Owners left trapped in half-abandoned streets
Thursday, 3 November 2011 12:31 PM
Government cuts to regeneration programmes have left home owners stranded in appalling conditions with no other options, say MPs on an influential Commons committee.
The all-party communities and local government select committee looked at the impact of regeneration policy.
MPs warned that the cancellation of the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder programme has had a profound effect on people across the North and Midlands.
Committee chair Clive Betts MP said: “We saw and heard for ourselves what happens when the government stops investing in regeneration. In Rochdale, we found row upon row of boarded up houses, the direct result of the withdrawal of Housing Market Renewal Funding. We met a family trapped in a half-abandoned street after the promise of a new home was not fulfilled.
“We heard similar stories from other Pathfinder areas. People have been left stranded in appalling conditions: many are owner-occupiers, often vulnerable people with no other options. The government must act to help these people and to eradicate the blight that has been left in so many neighbourhoods.”
The MPs say the government should publish a national regeneration strategy that specifically targets England’s most disadvantaged communities.
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