Housing professionals in the Midlands have hit out at the growth area around Milton Keynes, saying it has “sucked up” too much funding and risks worsening the low demand for housing in parts of the region.

The attack came after Housing Corporation chief executive Jon Rouse made a speech in which he stressed that 42% of the £112.4m funding through the East Midlands Regional Housing Board had been allocated to the Milton Keynes-South Midlands growth area. “Growth pressures dominate the southern sub-region agenda. We must not also forget that the sub-region has areas such as Corby that have suffered economic problems and continue to require a regeneration focus,” he said.

His comments have tapped into a wider feeling across the Midlands that targeted government investment is damaging housing management and provision in other areas, such as Coventry.

Richard Clark, chief executive of Birmingham-based Prime Focus, said: “We are very concerned [the growth area] is sucking up housing investment needed for other areas. Coventry, the northern Black Country and Staffordshire are of particular concern. If we are not careful we could end up having growth areas that make the low demand problems in areas of the Midlands even worse,” he added.

Gina King, head of the National Housing Federation’s Midland region, said the East Midlands needed an extra £20m a year just to support the growth area around Northampton. “Right now we feel that the government is ignoring us and our needs,” she said.

An ODPM spokesman said: “We are targeting housing growth in four priority areas. It is therefore only fair that the funding goes mainly to those areas where we are concentrating growth.”

Source

Housing Today