Residential relocation process 1: planning strategy

Planning strategy relates to a planning exercise that concerns the design of a specific scheme or project area and its implementation strategy. Planning strategy is not necessarily related to, or a factor in, residential relocation. However, planning strategy fundamentally influences relocation prospects, whether it plans for relocation within the project or omits planning for it.

As mentioned earlier in this chapter, planning strategy proposing demolition (and leading to relocation) needs to follow the CPO legislation. However, CPO legislation does not require the acquiring authorities to plan for relocation, re-housing, or to secure new properties within the new development for relocation. These are left to the discretion of the acquiring authority. The local authority must, however, show that it has the capacity to re-house. Clearly, the location, size or estimate of what constitutes „like for like‟ property is open to discussion. Even though legislation guiding the legal aspects of planning has changed during the implementation of HMR to include some of the elements not covered by the CPO process, it needs to be appreciated that the changes took some time to implement. For instance, the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act (PCPA) 2004 provided greater flexibility in the ways by which local authorities can justify demolition and introduced statutory community engagement. It also required local authorities to develop Local Development Frameworks (LDFs) to replace old Local Development Plans (LDPs) or Unitary Development Plans (UDPs). However, in 2007, the Chartered Institute for Housing pointed out that

„many authorities were still in the process of compiling their LDF and that the planning process was still guided by LDPs or UDPs which were several years old (Lister et al., 2007:109).

150

Considering HMR specifically, the National Audit Office (2007) pointed out that many of the Pathfinders‟ projects or schemes put forward when bidding for HMR funds were mainly „off the shelf‟ projects. In other words, in many instances the plans for proposed demolition had already been approved or started before the launch of HMR.

The Manchester Salford Pathfinder representative, amongst others, pointed out that there were two main Parliamentary Acts that the Pathfinders used to justify their demolition plans. These are the Housing Act 1985 and the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (Box 6-8 Planning strategy:

Parliamentary Acts used). Which Parliamentary Act was used to justify demolition determined whether new building was planned or not at the time of the demolition proposal. The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires the local authorities to draft the plans for redevelopment to justify demolition. While there is no requirement to build properties for relocation, this option is open. This is not the case when the clearance is approved using the Housing Act 1985. Under the Housing Act 1985, local authorities are not required to have a plan for redevelopment to justify demolition.

The choice of the Parliamentary Act fundamentally influenced the direction relocation practice took in each individual project; whether the affected residents were able to relocate back into their neighbourhood or not (Figure 6-2 : Planning Strategy and Residential Relocation Scheme).

While the newer plans may have been commissioned after PCPA 2004 became law, this did not guarantee that the improvements this legislation brought were utilised. In a number of Pathfinders, no building was completed prior to demolition regardless of the Act used because of the way the redevelopment was phased.

Box 6-8 Planning strategy: Parliamentary Acts used

„[within the Town and Country Planning Act framework] … you start with: we need to build a school, we need to put a road… etc. Then you are looking where can that be best done and how to deliver. In other words, you have a very clear view of what your game is and what you want to achieve‘ (MSP Respondent S1-4 (LA).

‗Under the Housing Act powers you actually have a reversed logic [to that of Town and Country Planning Act]. You are in a situation where you need to go through and exclude any other option but clearance. So you‘ve got a group of ‗problem‘ properties here …. You‘ve looked at repairing them, You‘ve looked at changing ownership … and concluded … none of that will work … none of that is appropriate … Therefore you have to clear. So what you have here [within the Housing Act framework] is reverse … what you end up with is this piece of land that is going to be cleared … and a question: what will I do with it?‘ (MSP Respondent S1-4 (LA).

151 Box 6-9 Planning strategy: project phasing

‗Initially we didn‘t plan before we demolished‘ (PA Respondent S1-6).

‗There has been only demolition‘ (UL Respondent S1-10).

