ITEM NO.
REPORT OF THE HEAD OF HOUSING SERVICES
To the Lead Member for Housing Services
On:
To the Salford Housing Partnership
On
TITLE: Consultation on Regional Housing Strategy
RECOMMENDATIONS:
That Lead Member and Salford Housing Partnership endorse the proposed
response to the consultation paper on Regional Housing Strategy.
That the response is shared for information purposes with Lead Member for
Planning, Community and Social Care and Environmental Services, with the
Strategic Directors Team, and the Local Strategic Partnership.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The Communities Plan has altered the whole basis of the housing system
nationally and in the regions. Regional Housing Boards are now tasked with
advising Ministers on regional priorities, directing housing investment funding,
and bringing together housing, economic and spatial strategies. The
implications are potentially far-reaching, enabling regions to give Ministers a
clear view about where investment needs to be directed for maximum impact,
and placing obligations on regional bodies to get their own collective heads
together more effectively.
This report sets out some of the key issues and questions facing the North
West, based on a consultation document prepared by the Regional Housing
Board and developed so as to create the second Regional Housing Strategy
for the North West. It sets out the Board's initial views about regional priorities,
and recommends a response from the Salford Housing Partnership and the
City Council.
BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS:
Regional Housing Strategy Consultation
Consultation Paper on Regional Housing Allocations
ASSESSMENT OF RISK:
High – failure to engage in this consultation could result in the City Council
losing priority in the allocation of resources
THE SOURCE OF FUNDING IS:
Single Housing Pot
Approved Development Programme
LEGAL ADVICE OBTAINED:
None applicable at this stage
FINANCIAL ADVICE OBTAINED:
John Spink/Nigel Dickens
CONTACT OFFICER:
Bob Osborne – 922 8700
WARD(S) TO WHICH REPORT RELATES:
All
KEY COUNCIL POLICIES:
Housing/Regeneration
DETAILS:
1. Introduction
1.1. The Regional Housing Board has published a consultation paper on the
development of the Regional Housing Strategy. This gives the Salford
Housing Partnership and the City Council the opportunity to comment on
and shape regional housing priorities and through this maximise funding
opportunities for Salford.
1.2. This report details the proposed content and priorities of the Strategy and
suggests a response. Officers and Lead Member will also be developing a
wider response at AGMA, M62, HMRF Pathfinder level and through the
Regional Housing Forum. It is recommended that this work is also
considered by the Regeneration Initiatives Cabinet Steering Group, and
through the Salford Housing Partnership. It is also recommended that our
response is shared with the LGA for information purposes.
1.3. The detailed thinking leading to the priorities is included at Annex 1 to this
report. The report itself concentrates on the main themes of the proposed
strategy and the key issues and questions arising from them. The detailed
explanation behind each question is in the Annex.
1.4. Commentary and recommended responses are interpolated in bold
throughout the report.
1.5. The underlying thematic questions of the consultation are:





