Elizabeth Pascoe took on the authorities – and lost – when her home was earmarked for demolition under Liverpool’s Edge Lane development scheme.
Bill Booth has lived on a half-derelict street in Manchester for a decade and still has no idea if it will survive a regeneration scheme.
Theirs are among up to 400,000 terraced properties across the English North and Midlands which could be bulldozed using public money, under the controversial Housing Market Renewal or Pathfinder scheme.
The government says the communities being targeted are suffering from housing market failure and need intervention. Skeptics say poor communities are being kicked off valuable land which is being handed over to developers.
Launched in 2003, the Pathfinder has met with fierce resistance and legal challenges, general delays and now economic meltdown have led to parts it being scaled back. With a change of government looming, its very survival is now in doubt. For people like Pascoe it is too late – the battle is lost and they must find a new home, often ending up significantly out of pocket in the process.
Where it leaves communities like Booth’s is less certain. With more than half the homes in Clayton West boarded up and rotting, no developer on board and now an economy in recession, it is difficult to see a solution.
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Ciara, you rock.
thanks David. the sound is pisspoor but the story’s important