Many of the housing market renewal pathfinders are having trouble finishing their long-term strategies to the government's deadlines, according to the chair of the South Yorkshire pathfinder.
Mike Gahagan, who is also former director of housing at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the man principally responsible for the creation of the nine pathfinders, said he expected "a couple" would not be in a state to spend government money at the start of the next financial year.

He added: "Putting these strategies together is a real challenge – we're all finding it quite hard to finish them."

Although the pathfinders have nominally set their own deadlines, they must get government approval for their strategies by March to be ready to spend significant money in the 2004 financial year. The government has allocated £500m for the first three years of the pathfinders, of which £53m has been distributed so far.

Gahagan said pathfinders were struggling because of the complexity of the strategies, which have to examine markets from a regional to a neighbourhood level, incorporate housing and other land uses, and provide evidence to support 15-year spending plans.

David Riley, coordinator of the East Lancashire pathfinder, said: "We're confident we can meet our target, but I wouldn't like to pretend it's going to be easy."

An ODPM spokeswoman refused to be drawn on the implications of missing the deadline. She said: "We recognise this is very challenging. We're working with the government offices to help the pathfinders succeed in these first stages."

The news comes on the back of a consultant's claim that the rush to get the plans together was "hampering innovation" (HT 8 August, page 11).

Meanwhile, the North Staffordshire pathfinder has taken a further step towards issuing finalised plans by agreeing on a three-year framework plan.

The £35m proposals will involve the demolition of 4000 homes.

Source

Housing Today