Vision
Housing Markets in the NW
Spatial Priotities
Strategic Priorities
Action and Investment Plan
2.0 Proposed responses to the questions in the consultation paper
2.1 Vision
Questions :
1.
What do you think the purpose of the Strategy should be ?
The purpose of the Strategy should be to provide an overarching
framework to guide decisions on housing investment priorities at
regional, sub-regional and borough level. It should also collate and
demonstrate the key challenges for the North West and seek to promote
the region as a place of housing choice. It should demonstrate the
implications of the failure to invest in the North West Housing Markets
and the knock on effect that will have on Regional Spatial and Economic
Strategies
2.
Who should it be aimed at ?
The strategy should be primarily user focused and seek to influence
primarily the people of the North West, its elected representatives, and
our partners in the Housing and Construction Industry. However this
document can also be a powerful tool to advise and influence the
government on the importance of housing in the renaissance and
economic growth of the North West.
3.
How have you used the current Strategy ?
The current strategy has been used as framework to assist in the
production of Salfords’ fit for purpose housing strategy
4.
Do you have any case studies that demonstrate how the Strategy has
influenced your thinking and delivery of priorities ?
Much of our investment strategy has been predicated on the key themes
of the previous strategy. For example Housing Market Renewal and the
delivery of Decent Homes have been key themes in our approach. The
Seedley and Langworthy Project is a key example of how a variety of
strategic priorities and funding streams have been merged to meet the
challenge of collapsing housing markets. Resources from Housing
Market Renewal, European Funds, Approved Development Programme,
Single Regeneration Budget, the Development Agency, English
Partnerships, and the Private Sector have all been combined to meet the
complex web of housing schemes needed to revitalise the area.
Outcomes from these investments will allow us to meet Decent Homes
targets and realise the challenges in our Supporting People and
Homelessness Strategy. A key example is the Alpha Street Project
where we have demolished redundant stock to replace it with modern
specialist accommodation for the elderly in partnership with Salford
First and the community group SALI.
5.
Does the vision from the 2003 Regional Housing Strategy still provide a
statement of where the region needs to be going?
It may be appropriate to consider inserting commentary about Regional
Competitiveness into the vision so as to ensure that the North West is
properly positioned both in the context of the Northern Way and the
allocation of national resources. Recent central government
consultation on the methodology for allocating resources demonstrates
a serious shortfall in allocations in comparison with other regions. In
context the scheme update for HMR will require a consideration of the
economic drivers that will make investment in market renewal
sustainable – it would seem logical and consistent if the RHB were to
argue the pre-eminence of economic factors in making Housing
Investment worthwhile and also sustainable.
2.2 Housing Markets in the North West
Questions :
6. Does the picture painted by the CURS report match with your perceptions
of the housing markets you are familiar with in the North West?
In general terms the key factors in the CURS report are consistent with
our broad understanding of the market. However more recent work (see
below) both refines and expands upon that work.
7. Can you share with the Board information or evidence that supplements or
conflicts with the evidence from CURS, and which might lead them to alter
their view of particular parts of the housing market?
The Manchester Salford Pathfinder has commissioned a significant
body of Research, Foresight and Intellingence work from the ECOTEC
consortium. The Salford City Council fit for purpose housing strategy
contains a considerable amount of work around “Understanding the
Changes” in our Housing Markets. Both of these pieces of work will
significantly influence the evidence base that the board can use to
derive the emerging strategy.
8. What are your views on the issues noted ? Can you help the Board by
providing evidence on the situation in parts (or all) of the region?
All of the key issues listed are considered as part of the documents
indicated in our answer to q7.
9. Are there other issues you feel the Board needs to consider here?
We would stress the importance of concentrating on perverse policy
incentives that can alter the dynamics of the housing market in the
region. Specifically we would highlight the need to establish
contingency plans for the effect of Buy to Let, the Homelessness
Legislation, Asylum & Refugee resettlement and the Right to Buy. We
appreciate that changing policy in many of these areas may be difficult
but we feel it is important that the strategy demonstrates the
consequences of these policy strands on the overall balance and
dynamic of the market. Of clear importance is the need for investment to
be tenure blind given the rapid changes in the balance of markets
currently being experienced.
2.3 Spatial Priorities
Questions:
10. Do you agree that the Board need to set explicit geographical priorities?
Do these still need to sit alongside thematic priorities?
It is important that the Board deals with “worst first” and in a climate of
a low resource base for the region does not spread the jam to thinly. We
would argue that investment in the City Regions in the area is a vital
strategic aim so as to maintain regional economic competitiveness.
11. What are your views on the sub-regional classification suggested, both on
the principles applied and in relation to your own local area? Does it go far
enough? Have you a better approach?
There is a serious danger that stratifying investment allocations along
these lines which lead to ineffective actions. For example the
Affordability problem is not constrained to “High Demand” areas. There
are perverse incentives within current national legislation and policy
which are exacerbating this. The combined affect of the over-heated
Housing Market, insufficient incentives and controls within the
Development Control/Planning process, Audit Commission driven goals
to reduce empty homes in the social rented sector, the Right to Buy and
the Homelessness Legislation has lead to significant changes in the
flow of need and has completely exhausted the supply chain for
affordable homes. What were low demand areas eighteen months ago
might now be better characterised as “wrong supply” areas. Similarly
high demand areas now have wrong supply created by the increase in
house prices beyond the means of social renters and first time buyers. It
perhaps should not be characterised as a series of hot –spots but an
epidemic of wrong supply in all areas which is being spread by a series
of conflicting policy strands. The problem with this thesis is that there
are probably more hot-spots than resources. This is exacerbated by lack
of recognition paid to Housing Supply factors in the determination of
Planning Applications in Development Control processes. The new
Planning Legislation will assist this but sufficient attention needs to be
paid to how the Development Industry is understanding and affecting
the supply. It may be more necessary to focus attention on what is being
built rather than how it is funded. It is also vitally important to examine
how what is being built is then being realised as investment assets
through the Buy to Let market rather than as pure housing. There is a
serious danger that property investment priorities are controlling the
supply side rather than the need to meet housing need. Central Salfords’
overarching vision will be to create a mixed community of tenure. This
will not be best served by producing housing that ends up as an
investment commodity rather than meeting needs. Greater intra-regional
activity is required to protect the environment and the green belt. If
areas of current collapse can be transformed to meet the latent demand
elsewhere in the region/sub-region – given that resources are limited –
then the logical conclusion is that the burden of high demand could be
met through the transformational agenda through encouraging
migration within and into the region. The “regional” strategy ought to
be to ensure that the totality of housing produced meets the needs of
the extant population but also allows for planned economic growth. It
would be counter-productive to direct resources to widely when there
are other adjacent areas which could meet that need with more prudent
investment requirements. The clear priority is to ensure that marketdriven prices do not distort the supply side so as to exclude those
requiring relatively affordable housing. Whether Section 106 powers are
sufficient to allow Local Authorities sufficient leverage to influence the
supply is perhaps the critical issue. What incentives are their for
Building and Construction Industry to adjust their activity to produce
the supply to allow a balanced housing market? What fiscal incentives
could be given to people acting as “urban pioneers” in resettling
currently failing areas?
12. How should the Strategy’s approach relate to existing ‘traditional’ subregions, Northern Way city regions, Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder
boundaries, travel to work areas…?
The opportunity to go beyond the traditional approach and develop a
thesis for the North West as a housing entity should be embraced. The
Strategy should make the business case for the North West Housing
Market as a whole system.
13. Are some issues sufficiently universal to make a sub-regional approach
unnecessary?
There is a clear need to look to the pandemic effect of policy incentives
at a regional basis - as noted above all parts of the region are affected
in more or less the same way by the unforeseen outcomes of some
policy strands. However we should not ignore the effects of subregional geography and it is vital that key issues of transport and
economic competitiveness are considered at a sub-regional level in their
relationship to the formation and long term sustainability of settlements.
2.4 Strategic Priorities
Questions :
14. Are the four priorities, updated and developed over the next few pages,
still the right ones for the North West?
There have been significant shifts in the dynamic of the North West
Housing Market since the production of the last strategy. It is important
to recognize these changes and adjust the priorities accordingly.
15. Should the priorities be weighted to give more of a sense of relative
importance ? If so, how could this be done ?
The key solution will be in balanced investment decisions that serve
those areas where regeneration will yield tangible and sustainable
results. We believe that the three City Regions are the key drivers of
economic growth in the region. The ECOTEC consortium research
clearly demonstrates the paramount need to invest in the development
of post-industrial North West. Failure to deal with the very worst areas in
terms of social inclusion, low skills and worklessness will perpetuate
housing areas of “no hope” and “no escape” and will only result in
future failure. The key priority is to ensure that planned investment is
sustainable. The significant decline in population in our inner urban
cores must be addressed and reversed. Our main settlements will
continue to fail unless there is sufficient in-migration to allow them to
function optimally. The economic case for balanced population growth
is compelling.
16. Did the inclusion of cross-cutting themes have an impact on your thinking,
strategy development and action? Should the new Strategy address these
issues in a different way?
The themes came across as a “mixed-bag” of priorities which did not
particularly interrelate. It may be better to ensure that certain key
principles are embedded as objectives in any priority/policy strand
rather than to treat them as themes. For example social cohesion is a
key aim to be embedded in any policy objective and the board should
ensure that any investment planning has at its heart consideration of
that factor i.e. “are we best serving our goal of maintaining social
cohesion in the region through this policy?” Another example would be
Diversity Strategies – any policy option should have at its heart the
promotion of effective action to mainstream equality.
2.1.1 Urban renaissance and dealing with changing demand
The suggested regional priorities are to:
Priority 1.1
Maximise the positive impact of the four Housing Market Renewal
Pathfinders in their local housing markets, ensuring their integration
with sub-regional and regional strategies.
Priority 1.2
Invest strategically in the prevention of market failure in other areas at
risk from low demand, applying and adapting lessons from the
Pathfinders and elsewhere for use in other areas suffering from low
demand. These activities should form part of comprehensive
neighbourhood renewal strategies, specifically in:the North West’s
Coastal towns, West Cumbria and Furness; other Neighbourhood
Renewal Fund areas; the remainder of the North West Metropolitan
Area.1
Questions :
17. Are these more detailed priorities right? Will they deliver effective action
on the issues discussed under this Strategic Priority?
The proposals to concentrate impact on the Renewal Pathfinders is
logical in principle but ignores the factors associated with those areas
outside of HMRF boundaries that have characteristics similar to them.
The most obvious example in Salford is the Eccles Area which has
specific Regeneration Needs but is denied access to HMRF resources.
Priority 1.2 would appear to deal with this problem. However the recent
consultation paper on Regional Housing Allocations implied that those
regions with specific resources such as HMRF would be deemed as
already having sufficient resources allocations.. There is a danger that
there are insufficient resources to meet all the needs of the North-West.
In agreeing to support Priority 1 – and seeking to look for economic
competitiveness we need to provide strong evidence (for example
through the Manchester/Salford RFI work) to support the need for
investment. It should be incumbent on those authorities receiving
resources to develop Housing Regeneration Business Plans and Stock
Options strategies which maximise access to Private Sector resources.
With targeting should come a requirement to maximise the resources
levered in by the money made available. Clarity is also required on the
roles of English Partnerships, Housing Corporation and the RDA and
their own rules for the distribution and allocation of resources. If RHB is
to maximise its effectiveness then partner funding agencies need to act
within the same overall strategic framework. Initial RFI findings would
tend to imply that regional economic competitiveness can be enhanced
by targeting investment at the urban cores. The implication of targeting,
as with the Pathfinder movement, is that those authorities receiving
resources would share best practice with others. If sufficient RFI work is
carried to imply that other parts of the region should be included then
the clear need is to seek additional resources from Central Government
for the region rather than to spread the jam more thinly.
18. Do you think the Regional Housing Strategy should set specific targets for
housing clearance? How might those be arrived at?
No – not in isolation from an analysis of all of the other housing flows
needed to create a viable housing market.. The business of Housing
Market Renewal is not purely about predicting the amount of stock we
need to demolish. It is about comprehensively planning the sequencing
the re-provision of homes to create a viable market. The RHS needs to
1
As defined in Regional Planning Guidance for the North West
look at the whole housing system and determine if it has the correct
balance of supply to meet the extant and planned demand for housing. .
The North West Business Plan should be derived bottom up from each
individual boroughs Housing Strategy and Stock Options Reviews.
19. Is this where the need for high quality housing to attract the ‘knowledge
workers’ identified in the Northern Way Growth Strategy should be
addressed?
This question perpetuates the fundamental flaw in previous thinking.
Markets must be balanced and cohesive. Designing a market to attract a
certain customer will only lead to concentrations of one demography.
Existing residents wil be quite rightly annoyed that investment is being
focused on in-migrants. All housing should be high quality and
accessible to all.
2.1.2 Providing affordable homes to maintain balanced communities
The suggested regional priority is to:
Priority 2.1
Tackle the shortages of affordable housing in areas of the North West
where demand for additional housing is high, where this impacts
adversely on social inclusion and the sustainable growth of local, subregional and regional economies.
Questions :
20. Is this priority (unchanged from the current Strategy) right, given the
changes in the picture in the last two years? Will it deliver effective action on
the issues discussed under this Strategic Priority?
The market dynamics have changed considerably in the last two years –
the emphasis of the priority needs to change to reflect this. The key
issue is how do we address the shortage of supply when (a) the
Planning Development Control Process is eating into the RSS targets
through its inability to prevent the development industry from building
inappropriate supply (b) Supporting People funding is constraining the
development process (c) The Right to Buy is asset stripping affordable
homes from the Social Rented Sector (d) House Prices are still beyond
the means of most incomes?
There is a serious danger that what ever investment plans are put in
place that these drivers will seriously undermine any plans that we
make. We need to fnd a way of taking the affordability issues away from
the bricks and mortar and aligning it with housing costs. Concentrating
resources on developing loan and benefit products that promote
affordable homes rather than subsidizing the costs of construction
would be more practical. People move, houses do not. Affordability
packages should be tied in with people not property.
21. How should the new Strategy deal with rural issues?
Looking at the Housing Market in the North West as a whole system
would tend to imply the need not to isolate this work area. For example
those people in rural areas who cannot access accommodation will in all
likelihood relocate to urban areas. There is therefore a direct correlation
between strategies for rural areas and their affect upon Urban planning.
The economic sustainability of rural areas is vital to ensure sufficient
supplies of produce which is used by our urban areas, and to maintain a
vibrant Tourism industry. It would appear logical therefore, from a whole
system perspective, to ensure mutuality of purpose between urban and
rural areas. Again, providing fiscal incentives for “rural pioneers” and
key workers rather than bricks and mortar would assist population
retention and growth. If there is a sufficient supply of housing in rural
areas it would be insidious to increase that supply when all that needs
to be down is to make it more accessible to low income families by
investing in underwriting/discounting the market costs.
22. Would affordability targets below regional level be helpful? How should
they be set and monitored?
Again this is a blunk stick. Local areas need to be looked at as their own
whole systems and the proper balance between supply and demand
needs to be made. Targets produce perverse incentives. It would be
better to calculate the optimal settlement type for each area and
determine the balance of tenure and costs to make that work effectively.
From that base local areas could best plan over a fixed time frame the
appropriate balance for their area and then set objectives to achieve
that. More important for the strategy is to facilitate the process of
meeting those objectives by addressing constraints to growth.
2.1.3. Delivering decent homes in thriving neighbourhoods
The suggested regional priority is to:
Priority 3.1
Improve the condition of housing stock with a sustainable future as part
of broadly based regeneration strategies, particularly in areas of
concentrated unfitness and disrepair.
Questions:
23. Is this priority (unchanged from the current Strategy) still appropriate?
Will it deliver effective action on the issues discussed under this Strategic
Priority?
It is vital that a tenure blind whole systems approach to stock condition
is embedded in the strategy. Splitting investment decisions along tenure
lines – especially when the population is shifting tenure so rapidly – will
lead to an inequitable distribution of resources. Local Housing Market
assessments should measure the viability of each area and investment
planning should be lead by overall regeneration needs and not tied to a
specific tenure type. The case for a Housing Business Plan and Stock
Options process which crosses all tenures is compelling. For example
the Little Hulton Area in Salford was previously a monolithic collection
of council estates. A combination of the Right to Buy, on-sales of former
council homes to the Private Rented Sector, disposals of small
packages of stock to RSLs, and demolition of some sites followed by
infill for Home Ownership has resulted in a patchwork quilt of tenure
with some 60% of the area no longer being in Council Ownership.
Investment in the stock under these circumstances will have to be
carefully planned with equal distribution of resources so as to avod a
“gap toothed” approach to investment.
24. Is dealing with stock condition still a separate priority for the North West?
If not, what does that mean for the other strategic priorities set out in this
paper?
Stock Condition, and more importantly the condition of the environment
around that stock is still of paramount importance. Lack of investment
in private sector stock was one of the factors leading to the
obsolescence of older pre 1919 stock and consequent market collapse.
There is a strong case for building an economy around the repair and
maintenance of the regions housing stock. However stock condition
needs to be part of a clear business planning process for sustainable
communities where re-provision to replace obsolescent stock, effective
maintenance, and the creation of new homes all work together to create
a balanced housing supply which maintains the existing population and
attracts new economic migrants. Stock Condition needs to be
embedded in regeneration. Co-aligning Stock Options processes for
council owned stock and Housing Market Renewal for example is vital.
2.1.4. Meeting the region’s needs for specialist and supported housing
The suggested regional priority is to:
Priority 4.1
Ensure a range of specialist and supported housing is available,
appropriate to local needs and strategies, and integrated with relevant
support and care services.
Questions:
25. Is this priority (unchanged from the current Strategy) still appropriate?
Will it deliver effective action on the issues discussed under this Strategic
Priority?
The role of the RHS should be to correlate the strategies from each
individual authority to understand the totality of need and to map
investment requirements. It should promote and support sub-regional
provision so as to maximise opportunities within the available resource
limits. It should mainstream investment in this area to ensure that it is
being dealt with as part of the whole system and not isolated. It should
maximise the investment of Primary Care Trusts and other Health
Bodies to ensure that there is synergy between Health Policy and
Investment.
It should ensure flexibility in supply by requiring/outlining minimum
standards of provision. It should direct the balance between revenue
and capital resources.It should facilitate mixing of funding streams so
as to allow the maximum impact.
A whole Housing System, including a tenure blind, customer first
perspective should not allow an investment strategy that encourages
separation along these lines. Synergy between individual customer
needs and the overall well being of communities is vital if communities
are to be sustainable. Any regeneration planning that does not look to
the health and well being of its citizens is inherently flawed. The system
is not steady state. Regeneration, Economic Change and other drivers
will constantly alter the balance of needs and supply. Any strategy must
be alive to these dynamics and create an investment model which is
able to react to them. For example the provision of housing products
that facilitate easy relocation of customers with supported housing
needs from regeneration areas is vital. These products might also be
tailored to assist housing needs in other situations.
26. Should the Board commit to develop, with stakeholders in the region, a
North West Supported Housing Strategy as a ‘daughter document’ to the
Regional Housing Strategy?
Yes. Salford is planning to prepare its own Supported Housing Strategy
to sit below its overall Housing Strategy but also to run parallel to its
Supporting People Strategy. We fully support this proposal
2.1.5.Action and investment plan
Another area the Board are keen to develop in the new Strategy is a clearer
link between the priorities set out and action to deliver those priorities. The
realities of the scale and complexity of the region and the issues the Board
deal with means that this will need to remain at a relatively high level, but it is
important to give a clear indication of the respective actions and lead
responsibility for the Board and partners.
This might include:

