Regeneration of East Lancashire is still vital

10:44am Wednesday 30th April 2008

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FOR the past decade this country has enjoyed unprecedented rises in house prices.

East Lancashire has been no exception and there has been a substantial amount of new home building since the millennium as developers have put estates on former industrial and commercial sites in and around Blackburn and other towns.

But in this region more than most there is still an awful lot to do as we have much old, unfit housing which needs to be knocked down and replaced.

Unfortunately the global credit crisis sparked off by the American sub prime mortgage scandal has spread across the Atlantic and is beginning to slow down England's property market too.

In some parts of the country prices are dropping as demand falls.

Here in East Lancashire it may be that the failure of Blackburn's Hamilton Street development to sell is a sign that we are moving towards a buyers' market which could be good news for those who can raise mortgage funding.

But hopefully what appears to have happened in Hamilton Street will prove to be a "one-off" which won't affect progress towards the sorely-needed regeneration of large pockets of East Lancashire housing.