Crisis-torn authority has eight weeks to spruce up Humberside bid or risk losing status
The government has heaped yet more pressure on troubled Hull council by giving it eight weeks to sort out the problems facing its market renewal pathfinder or risk losing the status.

The Humberside pathfinder – run with East Riding of Yorkshire council – is the only one of the nine pathfinders announced in April 2002 that has not had its status confirmed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. It has been waiting since March.

Confirmation would allow the pathfinder to access £2.6m in start-up funding from the ODPM, as well as to bid for a share of the £60m that is available to be spent this year on pathfinder projects.

However Stuart Whyte, chairman of the Humberside pathfinder, said he was confident the board would answer all the queries within the deadline set by the government.

He added: "Of course it's disappointing [that we didn't get approval], but there's nothing the ODPM have picked us up on that causes us concern. I'm confident we can get back to them within the next four or five weeks."

He conceded that failure to do this would put the Humberside pathfinder in jeopardy.

In a written reply last week, the ODPM told Humberside to address five concerns, including "reviewing and strengthening" its project plan for the next year.

The pathfinder's cause has not been helped by ongoing turmoil at Hull council – which covers the area where most of the pathfinder money would be spent.

Colin Inglis, Labour leader of Hull council, said the scheme had suffered from the fact the neighbouring council East Riding was being expected to do a lot of the work but wouldn't receive much of the funding.

Whyte rejected this, saying: "The commitment from both authorities has been tremendous. They recognise that it is too important for the people of the region to get wrong."

A spokeswoman for the ODPM said: "We have highlighted areas of concern to Humberside and are happy they will be satisfactorily addressed in a couple of months."

Meanwhile, the government has confirmed £4m early-stage funding for seven of the other pathfinders. This is in addition to the £2.6m already received.

Manchester Salford did not get this because it has submitted its full £100m three-year bid.

Source

Housing Today