Flagging up opportunities for investment, particularly from the
private sector, but also from public and voluntary sources

‘Aligning regional strategies’ – what the Board and its member
agencies are doing to make this into a reality in the North West, and
what this means in practice for the way things are done in the future

Some practical lessons from work the Board has commissioned on
learning from past and current regeneration and other programmes

Indications of the broad direction of Regional Housing Pot
allocations, leaving the detail for a separate allocation strategy
document

Strategic development activities continuing under the auspices of
the Board, including lessons from the Commissioning projects on
private sector renewal and affordability issues

The Board’s priorities in seeking to influence national and crossregional policy development
Questions:
27. What else do you think might be included in an action plan?
The plan should be to the same format required for individual Fit for
Purpose Housing Strategies – there would then be a clear golden thread
between local housing needs and the North West Regional Housing
Strategy.
28. Does all of this belong in a strategy document, or does an action plan
need to be separate and more regularly updated?
Again the same rules that apply to local FFP housing strategies should
apply to the RHS. A separate but linked action plan which can be
scrutinized regularly is of paramount importance
3.0 Conclusions and Recommendations
3.1 The report has provided responses to the key questions raised in the
consultation paper on the Regional Housing Strategy.
3.2 A key message from the SHP and the City Council is that the RHS needs
to be updated to reflect the significant changes in Housing Markets in the
region.
3.3 The Understanding Change and RFI work will be vital evidence in
directing the RHS.
3.4 SHP and Members are asked to endorse the proposed responses.
Bob Osborne
Head of Housing
February 2005
Annex 1
North West Regional Housing Strategy 2005
A consultation paper
North West Regional Housing Board
January 2005
www.nwrhb.org.uk
Contents
Page
Introduction
3
How you can contribute
7
Vision
8
Changing policy context
9
Housing markets in the North West
10
The Board’s priorities
13
Spatial priorities
13
Strategic priorities
18
1 - Urban renaissance and dealing with changing demand
19
2 - Providing affordable homes to maintain balanced
communities
22
3 - Delivering decent homes in thriving neighbourhoods
23
4 - Meeting the region’s needs for specialist and supported
housing
27
Action and investment plan
29
Allocating the Regional Housing Pot
30
Annexes
A.
Summary of questions for consultees
31
B.
References
34
C.
The housing market in the North West
35
North West Regional Housing Strategy 2005
A consultation paper
Introduction
1
As a key regional element of the Sustainable Communities Plan, the
North West put together its first Regional Housing Strategy (RHS) in
July 2003. Although completed in a tight timeframe, this Strategy built
on earlier work and has been widely welcomed, subsequently providing
the overarching strategic direction for the delivery of integrated
intervention programmes in North West housing markets.
2
The North West Regional Housing Board need to submit the final
version of the second Regional Housing Strategy (RHS) to Ministers in
May 2005. This consultation document is a vital part of the preparation
of the revised Strategy for the North West. It provides the opportunity
for stakeholders to stand back and consider how the RHS can be taken
forward, how it can best respond to changing housing markets and to
the opportunities provided by the strengthening of the regions role in
investment decision making.
3
This paper is not a draft Strategy - it is intended to indicate the Board’s
view on the direction the new RHS is likely to take, and to inspire a
wider dialogue in the region on the main issues this raises. The
response to this document will be a crucial part of the development of
the Strategy, and the consultation period between now and March
2005 represents the best opportunity for partners in the region to
influence the Board’s strategic thinking.
4
The Board have clear ambitions for the new Regional Housing
Strategy. Taking the first RHS forward, it must:

Set out a comprehensive view of the strategic housing issues facing
the North West

Establish foundations for the forthcoming Regional Spatial and
Regional Economic Strategies to build upon, and respond to the
Northern Way Growth Strategy

Develop and make more explicit spatial and thematic priorities for
the region to better direct investment decision making.

