Two years into John Prescott’s 15-year Communities Plan, Housing Today returns to three areas it visited in 2003 to find out what progress has been made so far – and what the setbacks have been.

Cambourne

The Cambridgeshire village of Cambourne was only five years old when the Communities Plan pitched it right in the heart of the M11 growth area, where between 250,000 and 500,000 homes are to be built by 2031. The area will share a £164m three-year pot with two others. But one of the greatest worries for residents and workers alike was how to fund the infrastructure – and whether section 106 agreements would be enough to deliver it.

If you’ve paid a visit to Cambourne recently, you may have noticed posters of crabs plastered liberally around the village. This is just one visible sign of the changes that have taken place since the Communities Plan, and in particular of the row between South Cambridgeshire council and the developers responsible for building the extra homes.

Cambourne’s problems centre on the planning gain agreement between the local authorities and the project consortium.

The developers that make up the consortium were supposed to contribute various community facilities, but many have been delayed and a promised trailer park is yet to make an appearance. South Cambridgeshire council’s reaction has been to slap an embargo on development until agreement can be reached. But this has slowed up delivery of affordable housing and private sector homes. Kate Wood, the council planning officer responsible for Cambourne, recognises this but admits: “We don’t really have any other levers.” Fed up with the slow progress, residents formed the protest group “Cambourne Residents Against Breaking Section 106”, or Crabs. They put up the posters for the benefit of planning inspectors who visited to look at the expansion plans.

Deputy prime minister John Prescott may have said the plan would be a “step change” in housing supply, but in Cambourne development is happening in small steps, not giant leaps. When complete, the village will have more than 3000 affordable and privately owned homes and 650 for social renting. But so far only 165 affordable homes have been built, 191 fewer than the project consortium had aimed for by now.

The developers’ representative says delays with community facilities are not entirely their fault. David Chare, project director for Cambourne at consultant David Chare Associates, says the trailer park was delayed because a more secure site had to be found for it. As for a planned community centre, he says residents wanted to change the design to include a sprung floor. To his mind, the village is a success story. “A few facilities may not have been delivered on time for good reasons, but look at what’s been achieved in the past 12 months and you’ll see what many say is a successful development,” he says.

And yet the social housing situation is still being hindered because the housebuilders will not put in access roads and utilities on affordable housing sites while the embargo is in place. Until this is done, housebuilding cannot begin. Delays could mean that the Housing Corporation decides to take back its grant. Luke Riley, regional development manager of Circle 33, says the corporation is sympathetic to the difficulties faced by Cambourne’s three associations – as well as Circle 33, Granta Housing Society and Cambridge Housing Society. But he adds that one site is at risk of losing funding unless the association can get on site by July.

There may have been a few facilities we haven’t delivered
on time, but we still have what many
say is a successful development 

David Chare, David Chare Associates

In yet another setback, the developers’ proposals for an extra 1744 homes were rejected by local authority planners and have now been referred to the ODPM. This may not be resolved before the general election and delays can slow provision of community facilities, which developers only have to build when a given number of homes are finished.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Sites in the second phase of the village, which will provide at least 295 affordable homes, branch off a central road and so shouldn’t be held up by problems with access roads on other sites. And many of the association homes completed so far are designed in a way that would cheer Prescott – Circle 33 has built 47 environmentally friendly homes.

Perhaps most encouraging of all is that residents seem to like the developments. Local people had their doubts when the growth plans were unveiled, but a fifth of those now moving into the village are Cambourne families buying bigger homes – some consolation for the council that, once planning gain disputes are solved, there will at least be a market for the new homes.

Newcastle

Of the one million homes targeted by the Communities Plan’s nine housing market renewal programmes, a quarter are in the North-east, and 77,400 fall under the Newcastle-Gateshead pathfinder. In areas such as Benwell, Scotswood and Felling, streets of boarded-up terraces had become magnets for nuisance behaviour, and property values had halved since the mid 1990s. Director Jo Boaden and her team had 15 years to turn things round:

Two years on from the genesis of the Communities Plan, people in the North-east are starting to notice a difference. It’s not just in the title of the housing market renewal pathfinder, which changed to Bridging Newcastle Gateshead in December. In the first year of the plan 228 households were relocated, 98 homes acquired and 387 houses demolished in the city. Alongside that a further 2000 properties have benefited from environmental improvements and 1407 from neighbourhood management schemes.

But as the pathfinder moves into the final year of its initial ÂŁ73m prospectus, the most vital progress towards its long-term goals has been the building of a detailed body of evidence to plan where and when help should be targeted in the future.

