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TOPIC
THE HOUSING MARKET RENEWAL PROCESS
Jim Chapman draws some conclusions from EDAW’s experience
the ‘sharing philosophy’, being promoted
by CABE and EP.
There is a need for Local Strategic
Partnerships to take ownership and
commit to delivering programmes on
a whole range of issues - not just the
physical components. The partnerships
must not become talking shops.
Consultation to be effective must result
in action.
The importance of place can not
be over emphasised. Which cities and
towns should grow and which should
shrink? It is important to stress identity
and offer the individual choice. There
is significant experience of the impact
of major regeneration on re-structuring
communities and decanting people
within individual neighbourhoods.
This information must be used with
great care to consider migration and
modes of travel. The debate in the House
of Commons recently on a ten year
transport strategy raised the importance
and the sensitivity of these issues, and
focuses on the need for long term robust
planning approaches.
The nine Housing Pathfinders announced in April 2002 were
established to tackle identified areas of low demand covering
some 700,000 homes. EDAW has been closely involved with the
development of proposals for five of the nine pathfinder areas
in Birmingham Sandwell, Manchester Salford, Merseyside, East
Lancashire, Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire.
SHARING EXPERIENCES
Because of a lack of joined up policy within central, regional
and local government, some authorities have made significant
changes to their management structures integrating departments
to form motivated and knowledgeable regeneration teams to
respond to the programme and implement the new planning
procedures.
Who is the driving force for physical regeneration? Is it
Government Offices, the Regional Development Agencies,
English Partnerships, or CABE? All these organisations provide
a plethora of well thought out strategies and design guidance.
Teams are inundated daily with advice on all aspects of good
practice. How do teams assimilate, respond and use this
information. How do we ensure feedback not only for ourselves
but into the ongoing pathfinder programmes? In our work in
the Wirral, Sandwell and Sefton areas we have worked closely
with the planners and urban designers to develop and establish
quality standards, preparing frameworks to enable the ongoing
developments. This work continues and is a fundamental part of
MAJOR ISSUES
The major problems we face in this
massive and important programme
include:
• macro economic factors
• backlog of terrace clearance from 1970s
• concentration of low income and social
problems
• housing management issues and surplus
council stock
• sub-urbanisation of the city, fracturing
effects and failure to address social
problems,
• loss of identity and lack of investment
in quality of environment in
neighbourhoods
• in some areas planning policies still
favouring flight to the suburbs.
A range of measures from clearance
to environmental improvements,
refurbishment, and new development
has been proposed for many areas.
The objective for all the proposals is
to firstly understand and establish the
particular issues for the area concerned
and endeavour to direct the market in
these areas to a more sustainable position,
removing their reliance upon public
funding for survival and encouraging a
situation in which private investment
and maintenance is the norm.
Despite an initial perception from
most parties involved that ‘more radical’
32 | Urban Design | Autumn 2004 | Issue 92