Be grounded in a sound understanding of the housing markets in
the North West and their relationship with both economic drivers
and social and environmental sustainability

Set long-term objectives for the region against which shorter term
priorities for action can be established

Identify where the Board and its partners can make a demonstrable
positive difference.
5
In essence, the Board wish to see that the new Strategy is more
explicitly focused on the economic impacts and benefits of the housing
sector, pays greater attention to the relationships between the housing
and planning agendas, and has a spatial dimension largely absent from
the current Strategy.
6
In seeking to achieve the above, however, the Board recognise that
this is an extraordinarily diverse and complex region with many difficult,
competing challenges and crucially finite resources. Consequently
these strategic aims must be achieved primarily through the use of the
existing housing stock and by ensuring the appropriate balance of both
public and private investment to the RHS priorities. This is unlikely to
be achieved wholly consensually and will require the Board to take
difficult decisions in line not just with the RHS but also the Regional
Spatial and Economic Strategies. This will require not only strategic
leadership but crucially bottom up majority support from delivery
partners. This consultation paper provides the opportunity to feed into
this debate to ensure that there is appropriate balance between the
strategic aims of the RHS and the practical delivery of work to meet the
needs of communities in the North West.
7
The Board are also seeking to set out some of the key achievements in
the North West since the current Strategy was produced, recognising
that a Regional Housing Strategy is itself an important opportunity to
promote our successes to Ministers and other decision-makers at
national and regional level. To do this throughout the paper the Board
are looking for partners to come forward with examples of good
practice and successful schemes.
8
At the time of writing, the Government is considering responses to a
consultation exercise on the proposed merger of Regional Housing
Boards and Regional Planning Bodies (in this region, the North West
Regional Assembly). This document and the resulting Regional
Housing Strategy will be the work of the current Regional Housing
Board, ahead of the merger with the Regional Assembly. The Board is
convinced that a merger is the appropriate way forward, given the
close links between the housing and spatial planning agendas, and
discussions with the Assembly have begun on the new arrangements
in the North West.
9
In addition, the Regional Agencies are currently working on a set of
common over arching aims and objectives for the three regional
strategies. It is expected that the first element of this work will be ready
for debate at the Urban Summit in late January 2005 and the emerging
principals have been included in this consultation paper. The Board will
include these common aims in the new Regional Housing Strategy and
will ensure that their priorities will contribute to them as fully as
possible.
Members of the North West Regional Housing Board
As at January 2005
Keith Barnes, Regional Director, Government Office for the North West (Chair)
John Carleton, Director, North Field, Housing Corporation
Mike Gaskell, Group Managing Director, Morris Homes
Steve Machin, Chief Executive, North West Regional Assembly
Cllr Tony McDermott, North West Regional Assembly
Cllr Noel Spencer, Chair, North West Housing Forum
Paul Spooner, Regional Director, NW and West Midlands, English Partnerships
Peter Styche, Director, Communities, Government Office for the North West
Peter White, Director of Strategy, Northwest Development Agency
How you can contribute
10
You will find questions for you to consider and respond to throughout
this consultation paper. The Board welcome your views on those
questions, on other issues raised by this paper, or on issues not
mentioned here you feel are relevant. We would also welcome your
ideas for achievements we can highlight in the new Strategy. The
questions have been summarised in Annex A for ease of reference.
They are intended to help spark off discussion, and not to restrict you
in responding, although it would be helpful if you could refer to the
question numbers in your response. Please note that you don’t need to
give your views on all the questions – just refer to the ones that are
most relevant for you or your organisation.
11
Please note that this paper is not intended to be a comprehensive draft
Regional Housing Strategy, so it does entirely skip over or give only
fleeting mentions to some important issues. In responding, it is helpful
to focus on how your arguments should impact on the way we put
together the final Regional Housing Strategy, the priorities or objectives
the Board might want to set for the region, or the actions which need to
be taken either by the Board or partners within the region. Providing
evidence to back up your points, or to support or refute the Board’s
views, is crucial.
12
The Board intend to publishing written responses to this consultation
paper on their website (www.nwrhb.org.uk), and in due course to
produce a consultation response document to fit alongside the final
Strategy. The Board will assume that any responses received are for
publication unless you clearly state otherwise.
Please send responses to : dscale.gown@go-regions.gsi.gov.uk
13
If you can send you views electronically, that will help us to share them
quickly among the team working on the new Strategy. However, if
that’s not possible, please send them to the following address anyway,
they will be considered:
David Scale
Government Office for the North West
City Tower
Piccadilly Plaza
Manchester M1 4BE
The deadline for all responses is 4 March 2005
Vision
14
The new Strategy will begin with a statement of the Board’s vision for
the region. The vision set out in the 2003 Strategy is reproduced below,
with a question for consultees to consider.
15
However, before moving on to the detailed content, the Board wanted
to seek views on some more general questions about the Strategy and
to seek feedback on how it has been used to date :
Questions :
1. What do you think the purpose of the Strategy should be ?
2. Who should it be aimed at ?
3. How have you used the current Strategy ?
4. Do you have any case studies that demonstrate how the
Strategy has influenced your thinking and delivery of priorities ?
16
In the 2003 Regional Housing Strategy the Board vision is stated as
follows :
“ Our vision is a region working together to ensure that every part of
the North West offers everyone
a choice of good quality housing in successful, secure and
sustainable communities.
The North West should be a region which:
Involves people and communities in planning their futures
Invests in sustainable neighbourhoods,
Provides a range of high quality properties for sale and rent
Supports the development of mixed communities
Rejuvenates our urban areas so they are the first choice for all
kinds of households
Promotes sustainable rural communities
And replaces obsolete housing in a planned and balanced way.”
Question :
5. Does this vision, from the 2003 Regional Housing Strategy, still
provide a statement of where the region needs to be going?
Changing policy context
17
The new Regional Housing Strategy will need to briefly set out the
policy context into which it is being embedded. However, this is not the
place to replicate other documents in great detail. Instead, this part of
the Strategy will:

Sketch out the points of greatest relevance to the North West from
national policy developments, including the Barker Review,
Supporting People issues, and developments in planning policy;

Consider the relationship between the new Strategy and the
Northern Way Growth Strategy;

Respond to current and emerging regional policies and strategies,
including Regional Planning Guidance and Regional Economic
Strategy;

Identify regional implications of strategic sub-regional initiatives
such as the four Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders and
developing City Region strategies.
Housing markets in the North West
18
The Regional Housing Board commissioned the Centre for Urban and
Regional Studies (CURS) at the University of Birmingham to build on
their earlier work on housing markets in the region. Their full final
report is available on the Board’s website (www.nwrhb.org.uk), and
includes a summary of the brief for their research. A summary of the
main findings is included as Annex C to this document.
Questions :
6. Does the picture painted by the CURS report match with your
perceptions of the housing markets you are familiar with in the North
West?
7. Can you share with the Board information or evidence that
supplements or conflicts with the evidence from CURS, and which
might lead them to alter their view of particular parts of the housing
market?
19
The new Strategy will report some of the key findings of the CURS
work, selected basic data on demographics, house condition and
supply trends, and other relevant material available sub-regionally or
locally. Among CURS’ conclusions is a warning for the Board and other
decision-makers that “the housing market in the North West has
entered a phase of change after a period of stability. This has occurred
at a point when central government, local authorities and other bodies
have embarked on the most substantial programme of market
intervention for decades.” We therefore need to be cautious in
interpreting signals from the market, but it is perhaps even more
important that we try to do so.
20
The Board need to establish and set out in the Strategy as clear a view
as is possible on issues including:

The scale and patterns of demand for housing and their relationship
with current housing supply, and with local economic trends and
drivers in different parts of the region;

The extent to which the market will meet demand without further
intervention from the Board or other public sector players, and any
barriers which might be inhibiting market solutions;

Whether recent rises in property values in previously low value, low
demand neighbourhoods represent a fundamental change in
demand to live in these properties;

The extent to which rising housing costs across the region are
impacting on the affordability of housing in local markets, and any
impacts this has on local or regional economic prospects;

The relationship between affordability issues and rising
homelessness reported in some parts of the North West; and

