Quote:
Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington
Many of the older type stone built terraces were knocked down, when I am pretty sure that with some renovation(costing far less than new build plus demolition) would have made excellent family homes.
Homes with history and character.
The building of social housing was cut back by councils decades ago.
Governments of the past(and local councils for that matter) have squandered money on Mickey mouse schemes.......and when the money just isn't there, then there is no real alternative but to cut back on building programs.
The outcome would have been the same if a Labour government had been re-elected.
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Very true. But I think I'm right in saying that most social housing is now provided by Housing Associations and Co-Ops and quite honestly the standard of their housing far exceeds most of the crap that councils built. In addition, some social housing is now provided by private developers as part of a package in new housing developments. And of course, there are shared ownership schemes although I am not aware of any of these in Hyndburn.
What is striking is the lack of imagination within HBC on housing developments although to what extent this has been due to the envelopment of the Elevate scheme, I don't know. What would have been nice to have seen would have been the redevelopment of some of that Victorian terraced stock along the lines of the Salford 'Upside-Down' housing scheme. Still, to late for that now.
However, that lack of imagination is still showing through. The alternative to new housing is now going to be a publicily funded park. That will require maintainance costs. What happens when further cuts are implemented? There are already enough problems for existing park funding.
On the basis that it will be many years before any housing development can take place, surely the better option would be to hand this land over for allotments? I'm certain there is a substancial waiting list in Hyndburn and if the wider debate on food scourcing is taken into account, then surely this would offer a far cheaper, more radical and sustainable plan.