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£150m boost for housing renewal
7:52pm Thursday 28th February 2008
By Tom Moseley »
REGENERATION bosses promised to revamp East Lancashire homes after earning a £150million Government grant.
The cash will be given to Elevate, the company behind the Housing Market Renewal scheme, over the next three years, taking its total funding since 2003 to £317million.
Elevate chief executive Max Steinberg said he was "delighted" with the outcome.
The award, the highest ever given to Elevate, is the second-largest of the nine areas in England in the Housing Market Renewal programme.
Mr Steinberg said: "We prepared a very strong business case and clearly we have been listened to."
He said one of the reasons East Lancashire had fared so well was the co-operation between different councils.
The Government had recog-nised East Lancashire's housing market needed investment, he added.
Elevate had lobbied the Government for a total of £156 million.
It is not known how much the other eight areas had asked for cash from the £1 billion pot.
The Merseyside New Heartlands scheme will get £152million, the Salford scheme will receive £140million and Oldham Rochdale Partners in Action £90million.
Under Housing Market Renewal, houses are refurbished or knocked down to make way for redevelopment in an attempt to improve the housing market.
Elevate has been criticised for not building enough houses and concentrating on demolition.
Mr Steinberg said it was too early to be specific on the number of houses to be built, but said money would be ploughed into existing refurbishment sites in Darwen, Blackburn Infirmary, and Pendle's Canal Corridor.
And projects will start at Woodnook in Accrington and Burnley Wood.
The money will be divided up between councils, which have already submitted separate bids to Elevate.
In the coming year Blackburn with Darwen will be given £12.6 million, Burnley £14.4 million, Hyndburn £8.6 million, Pendle £10.6 million and Rossendale £2.6 million.
Blackburn council leader Colin Rigby said: "That's the amount we were looking for, and Max has done his job in getting it.
"We need it - we still need more, but we've got to be grateful.
"This is good news for the borough, now we have to sit down and make the best use of it."
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bob, darwen says...
11:47pm Thu 28 Feb 08
julia wrote:Good news. I look forward to having the money spent on my house soon - the block repairs already carried out in Darwen are great.
your house will be next.
Me, The Burn says...
12:55pm Fri 29 Feb 08
parolee, here says...
2:33pm Fri 29 Feb 08
bob wrote:you must be stupid i have worked on these so called tarting up jobs on the way into towns .It's all bogded and exprosoners and day release people doing it .The ytake the **** they have even pointed walls with just sand lol all cosmetic crap give it 2/3 years and all they did will peel of and need doing again lol
julia wrote: your house will be next.Good news. I look forward to having the money spent on my house soon - the block repairs already carried out in Darwen are great.
Nigel St. Hubbins, Darwen says...
1:47pm Sat 1 Mar 08
Elevate has been criticised for not building enough houses and concentrating on demolition.
That should read ANY , all they seem to do is knock the houses down and leave wasteland for the kids to play and get injured on. Absolute waste of time.
MIKEOXLONG, says...
1:54pm Sun 2 Mar 08
Andy Mullen, Athens, Greece. says...
8:56pm Sun 2 Mar 08
Have you got a photo of him depressed?
dusty, hyndburn says...
1:47pm Tue 4 Mar 08
Me, The Burn on is right, the whole idea was to give local contractors work and it's not happened. Most of the contractors being used are large multi-national companies!!
MIKEOXLONG is talking crap. Most of the properties I've worked on recently have been decent hardworking people, or retired folk who've done their best to maintain their properties. But when a re-slate can cost £4k+, it's beyond most people's pockets. Get real muppet. I work and earn a decent wage but I cant afford all the stuff that needs going to my house.
As for elevate - what a shower of crap. Get rid of them and their fat cat salaries and there'll be more money to spend in the boroughs - they're more interested in moving offices, inventing jobs and procedures - all costing pheominal amounts of money. As for £10.6m for pendle, I'll believe it when I see it - the figures & article are misleading beyond belief. Trust me I've seen it first hand since the day elevate began.
dawn hilton, www.thesexyartist.co
.uk says...
1:29am Wed 5 Mar 08
Guess all these homes are for those people?
Doubt it, only 10% of any new development goes to rentable housing.
If you look at my website, you can see Accrington getting develop[ed ready for the "YUPPIES" FROM MANCHESTER OVERSPILL .
IMRAN, Pendle says...
9:41pm Wed 5 Mar 08
Someone is getting conned!!!
image, burnley says...
11:27pm Thu 6 Mar 08
IMRAN wrote:the best thing is you can post a little bit about it on here but try writing to the actual paper to get them to investigate or even print your letter hahahah all they do is ring their brownnose mates in the council and they say don't believe them and hey presto everything is back to normal.the worst papers in the world are the telegraph and the express .
Totally agree with Dusty. Elevate just get paid a load of money for actually not doing much. I am a resident of one of the areas that has recently received Elevate Funding and the amount of money being claimed for the external improvements for each house on Lomeshaye Road was in the region of £35000.00, all this included was a sandblast, replacement windows, reslate, new guttering and fancy railings, I have friends in the trade who work on large developments for Bovis, Barratt etc and they informed me that the monies involved in improving these properties is way overboard. On top of that the quality of the work and the material used is second rate, the majority of all the doors have actually split INSIDE 6 MONTHS! Someone is getting conned!!!
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DELIGHTED: Elevate chief executive Max Steinberg
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julia, Blackburn says...
10:04pm Thu 28 Feb 08