The ability of the Board and other public sector agencies to
influence the various sources of investment in local housing
markets.
Question :
8. What are your views on the issues noted above? Can you help the Board
by providing evidence on the situation in parts (or all) of the region?
9. Are there other issues you feel the Board needs to consider here?
21
While these are complex matters, the Board feels that the new Strategy
needs to go as far as possible toward addressing them. Some of this
can probably only be done at a sub-regional or housing market level,
and any regional conclusions built up from there. However, we can
suggest here and in the rest of this consultation paper some tentative
conclusions reached from available evidence and discussions.
22
We should begin by stating that, in much of the North West, the
housing market operates effectively as a means of delivering the right
homes in the right mix, quantity, location and at the right cost to meet
the needs and aspirations of most local households. In a document
such as a Regional Housing Strategy, we inevitably focus on the very
real problems parts of the North West faces, but we need to
acknowledge that those problems are by no means universal.
23
That said, the Board share CURS’ view that the recent sharp rises in
property prices in some neighbourhoods previously at risk from low
demand do not, in general, indicate a sudden turn-around in the
prospects of those areas again becoming thriving, sustainable
communities into the future. It is therefore essential that we continue to
pursue an active strategy of dealing with the underlying structural
problems facing housing markets in some parts of the North West,
including the four Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder areas.
24
This approach needs to be tied into decisions affecting housing
markets across the region, if actions to restructure and rejuvenate
previously failing areas are not to be undermined by over-supply in
nearby areas of stronger demand. However, this must also be
balanced by consideration of the tightening affordability situation
caused by the general increase in house prices.
25
The links between housing markets and regional and sub-regional
economic development strategies need to be emphasised and clarified
– if urban renaissance and rural regeneration are to be achieved,
housing has a crucial part to play, but it is not always clear that this is
understood and acted upon.
26
At the heart of much of this discussion is the need to establish a clear
vision for the role or function of different parts of the region looking to
the future, and the implications that has for economic trajectories and
the patterns of housing needs, aspirations and demand. This is where
the ‘over-lapping circles’ of the Regional Housing, Economic and
Spatial Strategies intersect, and we must make the most of the
opportunity to develop and agree a shared view as the production of
the three Strategies is completed.
The Board’s priorities
Spatial priorities
27
One of the key ambitions the Board have for the new Regional Housing
Strategy is that it should directly address the spatial dimension dealt
with only indirectly in the current Strategy’s thematic approach. As a
minimum, the Strategy must consider the implications of the Board’s
thematic strategic priorities for different parts of the region. The
potential is there to go further, and to begin to establish some explicit
spatial priorities for regional attention.
28
This should help to clarify and focus the Board’s work more effectively
on delivering real changes on the ground, not just through the
resources available to the Board, but also by much more directly
influencing the broader investment from regional agencies and
elsewhere. This approach underlies the ‘City Regions’ proposed in the
Northern Way Growth Strategy, and any approach from the Board will
need to recognise these and other sub-regional geographies already
being used or developed.
29
There are many ways the Board could approach this. One would be to
use a matrix approach, to show the key priorities and their impact or
importance for the traditional sub-regions (Cumbria, Merseyside, etc.)
and use this as a framework for some high level statements about the
type of interventions the Board would expect in each area. This could
probably be achieved relatively easily in dialogue with sub-regional
partnerships already in existence, and might be accompanied by some
relevant sub-regional data on key trends and issues.
30
A more sophisticated, and therefore challenging, approach would be to
start to map out the housing markets within the region and attempt to
use these as building blocks for a new spatial dimension to the Board’s
strategic priorities. This would need to be accompanied by applying a
set of judgements about the needs and characteristics of each housing
market area, which would again benefit from dialogue with local
stakeholders. An approach developed in west and central Cumbria2 is
one model which might be adapted or extended for use elsewhere
down to an individual settlement level.
31
Alternatively, the Board might seek to develop a higher level typology
of housing markets across the region, and use these to help inject a
spatial dimension to the Strategy. This would allow the Board to
recognise the differences in market drivers and circumstances across
the region, to develop appropriate policy responses for the Regional
Housing Strategy, and also to raise issues which will need to be
2
Housing Markets: Preparing for Change, Jacqueline Blenkinship and Judith Gibbons for
Impact Housing Association and the Housing Corporation, 2004
resolved in the Regional Spatial Strategy. An initial attempt to define
possible housing market sub-regions is included here (see overleaf),
and we would welcome views on the principles used and the outcome
in terms of a spatial division of the region. We could add further
dimensions to this – for example, the Northern Way documents draw a
distinction between:

“areas of old and obsolete housing (usually close to city and main
town centres) which require high growth renewal programmes, and
where the economic trajectory is being hampered by the lack of
good quality supply, but demand is strong;

areas of low demand where in the absence of an effective
economic driver, and where there is sufficient overall housing
supply, the quantity of obsolete or unpopular housing needs to be
reduced.”
Questions:
10. Do you agree that the Board need to set explicit geographical
priorities? Do these still need to sit alongside thematic priorities?
11. What are your views on the sub-regional classification suggested,
both on the principles applied and in relation to your own local area?
Does it go far enough? Have you a better approach?
12. How should the Strategy’s approach relate to existing ‘traditional’
sub-regions, Northern Way city regions, Housing Market Renewal
Pathfinder boundaries, travel to work areas…?
13. Are some issues sufficiently universal to make a sub-regional
approach unnecessary?
NORTH WEST HOUSING MARKETS
Market Typologies (see map on page 15)
T1.
Low demand problems across most of area (though varying intensity).
Priority for Market Renewal activity – need for transformation of
housing offer. Planning policies need to be sympathetic to adverse
displacement effects outside areas of market renewal activity. Funding
priorities stock renewal, improved tenure mix stock replacement.
Locations : N & E Greater Manchester, East Lancashire, Central
Merseyside, West Cumbria and Furness
T2.
Balanced market, demand/supply roughly in equilibrium, possible
pockets of low demand or affordability. Planning policies should
continue to meet demand with appropriate balance of affordable
provision. Funding priorities stock decency and urban affordability.
Locations: Bury-Warrington Arc, Central & West Lancs.
T3.
High cost/high demand with significant affordability needs. Potential for
additions to stock limited by rural/landscape/green belt policies outside
urban areas. Funding priority affordability in urban areas.
Locations : North And East Cheshire, South Greater Manchester.
T4.
Potential for balanced market hindered through over supply of low
value, poor condition or otherwise unsuitable stock (e.g. former
hotels/bed-sits and radburn estates). Planning policies should seek to
boost economy through stock replacement/renewal. Funding priorities
stock decency.
Locations: Coastal towns, Skelmersdale
T5.
High value rural areas/market towns. Potential for additional stock
limited. Planning policies needed which recognise specific needs of
rural communities through e.g. local needs conditions. Funding priority
rural affordability.
Locations: North Lancashire, Central & East Cumbria.
Continued.
T6.
Discrete market area with significant linkages (economic and social) to
adjacent region (N Wales) and strong economic potential. Planning
policies should meet demand and support the economic growth of
Chester, alongside affordable provision. Funding priorities stock
decency and affordability (rural and urban)
Locations: Chester/Deeside.
T7.
High value rural areas/market towns vulnerable to commuter
pressures. Potential for additional stock limited in order to support
urban regeneration but planning policies should reflect rural needs
Funding priority rural affordability.
Location : South and Central Cheshire to T7.
T8.
Conurbation Cores experiencing recent growth in higher density, high
value properties with strong buy to let tendency. Principal economic
drives for their respective conurbations and beyond. Planning policies
needed to enable spread of growth potential and economic and social
benefits into peripheral areas (e.g. Liverpool inner core) in support of
low demand pathfinders and social and economic renewal.
Locations: Liverpool and Manchester/Salford centres.
Strategic Priorities
32
The first Regional Housing Strategy for the North West set out four
strategic priorities for the region:
1. Urban renaissance and dealing with changing demand
2. Providing affordable homes to maintain balanced communities
3. Delivering decent homes in thriving neighbourhoods
4. Meeting the region’s needs for specialist and supported housing
Questions :
14. Are the four priorities, updated and developed over the next few
pages, still the right ones for the North West?
15. Should the priorities be weighted to give more of a sense of relative
importance ? If so, how could this be done ?
33
These were complemented by three cross-cutting themes relevant to
all four strategic priorities:



