Welsh Streets handed another chance

Liverpool City Council’s Cabinet members will next week vote to enter into a six-month exclusivity agreement with affordable homes developer Place First to redevelop the Welsh Streets in Dingle.

If appointed, Place First will survey the vacant houses and draw up new plans. The scheme will be aimed at the private rental market.

The council said it hoped a significant proportion of the 300 homes could be refurbished, with some knocked ‘three in to two’ to make them larger and appeal to families.

The houses in the poorest condition and beyond viable refurbishment will be demolished, with the possibility of creating community open space and new properties in their place.

The move follows a decision in January 2015 by the then Secretary of State Eric Pickles to overturn a planning inspector’s approval for a scheme which would have seen 271 homes replaced by 154 new houses, along with 37 refurbished terraced properties.

Pickles also scrapped long-standing planning and regeneration guidance which supported the need for large scale demolition, and replaced it with an approach that favours retention and refurbishment of older stock.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said: “All we have ever done is try to do what the residents have told us and it’s important to remember 80% of them backed the original plans for this area. As a result of the prevarication over this scheme from different outside interest groups we have lost a £13m Government grant.

“However, given that the Government has changed the planning rules we need to find a way forward in order to get this area sorted out as soon as possible and I am pleased we have been able to find a partner that is willing to look into taking on the Welsh Streets.

“The residents of the Welsh Streets have been in limbo for years after the Coalition Government axed the Housing Market Renewal Initiative. To add insult to injury, Eric Pickles then overturned his own planning inspector’s decision on a subsequent scheme despite it being supported by the vast majority of the local community.

“Place First have a great track record in regenerating old houses and I know they are genuinely excited about what they can do in the Welsh Streets. I want them to crack on with the detailed survey as quickly as possible.

“We’ve demonstrated with the regeneration of Anfield and our Homes for a Pound scheme that we are leading the way in finding imaginative ways of retaining properties where it is viable to do so.”

Councillor Frank Hont, Cabinet member for housing, said: “We took some of the residents to Accrington to see some of the other projects that Place First are working on and the feedback we had from them was really positive.

“They are really focused on creating a new community for the area which has a long term future and I am really confident that we can come up with a scheme that delivers the best of the old and the new.”

“I would like to thank residents for their patience, resilience and support over the last few years and sticking with the area when some of them are in poor health as a result of the conditions they are living in.”

Irene Milson, chairman of the Welsh Streets Community Association, said: “This community has been waiting a long time for new homes and it is extremely frustrating that the previous scheme wasn’t approved by the Government.

We await with interest the details of this new set of proposals and will make our decision based on progress over the next few months.”

David Smith-Milne, managing director and founder of PlaceFirst, said: “PlaceFirst is really excited about this project. The Welsh Streets are on the doorstep of one of Europe’s most exciting and culturally distinctive cities. They are also walking distance from two of England’s best public parks [Sefton and Princes], and have the benefit of highly rated local schools within a short walk.

“Liverpool, like everywhere else, really needs good quality and expertly managed homes for private rent. Remodelling these Victorian properties creates an opportunity to deliver some of the most distinctive and exciting family rental homes in the city. We are looking forward to working alongside Liverpool City Council and local residents’ groups to develop and deliver this project.”

The report will be considered by the Cabinet on Friday 5 February.

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Really hope this works out. The area would really benefit from retaining these buildings and attracting families/young couples into them. The area is close enough to Lark Lane, City centre etc to have potential and the facades would be irreplaceable if lost.

By Local

Welsh Streets are in Toxteh rather than Dingle, also I think that photo is Granby rather than the Welsh Streets. Good news like, lets hope this one actually comes off.

By KJK

Yes, the picture is not of the Welsh Streets. Welsh Streets houses are smaller and prettier.

By PAB

Place First are also working on a major scheme in Morecambe with some success by all accounts. I’m sure they’ll produce a quality (and viable) solution for these Liverpool properties.

By Sceptic

Fully behind this. I worked on HMR Pathfinder programmes and was never comfortable with tabula rasa approach as it undermines any remaining community cohesion and often leads to gentrification, inadvertent or otherwsie. The ‘1 into 2’ / ‘2 into 3’ Victorian terraces in Hulme/Moss Side in Manchester would be a good comparator, certainly in terms of lessons learned and what works.

By MancLass

MancLass, The 2-into-1 terraces in Moss Side WAS a HMR scheme and would not have been possible without it. You seem to forget that all those houses have been bought under a deemed CPO and the occupants decanted or relocated before the refurbishments took place. The outcome for the community would have been the same had it been a traditional comprehensive redevelopment. The same goes for Granby.

What you seem to be objecting to is not HMR per se, rather the quality of the new build housing that follows and on that score I would agree with you; the results in design terms have been mixed to say the least.

Has HMR been successful in acheiving the objective of addressing market failure and drawing people back into the inner city? You would have to say yes, where it has been seen through. The problem with it was not that it demolished too many houses, rather that public funding was withdrawn just as the credit crunch hit.

By Moss Cider

Sentimental claptrap. A fitting scheme for this broken town. Should be dropped and crushed as sub-base for the approach carriageways of the new Mersey Crossing.

By Lilt

I would be interested to know the Rents for Place First private rented properties.

By Mary Huxham MBE

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