Blackpool readies CPO for housing renewal project
Armed with an initial £90m from Homes England to get the project going, Blackpool Council is seeking permission in principle to use compulsory purchase powers to assemble around 10 acres off Central Drive for the first phase.
Blackpool has some of the worst health and socio-economic metrics in the country. In a bid to tackle these issues, the council is working with Homes England on plans to overhaul the housing market in the town’s most problematic area.
Blackpool’s ‘inner area’ is characterised by high unemployment, poor health outcomes, drug use, and low levels of education, according to the council.
It is hoped that the planned intervention, which includes selective stock clearance, refurbishment, and redevelopment, can go some way to rectifying some of these issues.
The scheme seeks to address the causes – specifically what is described in a framework for the area as an “extremely dysfunctional” housing market – as well as the symptoms.
Talks with landlords and owner occupiers to acquire the land by negotiation are ongoing. The proposed CPO would be used in the event that “reasonable efforts to buy land and property by agreement are unsuccessful”, according to the council.
The area that could be the subject to a future CPO includes part of Central Drive, Rydal Avenue, Salthouse Avenue, Montrose Avenue, Chadwick Street, and parts of Princess Street and Ashton Road.
Cllr Lynn Williams, Leader of the council, said: “We are determined to deliver real change for our residents. Better housing has been an obsession of ours for years and that will not change.
“We are asking the executive to consider and agree, in principle, to using our compulsory purchase powers, should we need to. This is always a last resort but it is important that our intentions are clear and that should we need to use our compulsory purchase powers then all the right processes have been followed to be able to do that. This is the first step in that process.”
She added: “The regeneration of this area is critical, it will not only provide better homes and more green spaces, but it will also tackle social challenges like unemployment, health inequality and housing instability.”
The UK government is schizophrenic. On the one hand it will likely approve this, in turn acknowledging the corrosive effect of HMOs and using low cost areas to place people in bulk.
On the other, they procure £14bn worth of multi-billion pound service providers to offer landlords 7 year deals and 15pc above market rate for the rent to quietly carry on doing this under the radar, with all the attendant results (including ready incentives for bad landlords to make their properties available by any means necessary).
Hats off to Blackpool Council for trying to put their people first, but unless they have struck some kind of secret deal to exempt their area, it’s going to be an uphill battle.
By John
It’s about time
By Anonymous