34
Housing and community cohesion
Housing and neighbourhood renewal
Sustainability, quality and design
The Board is investigating the impact the themes had on the
investment made through the Regional Housing Pot as part of the
development of options for allocation processes for 2006/07 and
2007/08. However, this is only one aspect of the Strategy, and the
Board is keen to understand whether the cross-cutting themes were
considered and acted upon in local or sub-regional discussions and
strategies.
Question :
35
16. Did the inclusion of cross-cutting themes have an impact on your
thinking, strategy development and action? Should the new Strategy
address these issues in a different way?
F
o
r
each of the strategic priorities, the new Strategy will need to set out a
clear statement of the ‘issue’; an analysis of the main drivers and
trends; opportunities and barriers to achieving change in the North
West; relevant spatial patterns and implications; and specific reference
to the cross-cutting themes. It should also identify clearly the linkages
to and implications for other regional strategies and programmes,
particularly for the Regional Spatial Strategy and Regional Economic
Strategy. We have not attempted this now, but the following sections
sketch out some of the key issues and questions for the region to
consider.
Strategic priority 1:
Urban renaissance and dealing with changing demand
Key issues:





Understanding and reinforcing the relationship between ‘housing’
regeneration and broader economic, spatial, environmental and
social regeneration strategies
Establishing the link between housing and the economic
performance of the region, and the potential for housing to act as
one of the drivers of economic growth
The importance of the spatial planning system at regional and subregional scale in delivering long-lasting change
Achieving an appropriate balance between prevention of market
failure and restructuring of failed markets
Distinguishing between short term market fluctuations and medium
term changes in aspirations, economic circumstances, household
structures and patterns of demand for housing
36
The concept of urban renaissance in the North West is at the heart of
the current Regional Housing Strategy, Regional Planning Guidance
and the Regional Economic Strategy. This is central to achieving
aspirations for economic transformation in the region’s conurbations,
coastal resorts and former industrial towns, as well as to plans for a
more sustainable and socially inclusive future for many
neighbourhoods currently offering a poor quality of life to local
communities.
37
The new Strategy will restate and develop the case for intervention in
dealing with the housing aspects of this broad and complex issue. The
drivers within many of the local housing markets identified in the last
Strategy as being at risk from low demand have changed, often
bringing increasing property values and pushing costs of intervening
higher. However, as the CURS study shows, in general the lower
value areas have not caught up with neighbouring higher value areas indeed the gaps have widened.
38
The Northern Way Growth Strategy makes a clear link between the
housing market situation in the North and the prospects for economic
growth, citing the recent Barker Review of Housing Supply conclusion
that housing market failures in parts of the North deter investment and
in-migration. Northern Way argues that:
1. “Low demand areas consistently show low levels of economic
activity, which is a major factor in our poor economic performance;
2. Problems of low demand and poor reputation have a
disproportionate negative impact on the image of our towns and
cities, contributing to the “Grim up North” stereotype.”
39
With the region’s four Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders now
starting their work in earnest on the ground, strategic action to tackle
these issues is underway at a much more significant scale than
previously. The Pathfinders are still at an early stage in their
development, and we need to ensure the linkages between regional
agendas and their programmes are in place if we are to both deliver
the transformation of the Pathfinder areas without undermining other
parts of the region, and secure necessary development and renewal in
other areas without adversely impacting on the prospects for the
Pathfinders.
40
The desired transformation is only likely to be achieved if we are
successful in attracting private sector investment back into Housing
Market Renewal and other low demand areas. Only then is there a
realistic prospect of breaking the cycle of public sector investment
failing to deliver sustained transformation, a cycle we have seen too
often over the last thirty years or more in the North West. The Northern
Way Growth Strategy also argues that a significant acceleration of
clearance and replacement of housing, across different tenures, is a
vital component of the overall programme for the North, and one which
is likely to require significant public sector investment, beyond that
encompassed by the Pathfinders.
41
The suggested regional priorities are to:
Priority 1.1
Maximise the positive impact of the four Housing Market Renewal
Pathfinders in their local housing markets, ensuring their
integration with sub-regional and regional strategies.
Priority 1.2
Invest strategically in the prevention of market failure in other
areas at risk from low demand, applying and adapting lessons
from the Pathfinders and elsewhere for use in other areas
suffering from low demand. These activities should form part of
comprehensive neighbourhood renewal strategies, specifically in:
the North West’s coastal towns, West Cumbria and Furness;
other Neighbourhood Renewal Fund areas; and
the remainder of the North West Metropolitan Area.3
Questions :
17. Are these more detailed priorities right? Will they deliver effective
action on the issues discussed under this Strategic Priority?
18. Do you think the Regional Housing Strategy should set specific
targets for housing clearance? How might those be arrived at?
19. Is this where the need for high quality housing to attract the
‘knowledge workers’ identified in the Northern Way Growth Strategy
should be addressed?
3
As defined in Regional Planning Guidance for the North West
Strategic Priority 2:
Providing affordable homes to maintain balanced communities
Key issues:

The extent to which the market can and will deliver appropriate
affordable housing across the region

Recent rises in house prices and their impact on affordability and
homelessness

The relationship between strategies to tackle low demand and
renewal in low value parts of the conurbations, and reducing
pressure on nearby high cost areas

How the availability of affordable housing affects local, sub-regional
and regional economic performance

Affordable housing provision as a contributor to sustaining viable
rural communities and services

The role of the planning system, at regional and local level, as a
tool for delivering affordable housing
42
The current Regional Housing Strategy sketches a picture of a region
where affordable housing was, with a number of mainly rural
exceptions, in plentiful supply. The CURS research makes clear that
this is no longer the case, with house prices rising considerably in the
last couple of years. While simple comparisons of income to house
prices can gloss over the importance of low interest rates, easier
access to higher levels of mortgage credit and increased support from
family members to first-time buyers, nonetheless owner-occupation in
the North West is now a much less affordable proposition. The rising
trend in homelessness across the region, while no doubt more complex
in its origins, seems nonetheless to confirm that general conclusion.
43
This raises a number of issues for the development of the new
Strategy, not least of which is the need to make judgements as to what
extent the higher prices, and therefore demand to provide access to
affordable housing, are likely to be sustained. As these increases
largely represent the North West market catching up with earlier
increases in the rest of the country, it can perhaps be concluded that
we should proceed on the assumption that no rapid re-adjustment will
occur.
44
Next is the question of which tools the Board and others in the region
should be using to address this issue. This includes considering the
extent to which traditional investment via Housing Corporation
channels and housing associations is able to deliver a range of
appropriate solutions, or whether new models can offer different
options. This may be informed by the emerging work on the Board’s
second round of commissioning projects on affordable housing
provision, and changes such as the Corporation’s ability to offer
support to private developers may also open up new opportunities.
45
Further, the Northern Way Growth Strategy calls for a restructuring of
the Housing Corporation’s role in the North “from being an allocator of
grant to being a provider of gap funding…[and seeking] cost effective
and socially successful outcomes from complex negotiations”. Issues
such as the extent to which existing property can be used to provide
affordable housing, how the current stock of affordable housing can be
secured for the future, and whether new affordable housing can be
maintained as such in perpetuity are all relevant.
46
Part of this will relate to the planning system, which is arguably central
to this issue in particular. Housebuilders and others have argued
strongly that the current restraint on new additional housing provision in
some parts of the region following the publication of Regional Planning
Guidance is contributing to housing undersupply, and that this will
further fuel pressure on house prices. This argument needs to be
played out alongside the case for restraint as a means of encouraging
the renewal of lower value urban areas to reduce pressure on nearby
high cost areas, and will doubtless be at the heart of debates as the
Regional Spatial Strategy is developed.
47
A more sophisticated approach to the application of restraint may well
be the outcome, and it may be helpful for the Regional Housing
Strategy to help point the way forward. At the same time, there is
conflicting evidence from around the North West as to the impact of
housing restraint policies regionally on the ability of Section 106
agreements to contribute a continuing supply of new affordable
housing, and this may be something that the Strategy can usefully
address in advance of the Regional Spatial Strategy.
48
The Northern Way Growth Strategy and the Barker Review both
suggest setting of affordability goals or targets, in Barker’s case at
national and regional level, in the Northern Way at a more local level
depending on market conditions. Government are considering how
national and regional targets might be set and progress measured, but
it seems likely that this will form part of the approach expected of
Regional Housing Boards.
49
The suggested regional priority is to:
Priority 2.1
Tackle the shortages of affordable housing in areas of the North
West where demand for additional housing is high, where this
impacts adversely on social inclusion and the sustainable growth
of local, sub-regional and regional economies.
Questions :
20. Is this priority (unchanged from the current Strategy) right, given
the changes in the picture in the last two years? Will it deliver
effective action on the issues discussed under this Strategic Priority?
21. How should the new Strategy deal with rural issues?
22. Would affordability targets below regional level be helpful? How
should they be set and monitored?
Strategic Priority 3:
Delivering decent homes in thriving neighbourhoods
Key issues:

Continuing progress toward the delivery of the Government’s target
that by 2010 all social tenants should have a ‘Decent Home’

