Urban Living programme to provide housing boost for Birmingham neighbourhoods » Housing » 24dash.com

Plans to regenerate neighbourhoods in North-West Birmingham will be revealed later this month.

This follows a further £53 million allocation to Urban Living: the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder for Birmingham and Sandwell.

The three-year government funding will enable Birmingham City Council in partnership with Urban Living to carry out a number of projects and interventions to address market change and create areas of growth, providing better housing choices for local people in Aston, Birchfield, Lozells, Soho, Hockley/Spring Hill and Summerfield/Winson Green.

The Urban Living programme is working to transform unpopular neighbourhoods through a range of measures such as clearance, tenure change, deconversion of HMOs (houses in multiple occupation) and community safety to help deliver the successful regeneration of these areas, as part of a wider long-term regeneration plan for the area.

Funding will also help a number of more relatively stable neighbourhoods by tackling employment and delivering high quality residential properties, creating sustainable vibrant local centres and putting people at the centre of the planning for change process.

Councillor John Lines, Cabinet Member for Housing said: "Regeneration plans are beginning to emerge for key neighbourhoods in north-west Birmingham and the Urban Living programme is helping these deprived areas to regenerate into sustainable neighbourhoods of housing choice.

"This is a long term programme of work and will take up to 15 years to fully realise, but these ambitions have to start somewhere and we have begun the journey. The final three years of the programme will concentrate on mainstreaming the lessons learnt from the pathfinder."

Working with partners, the council is bringing forward proposals for a range of interventions. In Lozells, a recent planning and consultation exercise revealed ambitious and exciting plans for change including restoring Victorian and Edwardian houses to their original splendour and creating family homes from what were unpopular bedsits. These will deliver much needed family homes in an area of high demand.

In Newtown and South Aston, there is similar planning for change with residents and kickstarting regeneration with schemes like new homes at the former Crocodile Works and a new Extra Care Village.

In Birchfield the council is working with major regeneration partners to transform three high rise blocks into city-living style apartments and new commercial space to expand the local centre. Longer term plans for change will be developed for other areas over the next two years.

Housing has become much more popular in the Pathfinder area. This is due to Urban Living's work improving housing pathways and also changes in the market conditions. However, the challenge of addressing a need for more homes and larger homes remains.

Urban Living's longer-term strategy will therefore major on delivering affordable housing and further community engagement.