Cabe is to intervene in the housing market renewal pathfinder schemes in the north of England by launching a best practice guide on how to develop public spaces.

The project, called Start with the Park, will look at areas where there is a large stock of dilapidated housing that nobody wants to buy and where the government is hoping to arrest housing market failure.

CABE’s best practice guide is intended to give the nine pathfinders some guidance when working out how to spend the £500m of government money for the pathfinder programme. CABE Space, the masterplanning arm of CABE, wants pathfinders to realise appropriate green spaces can have a positive effect on property prices.

Anna Penning-Rowsell of CABE Space said the project was about avoiding the creation of empty wasteland that added no value.

She said: “We have done research that indicates quality green space stimulates the property market. There is going to be a huge amount of resources put in to these areas and we want to make sure the right lessons have been learned about investing in the public realm.”

The pathfinders have aroused controversy ever since reports suggested that 400,000 houses in the North could be pulled down.