Comments on: Charles Clover denounces empty homes scheme as “housingshambles”

By: The Big Society, Localism & Housing Policy » Blog Archive » Going, going, gone! Empty Homes for £1, but at what cost to community?

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 14:55:23 +0000

[...] may seem all too easy to denounce HMR along these lines. At best a shambles, at worst a scandal. Its fiercest critics accuse it of state-led gentrification tantamount to class [...]

By: admin

admin — Fri, 02 Nov 2012 16:42:06 +0000

Zico, The Northern Way growth strategy did allege that there was oversupply of housing in parts of the North of England. If memory serves me correctly they even crticised the pathfinders for not going far enough with demolition.

By: Zico

Zico — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 19:57:25 +0000

Charles you are incorrect – it was never alleged there was a general oversupply of housing, just that as new-build was available at affordable cost with plentiful mortgages, the worst of the second hand market had become obsolete, with values plummeting and vacancies increasing. In fact, the re-population of the cities is as a result of Prof Nevins policies and NOT despite it. And refurb at no cost to the public purse ? Rubbish

By: JB

JB — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 14:22:45 +0000

Hard to believe the coalition still haven’t got a grip on this half way through their term. To be fair, they have allocated significant resources to empty homes, and Andrew Stunnell was on top of his brief. But Shapps and Pickles have ended up simply rewarding failure. By letting civil servants direct new funds to the very councils, quangos and social landlords that emptied out so much property in the first place, Ministers have effectively continued Pathfinder but expected different results.