North-west pathfinders underspend by £8m

Housing market renewal pathfinders in the North-west have failed to spend £8m over nine months – and may lose the money to other schemes.

The Housing Corporation confirmed that money would be transferred from delayed schemes to other projects within the same pathfinder area where possible. But resources will be transferred to other developments in different pathfinders or council areas in the region if projects locally cannot be found.

The underspend was revealed in a report to the North-west housing board covering the nine months to January this year (map, right). The Midlands and North-east pathfinders have not yet reported any similar problems.

A meeting is due to take place next week to decide where and when the pathfinder underspend will be re-allocated.

The two pathfinders in Greater Manchester – Manchester Salford and Oldham Rochdale – managed to re-allocate £1.6m of the unspent money to other projects, which produced 43 homes. East Lancashire’s pathfinder Elevate redistributed £364,000 of its underspend, which built six homes. The rest of the underspend – £6m – was re-allocated or shifted into the pathfinders’ 2005/6 budgets.

In addition, non-pathfinder schemes were unable to spend approved development funding to build95 units. This money was redistributed or moved to next year.

The Housing Corporation is setting up a list of projects to which grant could be re-allocated. The list will include projects that are delayed but could work in future.

John Carleton, the Housing Corporation regional director for the North, said: “What we would do [if a project is unable to go ahead] is for the partner to identify a replacement scheme that would still fit regional housing priorities. If that means moving to another local authority or pathfinder area it would still have to be a scheme that met those priorities.”