It is all about getting it right. You don’t want to look back in 20 years and see things being pulled down because we’ve got it wrong

Jo Boaden, Bridging Newcastle Gateshead

Back in April 2003, professor Brendan Nevin – the driving force behind the low demand programme and a former director of North Staffordshire’s pathfinder – said there had always been an awareness that certain housing was unpopular, but the problem had deepened dramatically in the early 1990s.

But clear research on how the situation had changed was lacking. Getting to grips with exactly what the problem was – as well as what could be done about it – has been the mission of the past two years for Jo Boaden, director of Bridging Newcastle Gateshead. “We now understand what is happening at a neighbourhood level,” she says.

As well as detailed information about neighbourhoods, the evidence includes house prices, turnover and research about people’s housing aspirations. “This will be the foundation stone for the next bid,” Boaden says. “It is also about getting it right.

You don’t want to look back in 10 or 20 years’ time and see things getting pulled down because we have done the wrong thing.”

The long-term goal may be sustainability, but the team is equally aware that in the short term residents need to see “early wins” to build faith in the process. Recent progress includes a £1.4m scheme to refurbish 100 homes in Sunderland Road, Gateshead, and the transformation of a row of Tyneside flats in Whitehall Road, Newcastle, to suit the needs of the predominantly Jewish community. A group of architects will shortly move into an estate in Byker for a five-week period to work closely with residents and draw up plans to transform the housing stock. Two show homes are also due to open in the next two months so residents can view the quality of product they can expect.

And of course the main focus is now on drawing up the all-important second prospectus for the ODPM, due in July. Consultation on that is expected to start in early spring, but the bid is likely to be “substantial”. Boaden has no intention of slowing down. “This is a huge opportunity for Newcastle Gateshead and we can’t let the momentum slip.”

Poole

Tenants are really pleased to see action. After years of talk and consultation we’ve built up their trust and now they can see it paying off

Joe Logan, Poole Housing Partnership

Back in February 2003, the housing staff of Poole council in Dorset were striving to get a place on the third round of the ODPM’s arm’s-length management programme. Failure was not an option – Poole had 1800 non-decent properties and a £24.7m funding gap, but its residents opposed stock transfer and only one project finance initiative had been signed.

“We don’t want to hide in mediocrity,” head of housing Joe Logan said. “We want to be a council that is achieving; one of the best.”

Since Housing Today first visited Poole in 2003, things have been moving full steam ahead – with impressive results. Poole Housing Partnership was inspected by the Audit Commission in December 2004 and received an “excellent” three-star rating with “positive future prospects”, one of only seven arm’s-length management organisations to do so. As a result it has secured £35.4m from the ODPM, which will enable it to bring its 5200 homes up to the 2010 decent homes standard at least a year ahead of target.

Unsurprisingly, Joe Logan, the ALMO’s chief executive, is jubilant. “After three years’ hard work to secure our bid and become a three-star ALMO, staff morale is high. We now stand in the best possible situation to benefit from new freedoms for three-star ALMOs.” The government is yet to announce what these might be, but there is mounting speculation that the ODPM will allow them to borrow money to build new homes. Poole has already started work on making homes decent and, though the official works programme doesn’t start until 2006, has replaced 233 kitchens, 668 front and back doors and 120 boilers and heating systems.

“It doesn’t sound like a great deal,” says Logan, “but tenants are really pleased to see action. After years of talk and consultation we have built up their trust and now they can see it starting to pay off.”

In a recent survey of Poole’s tenants, 67% said they were satisfied with the level of tenant participation – 52% of tenants and 22% of leaseholders responded to the survey. This represented a 52% rise on the same survey carried out two years ago.

“There is no secret to how we’ve managed to gain the trust of our tenants,” says Logan. “It’s down to a lot of hard work. We have asked them what they want to see happen and what they are most concerned about and we are aiming to meet these needs.”

Poole has also been busy opening up its doors to local authorities and fellow ALMOs to share best practice techniques and ideas. “Since receiving our three-star status, a lot of people have shown an interest in what we’ve done and have wanted to discuss and swap information. There has been no competitiveness involved. It’s been about everyone wanting to help improve services across the board,” says Logan.

There is only one unfortunate development to report. The rumour that was spreading like wildfire when Housing Today visited Poole in April 2003 – suggesting that David Beckham had bought property in Sandbanks (also known as millionaires’ row) – proved false. But Logan, a keen footballer himself, is not too disheartened. He says that Southampton football club’s Jamie Redknapp and his dad Harry, who manages the club, have both bought homes in the area.

Source

Housing Today