Housing scandal! Pathfinder: a post-mortem

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Posted on: 1 July 2011
By: mackene
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Filed under: News

SAVE Britain’s Heritage has published a report which is critical of the discontinued Housing Market Renewal (HMR) Pathfinder programme. The report includes a paragraph-by-paragraph critique of the recent Audit Commission report by researcher Bill Finlay, and an introduction by planner and Liverpool resident Jonathan Brown, detailing the effects of the scheme in his city. SAVE’s report makes the following recommendations: new funding should be targeted mainly at repair and refurbishment; Mega-Social-Landlords driven by development ambitions must be brought under tight democratic control to make them better neighbours; area-based retro-fit to high environmental standards will help renew market confidence and generate economic opportunity in deprived areas much more effectively than expensive HMR quangos; the constitutional implications of Compulsory Purchase Order powers over private home owners need to be carefully reviewed by Parliament; a more respectful approach to deprived neighbourhoods that does not assume those with power necessarily know best is required.

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