We need a new breed of RSLs to create good neighbourhoods

Apparently, it’s all about making them happy and giving them an environment in which they feel happy, safe and comfortable. Sad person that I am, that got me thinking about neighbourhoods and what they mean to people, and the neighbourhood that I live in.

I feel comfortable, safe and warm in my neighbourhood. I live in an urban village in Liverpool with a high street that you will have heard of – Penny Lane. It has all the things you need – a good school, a good pub or three, good bus routes, a good chippy and housing that’s not cheap but is affordable.

It also has some of the things that are pleasant extras: three Victorian parks and 20 restaurants within walking distance.

It has some bonuses. On one small block we have one of the country’s best model railway shops. I’ve spent hours there drooling and pondering the big question: “Do I have to wait for a grandchild before buying the railway set I have set my heart on or should I just forget the excuse and buy it?” Three shops down there is a lingerie shop, where I have also been known to linger and ponder – well, never mind, let’s move swiftly on!

So my area would pass the breeding test.

In practical terms it is a place that more people want to move into than move out of.

It is sustainable because people care for it and will invest their own money in it. It has all the attributes that make an area a neighbourhood but, because we’re still a pretty self-sufficient lot, it hasn’t gone from being a neighbourhood to a community.

An unsustainable area is one people want to move out of and where the public sector is the only investor. And the sad fact is, many readers have helped to create such places

So what are the attributes of an area that is unsustainable?

Well, in crude terms, it is an area that more people want to move out of than into; where the only investment is made by the public sector or their proxies. It has the housing and facilities people need but not necessarily the housing or facilities people want.

The sad fact is that many of the readers of this magazine have been major contributors to the creation of areas like these. As politicians, we lacked the imagination to think through what neighbourhoods really need and what they can and could mean to people. We allowed planning and housing policies to create ghettos and put into the poor ghettos lots of people with problems. We then were amazed that they became problem areas. Most housing associations played the game. They invested in housing like good landlords but failed to understand the wider complexities of the areas – and the people – they served.

Which brings me to my latest cause célèbre – In Business for Neighbourhoods. What is this programme all about? Just before the National Federation of Housing conference, I was emailed an embargoed “manifesto for neighbourhoods”. The question I had as I prepared to read it was: “Am I now at the cutting edge of thought within the movement?” The question that I had when I had finished reading it was: “Why did they bother to embargo something that is 10 years out of date and that is calling for the government to do things that it has already, in most cases, said it wants to do? Don’t get me wrong. It was not a bad little booklet. But its examples of new action could have been trawled from Housing Corporation reports on innovation and good practice projects any time over the past 10 years. The government is willing registered social landlords to take wider responsibility for neighbourhood action; the problem is that too few associations have gone beyond the makeover and the badge to adopt holistic area-based solutions to tenants’ problems.

The challenge is twofold. Councils, wake up to opportunities offered by RSLs and figure out how to enrol them in a much wider approach to dealing with your problems. RSLs, don’t see “neighbourhoods” as a project. Accept the challenge of driving through major changes in how you operate.

And if there is anyone out there I haven’t annoyed please let me know – I’ll deal with you next time.