Regeneration good practice guide
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Innovation and Good Practice in Regenerating Communities: Learning from the Housing Market Pathfinders

Welcome to the compendium of good practice and learning from the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders.

This resource has been created to be of use to all housing and regeneration organisations across the country. It contains examples of the activities of pathfinders and their partners that are likely to be useful in all housing market contexts, as well as to all those operating at a local level to tackle unpopular housing and in regenerating areas suffering from multiple deprivation.

While the goal of sustainable market outcomes are still being pursued in pathfinder areas, learning and transferable lessons are now apparent and are due for passing on to others.

This guide aims to capture some of the most innovative, replicable and proven examples of good practice from the pathfinders and partners which others may find of use and interest when considering how to tackle their own complex regeneration challenges. The guide contains outline information of almost 70 examples of good practice within 12 themes linked to detailed case studies, and provides contacts for further advice and information.

Housing Market Renewal and the Pathfinders

Market Renewal is a unique approach to regeneration that aims to take a holistic sub regional approach to tackle issues of low demand housing and dysfunctional housing markets in order to help achieve sustainable communities. While this sub regional focus has a number of lessons for policy makers operating at this geographic level, pathfinders and partners are also intervening in different ways in local areas and so the programme has many transferable lessons for those engaged in housing and regeneration at all levels.

The housing market renewal programme was established in 2002 and currently operates in 12 sub regional areas spanning parts of 38 local authority areas. By 2011, government will have committed £2.2 billion to the programme, which has also attracted a range of other public and private sector resources. The programme was designed to give pathfinders considerable flexibility in developing their approaches to tackling the issues that they faced, with a 'mandate to experiment'. Implicit in the selection of particular areas to be 'pathfinders' was that lessons would be learned and passed on to others. Early estimates suggested that up to 120 local authority areas were suffering to some extent from issues of low demand housing. 

The Audit Commission’s ongoing work with pathfinders, as a critical friend and reviewer of programmes since 2003, has identified much emerging good practice in regenerating communities where others could learn from pathfinder experiences. In spite of the challenges of working almost exclusively in sub regional areas and local neighbourhoods where the housing market has been moribund for many years, pathfinders and their partners are beginning to succeed in:

  • developing improved strategic alignment of policies at a sub-regional level;
  • substantial cross boundary and authority working;
  • stimulating private sector development;
  • championing design quality and sustainability;
  • facilitating thoughtful community engagement;
  • researching and understanding market dynamics;
  • focusing on place shaping and place marketing;
  • maximising resources in partnership with the private sector; and
  • facilitating skills training and employment opportunities.

While this compendium doesn't cover every aspect of pathfinders' activity, or all possible examples, we consider that these represent a good range and starting point to enable others to learn from the market renewal approach. Lessons are also regularly disseminated in our periodic housing market renewal bulletins.

The detailed case studies submitted by the pathfinders were reviewed by a panel including senior practitioners and academics in regeneration and housing market renewal. They aim to capture how an issue was dealt with, its development and outputs and how it might be replicated. The applicability to other areas will need to be assessed by other organisations wishing to learn from this resource. It should be remembered that activities in each theme are not occurring in isolation and many are complimentary and dependant on activity in other themes for increased likelihood of success.

Links to technical documents and web pages are also provided, as well as contact details for those interested in pursuing particular approaches. In addition you can contact the Audit Commission's Housing Markets Renewal Team (email link) if you have any comments or if you would like more information.

We hope this compendium proves useful in informing housing market and regeneration policy and interventions at strategic and operational levels. It will be periodically updated and you can help us to improve it by completing our short feedback form.

  
Contact us:

For further information about the good practice in this guide or to feedback your views on the guide itself, please email the housing markets team or complete our short feedback form.

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