start-with-the-park

Green spaces in areas undergoing major change
23
The challenges of low
housing demand
Around one home in 20 in England
is in an area of low demand. 10
The government’s sustainable
communities plan focuses on the
estimated one million homes in parts
of the North and Midlands that are
suffering from low demand and
abandonment. These tend to be in
peripheral housing estates, within the
inner core of large metropolitan areas,
or in the centres of old industrial towns.
Nine market renewal pathfinders
have been established to organise
action programmes in the areas worst
affected: Birmingham and Sandwell,
East Lancashire, Hull and East Riding,
Manchester and Salford, Merseyside,
Newcastle and Gateshead, North
Staffordshire, Oldham and Rochdale,
and South Yorkshire.
In areas where there is low demand
for housing, a lack of housing choice
combines with social and economic
deprivation. The result can be that people
leave, houses are abandoned and areas
become run-down. The people who
remain may feel that regeneration will
not take account of their needs. Polluted
land, derelict buildings and empty plots
all discourage transformation. A negative
image and a lack of confidence put
off investors.
Local authorities in market renewal
pathfinders (ODPM 2003)