SAVE Britain’s Heritage has published a devastating verdict on the discontinued Housing Market Renewal (HMR) Pathfinder programme. In a new report Housing Scandal! Pathfinder: a Post-Mortem, SAVE attacks both the legacy of the programme and the machinery and ideology which has sustained and supported it. Housing Scandal! includes a paragraph by paragraph critique by Bill Finlay of the recent positive Audit Commission Report which SAVE’s Secretary describes as ‘shamefully partial, disingenuous, clouded with half truths and distorted by unsupported evidence.’

As well as a riposte to the Audit Commission, SAVE’s report is a response to continuing demolitions in Pathfinder areas, and to calls from some quarters to revive the programme. William Palin, SAVE’s Secretary says:

‘We are in a bizarre situation where some councils such as Liverpool and Gateshead are in effect holding a gun to the head of government and saying ‘let us finish the demolitions or we’ll blame you for the mess’. In most cases there are no detailed plans for redevelopment and no funds to pay for it, so good housing stock worth 10s of millions of pounds, easily capable of renovation, is being sent to landfill, only for the vacant sites to be grassed over. To most rational people this seems wasteful and wrong, but the Pathfinder machine, which has grown fat on huge subsidies, continues to peddle its discredited ideology, aided and abetted by some Housing Associations who are set to profit from the destruction.

This self-interest is evident at local level where, in Liverpool for example, the clearance programme has been promoted by councillors such as Richard Kemp who chairs the board of the Housing Association-partner in the Welsh Streets area.

This is not a political battle, it is about people and homes. After all, somewhere near the root of Pathfinder’s problems was New Labour’s continuation of the Tory policy of transferring poor quality and under maintained (‘low demand’) social stock to the private sector, under the guise of ‘third sector’ quasi-social landlords, and not letting elected council’s borrow to maintain or build their own homes for rent.’

In his introduction to the SAVE report, Planner and Liverpool resident Jonathan Brown, gives a damning summary of the disastrous effects of the scheme in the city:

‘As the new government vacillate over calling time on catastrophe, whole districts lie half-demolished and derelict. Vulnerable households are left stranded in terrifying twilight streets. Communities have been abandoned by their public authorities, deserted by developers once lauded as saviours. Housing waiting lists have mushroomed with countless individuals displaced. Public spending has been brought into disrepute, and a once in a lifetime opportunity lost.’

Brown lists 10 charges against the programme from his experience as a resident in Liverpool’s pathfinder area:

Pathfinder prevented market correction – 1990s low demand and ultra low house-values proved a passing phenomenon, and soon became a relic as the economy grew – but Pathfinder ‘sealed in the rot’. Heseltine and Prescott’s best work on urban renaissance was stopped from reaching the inner city communities who needed it most.

Pathfinder talked places down – inner Liverpool was characterised as an obsolete urban hell by quangocrats – no way to restore investor confidence, and a travesty of a historic metropolitan core rich with complex communities and strong architectural character.

Pathfinder diagnosed the wrong causes – population decline, jobs and access to them are the real problem, not low house prices or terraced streets, which are often solutions to attracting new residents.

Pathfinder prescribed the wrong medicine – demolition of the very streets that sustain urban living, and replacement by low density standard layouts just repeats 60s errors and accelerates cycles of decline.

Pathfinder ignored sensible solutions – housing refurbishment grants and environmental upgrades are well tried and far better value packages of regeneration improvements – demolition was too often a first resort to facilitate major land deals.

Pathfinder distorted local democracy – councils chased the grant despite the damaging terms, and suppressed opposition through sidelining and spin.  CPO and eviction became a mainstream activity, with social landlord and developer interests placed before those of individual householders.

Pathfinder rewarded failure – Social landlord executives and quango bosses grew rich while ordinary people lost hard-won equity averaging £35,000.  Housing management problems were disguised as market failure, and monopoly land banks built up with huge public subsidy.

Pathfinder killed local economies – removal of people means removal of networks of exchange.  Empty streets mean no customers for the shops, no locals in the pub and no cars to be repaired.  The huge negative externalities of investment forgone, residents displaced, tax revenues lost, opportunity costs and damaged confidence have never been accounted for.

Pathfinder worsened social deprivation and housing need – In Liverpool, housing waiting lists have doubled and entire districts blighted. Shelter condemned increased overcrowding. Civic pride is corroded. How do you ask children not to drop litter when the council have boarded up their neighbourhood?

Pathfinder was environmentally stupid – In enlightened hands £2.2bn could have pioneered low carbon retro-fit technology and kick-started green economies, giving deprived areas a head-start in building skills and supply chain networks to compete in rapidly expanding markets.

Do you agree with SAVE? Have your say. Tell us what you think.