{"id":2655,"date":"2011-04-28T14:52:08","date_gmt":"2011-04-28T14:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=2655"},"modified":"2011-04-28T14:52:08","modified_gmt":"2011-04-28T14:52:08","slug":"save%e2%80%99s-further-verdicts-on-pathfinders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=2655","title":{"rendered":"SAVE\u2019s further verdicts on Pathfinders"},"content":{"rendered":"


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SAVE Britain\u2019s Heritage has published a devastating verdict on the discontinued Housing Market Renewal (HMR) Pathfinder programme.<\/span><\/p>\n

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In a new report\u00a0Housing Scandal! Pathfinder: a Post-Mortem<\/em>, SAVE attacks both the legacy of the programme and the machinery and ideology which has sustained and supported it.\u00a0Housing Scandal!<\/em> includes a paragraph by paragraph critique by Bill Finlay of the recent positive Audit Commission Report which SAVE\u2019s Secretary describes as \u2018shamefully partial, disingenuous, clouded with half truths and distorted by unsupported evidence.\u2019<\/p>\n

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As well as a riposte to the\u00a0Audit Commission, SAVE\u2019s report is a response to continuing demolitions in Pathfinder areas, and to calls from some quarters to revive the programme.<\/p>\n

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William Palin, SAVE\u2019s Secretary says:<\/p>\n

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\u2018We 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 \u2018let us finish the demolitions or we\u2019ll blame you for the mess\u2019. 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u2018This 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

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\u2018This is not a political battle, it is about people and homes. After all, somewhere near the root of Pathfinder\u2019s 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.\u2019<\/p>\n

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SAVE\u2019s Report makes the following recommendations:<\/p>\n