Introduction

One of the striking features of the present period is that it is no longer reasonable (if it ever was) to refer to the housing market in the singular: demand varies considerably from place to place. This is unlikely to be an ephemeral characteristic, since it reflects deep-seated developments in the wider economic base of different regions and sub-regions. The issue of low-demand housing raises important questions about the role of government and the extent to which market forces can be, and should be, interfered with in an era of rhetorical emphasis on deregulation and small government. This chapter suggests that the form and function of cities have been determined by past and current market forces and a legacy of public sector intervention that has on occasion been misguided. It emphasises the importance of understanding the historical drivers of change that have shaped our older industrial cities.

Low demand has been at the centre of the debate about housing, regeneration and planning in the North of England and parts of the industrial Midlands since 1998, when evidence of falling prices and the localised abandonment of housing began to emerge in the public domain. As a result of considerable lobbying by local authorities, registered social landlords (RSLs) and Members of Parliament, the government established a Housing Market Renewal Fund that was targeted initially at nine pathfinder areas. These were not small neighbourhoods or estates like many previous housing programmes, but larger areas containing, in total, 784,000 households and a population of 1.9 million (Leather et al, 2004). The pathfinder areas contain between 60,000 and 140,000 properties.

All of the areas chosen to be Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders exhibited net out-migration, falling populations, high dwelling vacancy rates in particular neighbourhoods, and high levels of residential turnover, as well as areas of chronic deprivation (Audit Commission, 2005). The housing market renewal initiative has a number of distinctive features, which include:

• • the requirement for local authorities to work together across boundaries. All of the pathfinder areas cover parts of at least two local authorities and one covers parts of five;

• • an intended 15- to 20-year implementation period (although it remains to be seen whether the programme can survive this long);

• • a tenure-blind approach, with pathfinder areas covering all tenures and no tenure-based restrictions on activities which the Housing Market Renewal Fund can support;