Liverpool Regeneration - Pathfinder Scheme 2010/2011
The Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders were introduced by the Labour government in 2002 to tackle housing market decline in nine areas across northern England and the Midlands. The policy aimed to regenerate deprived neighbourhoods suffering from low demand, empty properties and falling house prices. It funded home refurbishment, selective demolition and new housing to attract residents and private investment, creating more sustainable communities.
The Conservative–Liberal Democrat Coalition government ended the programme’s dedicated funding in March 2011, following its 2010 Spending Review. It argued that the scheme relied too heavily on demolition, wasted public money, damaged historic buildings and caused community displacement. Critics of the cancellation countered that the abrupt withdrawal left regeneration projects unfinished, homes boarded up and communities in further decline.
“The friction in L7 and L8 during 2009 ultimately forced a national policy rethink. When the Coalition Government abruptly axed the entire Pathfinder scheme in 2010/2011, it left L7 and L8 in a state of limbo that took a decade of community-led restoration and alternative private rental remodeling (such as the Placefirst project in the Welsh Streets) to resolve.”
https://www.councils.coop/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/LIVERPOOL-CASE-STUDY.pdf
“…tinned-up street after tinned-up street, with wastelands in between.”
“Liverpool's rotting, shocking 'housing renewal': how did it come to this?”
“Social cleansing sold as 'Pathfinder' has left areas like Anfield in half-demolished limbo. Yet its champions won't back down”
Owen Hatherley - The Guardian Wed 27 Mar 2013
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/27/liverpool-rotting-housing-renewal-pathfinder
