\n<\/p>\n
Hundreds of families in one of England\u2019s poorest neighbourhoods will be evicted under a \u00a390m plan described by critics as a \u201cmass dispersion\u201d of vulnerable people.<\/p>\n
Four hundred homes in Blackpool will be bulldozed this summer and replaced with 230 new properties under levelling up proposals signed off by Rishi Sunak\u2019s government. The area has more than 800 people \u2013 about 250 of them children \u2013 who are in the poorest 10th of the population of England, according to official documents.<\/p>\n
Matthew Lockwood, a church leader, said residents were \u201cbewildered, angry and distraught\u201d and risked being made homeless in a \u201cmass dispersion of statistically some of the most vulnerable people in the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
Chris Webb, the Labour MP for Blackpool South, is understood to have raised concerns about the scheme after an angry and emotional public meeting last month.<\/p>\n
The demolitions in the Rydal Avenue area of central Blackpool highlight Britain\u2019s chronic shortage of affordable housing and the urgent need to improve lives in areas of entrenched poverty.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Paul Kimberlin says he will \u2018fight the bulldozers all the way\u2019 to try to stop the demolition of his Blackpool home.<\/span> Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Blackpool council insists the project is a vital part of the \u201csystematic and wholesale\u201d regeneration of the town. Lynn Williams, the local authority\u2019s leader, said: \u201cI can\u2019t comprehend how any community leader can say regenerating one of the most deprived areas of the country is a bad thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Residents have raised concerns that the demolitions will worsen the seaside town\u2019s housing crisis by significantly reducing the number of affordable properties.<\/p>\n Blackpool has one of the lowest levels of social housing in England \u2013 about 10% of all properties, compared with 17% nationwide. Nearly 12,000 households were on the social housing waiting list this year, according to official figures.<\/p>\n The council was awarded \u00a390m by Michael Gove, the former levelling up secretary, in March last year as part of the Homes England agenda.<\/p>\n It plans to demolish up to 400 \u201cpoor quality\u201d houses and replace them with 230 \u201chigh quality, energy efficient\u201d properties, including upmarket townhouses.<\/p>\n It said a large number of the homes to be flattened did not meet basic living standards and were unsafe, empty or overcrowded. Inspections of 679 homes found that two-thirds had a category one hazard \u2013 meaning a risk to life or serious injury \u2013 and 74% did not meet the decent homes standard.<\/p>\n However, a masterplan for the area produced in partnership with Blackpool council in 2019 described many of the homes as \u201cgood quality\u201d and an \u201cexcellent example of early 20th century terraced housing that has been proven suitable for a successful and sustainable residential community\u201d.<\/p>\n A council impact assessment identifies more than 800 people in the regeneration zone, including 50 toddlers and about 200 children aged under 15. A quarter of the residents are disabled and about 80 are over 65.<\/p>\n Lockwood said about 300 families would be evicted under the scheme and the anxiety and \u201cpowerlessness\u201d was exacerbating their mental distress.<\/p>\n <\/span>A quarter of the people living in the regeneration zone are disabled.<\/span> Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n In October, a coroner ruled that the council\u2019s forced purchase of a 34-year-old resident\u2019s house under a separate regeneration plan had contributed to his suicide.<\/p>\n An inquest heard that Alistair Taylor, a barber and father of four, felt \u201cbullied, cajoled and intimidated\u201d by the council before it seized his home to make way for a \u00a354m education campus last year.<\/p>\n The coroner, Alan Wilson, ruled that the compulsory purchase order played a \u201cmore than minimal role\u201d in his death and described the council\u2019s approach as having a \u201clack of focus and thought but not ill feeling\u201d.<\/p>\n A council spokesperson said it could not say how many of the 230 new homes would be social or affordable housing. However, they said two similar schemes had been wholly social housing and had lowered poverty levels.<\/p>\n Williams said officials had held \u201cdozens\u201d of sessions for residents and had engaged with the community for nearly a year. She added: \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely not lost on us that we are talking about people\u2019s homes and we\u2019re very conscious that for tenants and local residents this kind of change can be unsettling.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the residents due to be evicted, Paul Kimberlin, said he would fight the bulldozers \u201call the way\u201d.<\/p>\n <\/span>Official figures show that 800 people living in the redevelopment area in Blackpool belong to the poorest 10% of the population of England.<\/span> Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Kimberlin, 64, bought his three-bedroom property with his partner in 2018 because they had always wanted to live by the sea.<\/p>\n His partner died from cancer in July and the house they shared meant \u201ceverything\u201d to him, he said, adding: \u201cI\u2019m suffering with depression from losing my husband and anxiety and stress from what\u2019s going on \u2013 the council are causing me so much heartache.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a perfectly warm property. There\u2019s nothing wrong with it and there\u2019s nowhere to move to \u2013 there\u2019s a shortage of housing in the whole country so why are they knocking 400 down to build 230?\u201d<\/p>\n Kimberlin said he turned down the council\u2019s offer of the market value of his house, \u00a396,000, plus \u00a315,000 in compensation: \u201cThat wouldn\u2019t buy a hovel down South Shore [in Blackpool]. It wouldn\u2019t buy a cardboard box and if it did it would be damp.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not moving so they\u2019re going to have to drag me out of here in handcuffs\u201d.<\/p>\n His neighbours, Brian and Rose Timmins, said they had reluctantly agreed to leave their beloved Victorian terrace after the council offered to move them into supported accommodation.<\/p>\n Brian, 78, said the house had been in his family since it was built a century ago: \u201cI don\u2019t want to move but we haven\u2019t got much choice. There\u2019s no damp, no cold \u2013 structurally there\u2019s nothing wrong with these properties. The only way we planned to leave was feet first through the front door. I\u2019ll be sad to see it go.\u201d<\/p>\n Another resident, who did not want to be named, said the prospect of being evicted by her landlord was \u201ctraumatic\u201d because no properties were available for the \u00a3650 a month rent she pays for her and her four children, aged eight to 15.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been told by the council to look at private rented but all the available properties are \u00a31,300 a month \u2013 there\u2019s no way I can afford that. I\u2019d like to see the area nice but if we want to come back we would have to apply and they would be far too expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hundreds of families in one of England\u2019s poorest neighbourhoods will be evicted under a \u00a390m plan described by critics as a \u201cmass dispersion\u201d of vulnerable people. Four hundred homes in Blackpool will be bulldozed this summer and replaced with 230 new properties under levelling up proposals signed off by Rishi Sunak\u2019s government. The area has<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[12527,21549,7809,2932,1264,2160,1472,364,417],"class_list":{"0":"post-39877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-blackpool","9":"tag-dispersion","10":"tag-evicted","11":"tag-families","12":"tag-housing","13":"tag-hundreds","14":"tag-mass","15":"tag-people","16":"tag-vulnerable"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}