Increasing shift of focus toward achieving Decent Homes for
vulnerable households in the private sector

How far should this be separated from broader regeneration activity
as a strategic priority?
50
The condition of the North West’s housing stock has traditionally been
poor compared with most other regions in England, with almost 7% of
private sector properties still reported as unfit for human habitation at
April 2004.
51
The Government’s Decent Homes programmes are helping deliver a
transformation in the condition of the North West’s social rented stock.
Local authorities still retaining their housing stock have a deadline of
July 2005 to complete a rigorous appraisal of the options available to
deliver the Decent Homes target, and many have already done so. No
additional funding from the Regional Housing Board will be available to
local authorities, given the availability of other resources, including gap
funding for negative valued stock transfer proposals. The current
approach to delivering Decent Homes in the housing association sector
is also likely to continue as at present, with the emphasis on the need
for associations to put in place appropriate strategies to manage their
assets with the 2010 target in mind.
52
The main strategic focus therefore needs to rest on the private sector
stock, where the problems are greater in scale and intensity. The
Board have, through their first round of Commissioning projects,
supported the development and spread of innovation and good practice
in private sector renewal activity delivering decent homes by both local
authorities and housing associations. The use of the greater freedoms
available to local authorities since the Regulatory Reform Order was
implemented in 2003 needs to be extended as much as possible to
extract the maximum impact from available resources, and approaches
such as equity release schemes offer the prospect of bringing in
resources from the private sector in a more focused way than has been
possible in the past.
53
There are pockets of poor quality housing in every part of the North
West, and there will always be a need to intervene to deal with small
numbers of problematic properties. Beyond that, however, there is
perhaps a question as to whether strategies for improving housing
conditions can or should be separated from wider integrated
approaches to regeneration and renewal, whether at neighbourhood,
district or even sub-regional level.
54
Indeed, the Northern Way Growth Strategy expresses concern that, by
pursuing the Decent Homes agenda in the social rented sector in too
isolated a manner, we risk undermining broader strategies to
restructure housing markets by retaining housing stock which might be
better cleared and redeveloped. That this also implies that resources
are currently being diverted to bring properties with an uncertain future
up to the Decent Homes standard is a concern in itself.
55
The suggested regional priority is to:
Priority 3.1
Improve the condition of housing stock with a sustainable future
as part of broadly based regeneration strategies, particularly in
areas of concentrated unfitness and disrepair.
Questions:
23. Is this priority (unchanged from the current Strategy) still
appropriate? Will it deliver effective action on the issues discussed
under this Strategic Priority?
24. Is dealing with stock condition still a separate priority for the North
West? If not, what does that mean for the other strategic priorities set
out in this paper?
Strategic Priority 4:
Meeting the region’s needs for specialist and supported housing
Key issues:

The potential to take a medium/long term view of trends, particularly
in relation to the ageing population, and understand the implications
for future housing requirements

How to tackle this agenda in a way that brings it out of the ‘silo’ it
can often appear to be – there are important links to the other three
priorities and these need to be spelt out

How the Board can take a strategic approach across such a
complex range of needs, and without direct influence over revenue
funding

Whether recent increases in homelessness are likely to continue,
and the implications that has in terms of need for new specialist
provision
56
The current Regional Housing Strategy outlines in very general terms
some of the headline issues for the North West under this heading.
The new Strategy needs to develop this further if it is to help bring
about a more strategic approach within the region, and the Board have
commissioned work to help achieve this.
57
However, some of the key elements are already clear. The ageing
population of the region is one demographic trend which can be
mapped into the future with a high degree of confidence, and is
increasingly emerging from local and sub-regional work as an issue
rising up strategic agendas. The Strategy needs to explore both the
very specific housing and support needs of more infirm older people
and the much broader needs and aspirations of older people living in
their own homes.
58
Recent increases in homelessness have seen the North West become
second only to London in terms of numbers of households in priority
need accepted by local authorities, now running over 18,000 per year,
having been around 13,000 only two years ago. These trends need to
be understood in terms of their relationship with more general changes
in housing markets. But this should also be matched with a strategy for
plugging any gaps in provision, perhaps through collaborative working
at sub-regional level.
59
Matching revenue and capital funding in delivering new provision
continues to be a huge source of difficulty. General uncertainty and
concern about the future levels of funding available through the
Supporting People programme remain even now the details of the
2005/06 allocations are known.
60
There is a question as to how far a Regional Housing Strategy can or
should go in tackling this whole area in detail. Given the range of client
groups, the local and sub-regional variations, the need to consider
issues such as the specific needs of different black and minority ethnic
communities, the issues around provision in rural areas, and so on,
there is a danger that an over-simplified approach could be taken
which would fail to exploit the potential gains from effective working at
a regional level.
61
One option would be to supplement the Strategy with a Regional
Supported Housing Strategy. At least one other region has already
decided to adopt that approach. In practical terms, this might benefit
from the analysis offered by the forthcoming five-year Supporting
People strategies from each of the North West’s 22 commissioning
authorities. This would have implications in terms of the capacity the
Regional Housing Board would need to devote to the development of a
separate Strategy, and would need to be carefully handled to ensure
that this is not seen as somehow relegating supported housing from
the top line of regional issues.
62
The suggested regional priority is to:
Priority 4.1
Ensure a range of specialist and supported housing is available,
appropriate to local needs and strategies, and integrated with
relevant support and care services.
Questions:
25. Is this priority (unchanged from the current Strategy) still
appropriate? Will it deliver effective action on the issues discussed
under this Strategic Priority?
26. Should the Board commit to develop, with stakeholders in the
region, a North West Supported Housing Strategy as a ‘daughter
document’ to the Regional Housing Strategy?
Action and investment plan
63
Another area the Board are keen to develop in the new Strategy is a
clearer link between the priorities set out and action to deliver those
priorities. The realities of the scale and complexity of the region and
the issues the Board deal with means that this will need to remain at a
relatively high level, but it is important to give a clear indication of the
respective actions and lead responsibility for the Board and partners.
64
This might include:

Flagging up opportunities for investment, particularly from the
private sector, but also from public and voluntary sources

‘Aligning regional strategies’ – what the Board and its member
agencies are doing to make this into a reality in the North West, and
what this means in practice for the way things are done in the future

Some practical lessons from work the Board has commissioned on
learning from past and current regeneration and other programmes

Indications of the broad direction of Regional Housing Pot
allocations, leaving the detail for a separate allocation strategy
document

Strategic development activities continuing under the auspices of
the Board, including lessons from the Commissioning projects on
private sector renewal and affordability issues