‗The approach that we‘re taking is really to get through the demolition and the site assembly before anything is handed over to the developers … it always works on the basis that we take care of the demolition and basically provide a green space for future development‘ (CS-NCC Team 3).

While some of the Pathfinder representatives argued that the new properties (when finished) were first offered to the residents affected by relocation, the teams delivering relocation on the ground commented that relocation into these properties was not possible simply because the relocatees were eligible to be relocated (using statutory compensation, financial assistance and resident support) only once. Once the residents have been relocated using the assistance available based on the fact that the property they own or occupy is earmarked for demolition, they are not entitled for help in new relocation or to bid for new properties. Quotes from the group interview (pilot studies) with the residential relocation officers and BNG Pathfinder representative best illustrates this point.

Box 6-10: Planning Strategy: Project phasing impact on relocation options

Author: But once they [relocation affected residents] have been relocated they cannot move back [to the rebuilt neighborhood] because they slide down the priority ladder.

CS-BNG Team1: Exactly. They will be knocking down somewhere else in the city and they will get those people a priority….

CS-YHN Relocation Team1: So the idea that the people will be able to move back is a theoretical one. The reality is, that they will probably not have the opportunity to do so…

… anybody with a housing priority, homeless or something like that, will come on the top of the list. So if you've been homeless living in different part of the city, they will have the chance to move to Scotswood much better than somebody who lived there previously for 30 years and has moved out of Scotswood because they had to. But they are not housing priority anymore because they have been adequately re-housed.

At the later stages, Pathfinders developed a so-called sequenced or staged approach to redevelopment (e.g. MSP and BNG Pathfinders). This meant that the relocation of the residents was factored into the redevelopment plans: a number of homes were built prior to demolition, a portion of the residents relocated, and then their homes demolished in order to give space for the next stage of redevelopment and relocation (see Chapter 7, Walker Project). However, this approach did not guarantee that all the residents affected by relocation were able to relocate to new homes in their neighbourhood.

152

The next issue that was identified as vital in terms of the planning strategy process is the question of tenure. As mentioned earlier, one of HMR goals was changing the tenure ratio in the intervention areas. While the aim was to keep the areas mixed in tenure, the objective was to change the tenure ratio from social tenure to owner occupiers. This meant not only that the residents were offered the opportunity to change their tenure in the relocation process but that the new housing provided following the demolition usually had a different tenure mix than the areas earmarked for demolition.

Box 6-11 Planning strategy: tenure mix

‗The percentage of affordable housing doesn‘t necessarily respond to number of households moving out of a clearance area … The result is that in some cases residents relocate in close proximity of their old property and that in other cases they relocate within the borders of the local authority‘ (EEL Respondent S1-2).

This meant that, depending on the planned project tenure ratio a percentage of the residents were relocated back into their old neighbourhood (given that construction was completed by the time they needed to relocate) while others did not have the opportunity to do so

Figure 6-2: Planning Strategy and Residential Relocation Scheme

Based on Pathfinder Survey and Secondary Data Analysis.

RR- residential relocation

APP – alternative property provision

153

Figure 6-2: Planning Strategy and Residential Relocation Scheme presents the options for relocation provided depending on the approach to planning strategy and tenure mix ratio.

Planning strategy is a defining process in terms of residential relocation. It sets the key options for relocation, whether it plans for it or not. This section showed that the projects involving residential relocation had different planning strategies. Therefore, the extent to which re-housing on the same site was intended for residential relocation-affected residents and the extent to which residential relocation outcomes were shaped by other residential relocation processes differed from the outset.

The graph above Figure 6-2 (Planning Strategy and Residential Relocation Scheme) indicates the complexity as well as the variety of forms that relocation within a project took, depending on the planning strategy adopted. This said, planning strategy does not have the capacity to shape the residential relocation outcomes entirely. In cases where relocation was not attended to in the planning strategy because of the way demolition was justified or because of the planned tenure mix, the residents had to find an alternative property through other means, supported by other relocation processes (identified in this study), which are described in the following sections.