Blight fear

HOMES stand empty in Derker. The council says capital from surplus HMR sales — plus approaches to housing associations and other Government funding — would be used to complete some of the work, while a private developer is to build 148 homes in Derker

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1,500 homes demolished, 3,500 revamped, but only 450 houses built. Is this the legacy of HMR?

PEOPLE in two of Oldham’s poorest areas are still vulnerable and at risk of blight despite a £200 million programme aimed at improving housing, a new report has revealed.

Derker and Werneth were part of the Oldham and Rochdale Pathfinder for the Housing Market Renewal scheme (HMR).

Hundreds of homes were bought by compulsory purchase order (CPO) and demolished in Werneth and Derker, under plans to clear old terraced houses to make way for new homes and revitalise local housing.

Derker residents put up a four-year fight against the plans, finally losing in 2009 when they failed to overturn a judge’s ruling at the London Appeal Court that the council could purchase and flatten their homes.

Today an Audit Commission report into HMR, which is now being wound up after the Government withdrew funding, says the Pathfinder has met its targets since 2004 — except for building new homes.

Across both towns 1,200 properties have been acquired, 1,500 demolished, 3,500 improved but only 450 built, less than a quarter of what was planned.

It attracted £335 million investment on top of its £200 million funding and created or preserved 2,400 jobs.

Despite this, the commission says the Pathfinder areas still have a fragile economy, with unemployment significantly above average, while skill levels and house prices are lower.

After the coalition Government cut HMR funding last year, the Pathfinder has £5 million to close down the programme — but £46 million is needed to complete it.

The commission report says extra purchases and demolitions are still needed in both areas to complete the CPOs, buy 80 outstanding properties and provide sites for development.

And it adds: “Currently isolated residents are surrounded by previously acquired empty properties.

“These residents are vulnerable and the area is at risk of blight. Continuing security costs for those properties awaiting demolition will have to be funded if purchases cannot be completed.”

The commission says the ending of HMR will leave “a legacy of partly completed neighbourhood strategies, with solutions still to be found for partly-acquired residential blocks, some development sites not assembled, and a general feeling of areas still requiring transformational change.”

Maureen Walsh, one of the Derker Action Group founders, said: “The area is just a mess and they should be ashamed of what they have left behind.

“I would like to know where the money has been spent, because it was only spent on demolition. They have not laid a brick in Derker.

“They might have contributed to the Granville Mill development, but that was being built anyway.”

Maureen and her husband, Terry, should be celebrating their golden wedding this year.

They are now waiting until April to see if there is money for HMR to buy their house so they can move out.

Another member, Joan Diggle, says thieves have been taking coping stones off walls and piling them on to pallets in front of her house.

Joan, who has lived in her street for more than 70 years, added: “I am frightened of these fires people are starting which are going right through the lofts of empty houses.

“When I look at what has happened it makes me feel sick. We were promised no-one would be losers.”

Councillor John McCann, Cabinet member for regeneration, said he did not argue with the Audit Commission report, and wished the cut off of funding had not been so abrupt.

But he said capital from surplus HMR sales would be used, plus approaches to housing associations, and other Government funding, to complete some of the work.

A private developer, Bellway, is also due to start on 148 homes at Derker, and there is a waiting list for the second phase of the Keepmoat development in Werneth.

The arrival of Metrolink at Werneth this year, and Derker next year, will make a difference, he added: “Once they start building really nice houses and the right transport it will become viable for other builders.”