The Board’s priorities in seeking to influence national and crossregional policy development
Questions:
27. What else do you think might be included in an action plan?
28. Does all of this belong in a strategy document, or does an action
plan need to be separate and more regularly updated?
Allocating the Regional Housing Pot
65
Finally, it is proposed that a separate document will contain the specific
Regional Housing Pot allocations strategy. This will include detailed
reporting/monitoring of existing programmes and emerging outcomes,
and would be updated at least for each allocation cycle (every two
years), or potentially more frequently.
Annex A
Summary of questions for consultees
Vision
1. What do you think the purpose of the Strategy should be ?
2. Who should it be aimed at ?
3. How have you used the current Strategy ?
4. Do you have any case studies that demonstrate how the Strategy has
influenced your thinking and delivery of priorities ?
5. Does this vision, from the 2003 Regional Housing Strategy, still provide a
statement of where the region needs to be going ?
Housing Markets in the NW
6. Does the picture painted by the CURS report match with your perceptions
of the housing markets you are familiar with in the North West ?
7. Can you share with the Board information or evidence that supplements or
conflicts with the evidence from CURS, and which might lead them to alter
their view of particular parts of the housing market ?
8. What are your views on the issues noted above? Can you help the Board
by providing evidence on the situation in parts (or all) of the region ?
9. Are there other issues you feel the Board needs to consider here ?
The Board’s Priorities
Spatial Priorities
10. Do you agree that the Board need to set explicit geographical priorities?
Do these still need to sit alongside thematic priorities ?
11. What are your views on the sub-regional classification suggested, both on
the principles applied and in relation to your own local area? Does it go far
enough? Have you a better approach ?
12. How should the Strategy’s approach relate to existing ‘traditional’ subregions, Northern Way city regions, Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder
boundaries, travel to work areas ?
13. Are some issues sufficiently universal to make a sub-regional approach
unnecessary ?
Strategic Priorities
14. Are the four priorities, updated and developed over the next few pages,
still the right ones for the North West ?
15. Should the priorities be weighted to give more of a sense of relative
importance ? If so, how could this be done ?
16. Did the inclusion of cross-cutting themes have an impact on your thinking,
strategy development and action? Should the new Strategy address these
issues in a different way ?
Strategic Priority 1
17. Are these more detailed priorities right? Will they deliver effective action
on the issues discussed under this Strategic Priority ?
18. Do you think the Regional Housing Strategy should set specific targets for
housing clearance? How might those be arrived at ?
19. Is this where the need for high quality housing to attract the ‘knowledge
workers’ identified in the Northern Way Growth Strategy should be
addressed?
Strategic Priority 2
20. Is this priority (unchanged from the current Strategy) right, given the
changes in the picture in the last two years? Will it deliver effective action on
the issues discussed under this Strategic Priority ?
21. How should the new Strategy deal with rural issues ?
22. Would affordability targets below regional level be helpful? How should
they be set and monitored ?
Strategic Priority 3
23. Is this priority (unchanged from the current Strategy) still appropriate?
Will it deliver effective action on the issues discussed under this Strategic
Priority ?
24. Is dealing with stock condition still a separate priority for the North West?
If not, what does that mean for the other strategic priorities set out in this
paper ?
Strategic Priority 4
25. Is this priority (unchanged from the current Strategy) still appropriate?
Will it deliver effective action on the issues discussed under this Strategic
Priority ?
26. Should the Board commit to develop, with stakeholders in the region, a
North West Supported Housing Strategy as a ‘daughter document’ to the
Regional Housing Strategy ?
Action and Investment Plan
27. What else do you think might be included in an action plan ?
28. Does all of this belong in a strategy document, or does an action plan
need to be separate and more regularly updated ?
Annex B
References
Delivering stability: securing our future housing needs, Barker Review of
Housing Supply
Kate Barker, HM Treasury, 2004
http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/consultations_and_legislation/barker/consult_barker_index.cf
m
Housing and Planning in the Regions: Consultation Paper.
Office Of The Deputy Prime Minister, September 2004
http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_housing/documents/downloada
ble/odpm_house_030963.pdf
Housing Markets: Preparing for Change,
Jacqueline Blenkinship and Judith Gibbons for Impact Housing Association
and the Housing Corporation, 2004
http://www.impacthousing.org.uk/HousingMarkets.htm
Housing Market Trends in the North West of England,
Philip Leather and Jonathan Roberts, Centre for Urban and Regional Studies,
University of Birmingham, August 2004.
http://www.nwrhb.org.uk/articleimages/CURS%20final%20report%2027-0804.pdf
Regional Economic Strategy 2003,
Northwest Development Agency
http://www.nwda.co.uk/publications.aspx?publications=1&area=78&subarea=
81&publicationview=1&item=2003328550720663
Regional Housing Strategy 2003,
North West Regional Housing Board
http://www.nwrhb.org.uk/pdf/RegionalHousingStrategyfinal.pdf
Regional Planning Guidance for the North West,
Government Office for the North West, 2003
http://rpg.nwra.gov.uk/documents/download_file.php?id=87
Northern Way Growth Strategy and Truly Sustainable Communities technical
appendix,
The Northern Way Steering Group, September 2004
http://www.thenorthernway.co.uk/index.html
Annex C
The Housing Market in the North West
CURS, University of Birmingham, 2004
Summary of main findings
1.1
This study was primarily concerned with charting and explaining
change rather than putting forward recommendations. The main
conclusions to be drawn from this analysis of North West house prices
over the 1996-2003 period are as follows:

There were comparatively sharp increases in prices across the North
West region in 2002 and 2003 and prices were still rising steeply at the
end of this period, suggesting that the trend has continued into 2004.

Detached houses and flats achieved the greatest increases and
terraced houses fell further behind other dwelling types.

Higher priced areas experienced the greatest increases, so despite a
decline in the numbers of very low value sales, the gap between higher
and lower priced areas grew wider.

Prices in the Pathfinders have undoubtedly increased in 2002 and
2003, but generally at a lower rate than the regional average.

The lowest priced areas in the region remain concentrated in the
Pathfinders and a few other areas such as Bolton, Barrow and West
Cumbria.

The proportion of extremely low price sales in the Pathfinders declined.
This may have given an impression of generally rising prices in these
areas, but there was no real improvement in the proportion of sales in
Pathfinders which were below the regional lower quartile threshold.
Typically there were three times as many sales below this threshold as
would be expected if prices were even across the region.

Levels of high price sales increased across the region and the number
of areas with higher median price to income ratios increased sharply.

Despite rising prices, the North West (and the other Northern regions)
lost ground against the rest of the Country over the 1996-2003 period.
1.2
Most of the drivers of changes in dwelling prices affecting the region
are national in impact, that is they apply in most parts of the country
rather than being specific to the region. They include:

rising real incomes for many, underpinned by stable economic growth,
enabling households to pay more for housing;







historically low interest rates, making it possible to afford larger loans;
easier access to mortgage credit;
increased financial support from families to first time buyers;
strong demand from first time buyers, including some demand brought
forward by the desire to share in rising prices;
increasing demand from speculative purchasers, buying to let rather
than for owner occupation;
changing demand arising from migration including continuing
subregional decentralisation from cities to suburbs and rural areas, net
in-migration from abroad into urban centres, notably London, and
temporary demand from asylum seekers and refugees;
historically low levels of new construction, arising from a variety of
causes.
1.3
Speculative demand, rather than demand from potential occupiers, has
been responsible for the most well-publicised increases in prices in
areas such as inner Liverpool. It is doubtful whether these increases
are sustainable, many speculative purchasers who entered the market
recently are likely to find it difficult to attract tenants and to obtain a
return on their investment. Nor is there any evidence that increasing
values in the older terraced stock has led to any increase in investment
in repairs or improvements to attract tenants. However, there is a real
danger that the expectations of speculative purchasers will make
voluntary acquisition for clearance more difficult and increase the
eventual prices at which properties in Pathfinder areas are acquired
through CPO.
1.4
Some further element of the rapid increases in prices in the North West
in 2002 and 2003 can also be attributed to ‘boom’ conditions when
demand is mainly fuelled by the expectation of further rises.
1.5
Opinion on the wider sustainability of recent house price rises is
divided. Some sources predict substantial falls, some a ‘soft landing’,
and others continued growth. The key factor is likely to be interest rates
and the costs of borrowing.
1.6
The growth in speculative purchase to let has also undermined the
mechanism whereby price rises are limited by what first time buyers
can afford. First time buyers are increasingly in competition with other
purchasers using capital accumulated through other forms of
investment, who are less constrained by income levels. This has been
one of the main factors contributing to the current affordability crisis
and may sustain prices in the future or at least prevent significant falls.
1.7
Better evidence on the motivations and intentions of buy to let investors
is needed to anticipate the future impact of this sector.
1.8
Despite price rises, there is no real evidence from this study of a
recovery in the demand for terraced housing. In areas where terraced
dwellings command high prices, it is the characteristics of the
neighbourhood which generate these prices. But it is more important to
identify the factors which cause dwellings to become obsolete, and to
demolish or transform these properties, rather than to assume that all
older terraced housing is obsolete.
1.9
Price rises at the lower end of the market may have implications for the
Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders and for related programmes of
public investment. They will put pressure on the unit costs of
acquisition and raise owners’ expectations. If prices fall back, some
owners (both owner occupiers and landlords) may experience negative
equity or face a loss and this may delay both voluntary and compulsory
purchase.
1.10
The study has shown that the housing market in the North West has
entered a phase of change after a period of stability. This has occurred
at a point when central government, local authorities and other bodies
have embarked on the most substantial programme of market
intervention for decades. It suggests that close monitoring of the
market is required to identify and react to developments at as quickly
as possible.
1.11
Understanding of the market is limited and the ability to predict future
developments is more limited still. We lack models to predict future
developments even in the short term, making it all the more important
to identify new trends as they emerge and to react quickly to them.
1.12
This analysis in this study should be regularly updated, perhaps
quarterly but at least on a six-monthly basis. Soft data is useful but
there is no substitute for hard data on achieved price changes. Land
Registry data is limited in its scope however and there would be great
merit in extending the data collected through this source to include
dwelling age and other data.
1.13
To supplement Land Registry data, market intelligence is required from
other sources. Evidence from estate agents is of some value, but
agents lead or create rather than analyse markets and have a direct
financial interest in increasing prices or turnover. Their views should be
treated with caution, and are of most value at local rather than subregional or regional level.
1.14
District Valuers are also more likely to provide an objective view of
market developments and they operate in and have experience of the
lower sectors of the market on a regular basis. This is a promising
channel which the Board should explore further.
1.15
An increase in speculative purchase is one of the key factors affecting
markets in the region, especially at lower value levels. Good data on
the private rented sector is a priority requirement for understanding
markets better.