New evidence backs calls for more pathfinders

Experts have urged the government to expand the housing market renewal initiative after it emerged that in one region alone, three-quarters of the homes at risk of low demand fall outside the pathfinders.

Research by the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies into housing markets in the North-west has revealed that 1.6 million homes in the region are at risk of low demand. Despite having more pathfinders than any other region, only 400,000 homes in the North-west are covered by them.

CURS produced the original M62 report that kick-started the pathfinder initiative in 2001. The crisis of low demand was laid bare, convincing the government to hand over £500m for nine areas across the country to act as pathfinders looking for new ways to turn round ailing housing markets.

CURS' new evidence will galvanise the campaign to extend the initiative ahead of next year's comprehensive spending review, when chancellor Gordon Brown will make funding allocations for the coming three years.

The report said: "The government should urgently and actively assist [these areas] in tackling [low demand], whether through the designation of additional pathfinders or other means to achieve the same objective."

The National Housing Federation will use CURS' evidence in a bid for more money to tackle low demand, which it will submit to the government next month – in time for the 2004 spending review.

West Cumbria and other areas have been lobbying the government for cash since they were left off the list of pathfinders (HT 11 April, page 10). But although some funding has been given to specific low-demand projects outside the pathfinders in Yorkshire, Hartlepool and Leeds, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has not yet given any official indication that it will extend the scheme (HT 30 May, page 9).

Andy Thompson, principal housing officer at Allerdale council, where 50% of houses are at risk of low demand, said: "There are four pathfinders in the North-west and there needs to be a fifth – West Cumbria. This survey does us a great benefit in showing that clearly."

There are four pathfinders in the North-west, and there needs to be a fifth – West Cumbria

Andy Thompson, Allerdale council

Councillor Noel Spenser of the North-west Regional Housing Board added: "We have been waiting for this sort of evidence to help strengthen the argument."

Phillip Leather, author of the report, Changing Housing Markets in Cheshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, said: "It is inevitable that there will be more areas receiving attention. The pathfinders were only the first bite of the cherry."

But an ODPM spokesman said: "There are no current plans for more pathfinders."

The North-west Housing Forum, which commissioned the CURS report, will pass the findings to local authorities and other bodies to use as they wish.

Similar studies were carried out in Yorkshire and Humber before the pathfinders were announced, and in the North-east last June. The North-eastern study highlighted problems in areas such as Teesside, which narrowly missed out on pathfinder status.

The CURS report went on to suggest that councils should be given the power to stop private rented accommodation mushrooming in any one area. A spokeswoman for the Local Government Association gave the idea a cautious welcome, saying: "Local authorities should be allowed discretion to decide the mix of housing in their area – but it would have to be discretionary and not imposed."