Strategic Housing Investment Plan 2010 - Falkirk Council

8.5 In addition to these 10 SIMD Priority Areas there is substantive housing
regeneration activity in other parts of the Falkirk Council area including:
• Town centre areas, where the redevelopment includes existing and
proposed residential accommodation,
• Substantive housing refurbishment projects, for example at Little Denny and
at Drum Road and Corbiehall, Bo’ness,
• New Council house building as set out in paragraphs 5.28 and 5.29 above.
8.6 Ongoing estate-based improvements in the Priority Areas are identified through the
development of annual Neighbourhood Improvement Plans which seek to enhance
amenity through environmental improvement projects and housing management
initiatives to complement upgrading of the housing stock. An important factor in
this work is the increasing need to work with owner-occupiers in what are now
multi-tenure estates as a result of the Right to Buy legislation.
8.7 Estate-based environmental improvements are taken forward through a
combination of internal and external funding packages. The funding contributions
from Falkirk Council allow grant applications to outside sources and can also
encourage communities to make their own funding applications. For example, The
Housing Estates Regeneration Outcomes Squads (HEROS) is funded through a
number of sources, including Fairer Scotland. The HEROS provide local people,
particularly local young people, with the opportunity to carry out environmental
improvement projects within their own community, as well as improving their
employability skills. This allows local people to participate directly in the planning
and implementation of local environmental improvements. This level of
involvement is seen as a key part of housing regeneration.
8.8 Spending constraints affecting external agencies, government organisations and
local authorities are likely to affect the scale of future regeneration activity. It is
therefore particularly important to identify projects where selective interventions can
yield significant regeneration outcomes. This means working even more closely
with community groups and with community organisations. It also means that the
scale of the projects may be smaller, focusing on projects such as local community
gardens, school grounds, safe footpaths, improving privacy, treating local eyesores,
and so on.
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