-Cambridge growth area. When Housing Today visited seven months ago, residents were waging another planning battle. Developers wanted to increase the density of the village by 1744 homes, taking it to 50 homes per hectare in some parts. Residents won and the council refused the application last month. Now it is threatening to withhold planning permission for further private developments in the village unless Bovis Homes makes good on its section 106 promises: a community centre, sports pitch and burial ground. Mike Huntington, a planning officer with South Cambridgeshire council, says: “There has been a slight problem with the developer slacking. We said we wouldn’t approve more market housing until they made the provision.” However, there was already a question mark over some of Cambourne’s homes before this stand-off. The Communities Plan hailed the end of local authority social housing grant, which was due to fund 84 RSL homes. A consortium of three local associations – Circle 33 leading, with Cambridge Housing Society and Granta Housing Society – has managed to secure funding for the homes. By working closely with the Housing Corporation and local councils, the three scooped £1.4m from the transitional local authority SHG funding pot. In February 2004, 111 units will come into management, and a further 106 homes have just entered the planning process.

Poole: banking on ALMO

Poole council can’t afford a slip-up. It needs an estimated £186m to meet the decent homes standard and is £35m short. If its plan for an arm’s-length management organisation fails, more than half of the Dorset town’s 5200 homes could miss the 2010 target. So far, it’s working. Poole’s bid to join the government’s third-round ALMO list was successful, guaranteeing it £17.4m of extra funding between 2004 and 2006. Poole has asked for £35m in total: council insiders are hopeful the government will provide the rest after the 2006 spending review. Two potential stumbling blocks remain: a tenants’ ballot next month and an Audit Commission inspection next September. The ALMO must win a two-star, “good” rating to access the extra cash. The council is currently surveying tenants’ views by post and telephone. “Since we got the third-round place, it’s been about informing the tenants what an ALMO will mean for them,” says Ray Aggett, new chair of the council’s tenant-dominated consultative panel. Aggett says levels of support are encouraging. “Guarantees have been given that the ALMO won’t go ahead without tenant support, so there has been quite detailed consultation.” To show tenants what improvements will look like, maintenance company Connaught has fitted new kitchens in three empty properties. The hope is that Connaught, which has a £8m, eight-year contract w ith the council, will help it get those vital two stars. Poole is doing well: last April its repairs and maintenance department received two stars. Results from a preliminary inspection from the commission organised to identify any hidden weaknesses are due to be published today.