Deep cuts threaten ‘years of turmoil’ in region

PARTS of Yorkshire face being left to “sink or swim” because the Government has failed to come up with an adequate plan to deal with massive cuts in regeneration funding, Ministers were warned.

MPs say Ministers “should be rather more concerned” than they currently appear to be that up to 90 per cent of regeneration schemes have stalled.

MPs warn they risk storing up economic and social problems for years to come.

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Spending on “core” regeneration will fall from £11.2bn in 2009/10 to just £3.9bn this financial year – a 65 per cent cut – which even the Government admits is “posing challenges” to some areas.

But Ministers have so far failed to produce an adequate strategy to find new sources of funding to ensure projects such as housing regeneration schemes and town and city centre redevelopments can be completed, says a report from the Commons Communities and Local Government select committee published today.

Sheffield South East MP Clive Betts, who chairs the committee, said: “The Government has cut public funding for regeneration programmes dramatically and has produced no adequate ‘strategy’ for regeneration sufficient to tackle the deep-seated problems that our faced by our most deprived communities.

“Without further investment targeted at places most in need, Ministers are storing up serious social, economic and environmental problems for the future.”

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Many towns and cities in Yorkshire have been overhauled over the past decade with major developments that have breathed fresh life into them.

But while billions of pounds were spent under Labour, there was also widespread criticism that work failed to address underlying social issues, and too often focused on town centres rather than troublesome residential areas.

But funding has now been badly hit as the Government seeks to reduce the deficit, raising major question marks over the future of the schemes.

MPs believe that the “abruptness” of cuts will create “substantial problems for many communities”. Leeds City Region officials warned in evidence to the committee that cuts are “seriously jeopardising” the completion of long-term regeneration projects in the region. Projects to revive the centres of Bradford and Barnsley are in “hiatus” as a result.

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Hull City Council has also been critical of cuts to funding for the Housing Market Renewal project – which has sought to revive troubled areas by demolishing some homes and renovating others.

They warned there is a “significant risk” that some of the £130m already spent “will be wasted”.

The difficulties have also been highlighted in the Yorkshire Post’s Give us a Fair Deal campaign, with many northern areas in line to be harder hit than more affluent parts of the south.

The committee accuses the Government of glibly dismissing previous regeneration programmes as “unsustainable” and “unaffordable” without attempting to learn any lessons, sparking calls for an “urgent review” to be carried out.

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MPs say the Government must come up with an adequate strategy for regeneration and should urgently investigate new funding sources such as allowing local authorities to borrow against future business rates, making sure Enterprise Zones benefit deprived areas and making better use of public land.

But Housing Minister Grant Shapps said measures like Local Enterprise Partnerships and Enterprise Zones would help create jobs and revive areas. He also promised more funding for people living in the “worst affected streets”.

He said: “It has certainly been tough picking up the pieces after Labour’s disastrous attempts at regeneration, which amounted to bulldozing buildings and knocking down neighbourhoods in some of the most deprived areas of the country, while desperately hoping someone might come along to reorder the rubble.”