The nine market renewal pathfinders need to learn how to deal with private sector landlords and occupiers if they are to turn around failing communities, Mike Gahagan has warned.
Gahagan, chair of the South Yorkshire pathfinder and former director of housing at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, said: "The shortage of these skills is a problem across the nine pathfinders. We need to kick on with recruiting people to deal with it."

Gahagan added that in South Yorkshire, two-thirds of the 140,000 homes in the pathfinder were privately owned and that social housing staff did not traditionally have the skills to work with owner-occupiers and private landlords.

Gahagan said the pathfinders hoped to persuade the Chartered Institute of Housing to run appropriate training courses.

Source

Housing Today