Nick Brown with Housing Minister John Healey in Byker

The Minister for Housing, John Healey MP today joined Newcastle East MP Nick Brown and Byker Councillors Nick Kemp, Geordie Allison and Veronica Dunn along with local residents to announce a proposal for a community housing trust. This will offer local people a leading and decision making role in the regeneration of the famous estate whilst securing millions of pounds of much needed investment in the regeneration of the iconic Byker Wall.

Today’s unprecedented announcement shows the commitment of the Labour Government to securing the future of this unique, iconic and internationally renowned estate. The Government is proposing to wipe off the debt of the Byker Estate Housing Stock to free up funds for renovations.

Nick Brown said: “I welcome today’s announcement by John Healey. It would not have been possible without a Labour Housing Minister directly intervening to set up the Byker taskgroup and recognising the unique features of the Byker Estate.

“This offer recognises the very special circumstances of the Byker development. We can make this a really exciting, fresh start for the Byker estate. The debt write-off is fantastic news underpinning the proposed community housing trust and a multi-million pound budget for investment in the estate.”

“This is a way forward for the community to secure millions of pound of investment to regenerate the estate. It is now crucial that the proposals are explained to the community who must have the final say.”

Housing Minister John Healey MP said: “Nick Brown is a great champion of Byker, but his passion to do something radical for the estate was brought home to me when I became Housing Minister. He has constantly pressed the residents’ case with government, and today’s announcement is the basis for helping them build a new future.”

Newcastle City Council had a bid rejected for PFI cash to upgrade the area in July, with the Housing Department saying at the time that the bid had failed to meet “any of the required criteria”. Mr Healey personally intervened at Nick’s request, and said today that he was determined to find a way forward for the project.

After looking round the estate Mr Healey said: “This is everything that people told me about Byker. Nick Brown told me how strong the community spirit it, and that people want to live here.

“The big challenge now is dealing with the issues around how it was built and the materials it was built with, but I have seen what is so special about Byker.”

47 councils across the country were told today that they would receive a share of the new money, which will lead to thousands of social homes being built, and an estimated 5000 jobs being created. Housing Minister John Healey called it “the biggest council house building project for almost two decades”.

Newcastle East MP Nick Brown said: “There’s a high demand for council housing for rent in Newcastle. We should have bid for this money and Newcastle City Council didn’t.

“This tells you everything you need to know about the Liberal Democrats and their hopeless one-star regeneration department, who have let Newcastle down again.

“There is going to be a second round of funding and Newcastle City Council ought to get its act together and submit a bid for the city.

“Some 51 councils managed to submit bids, of which 47 were successful.”

You can read about the new homes which are going to be built in the North East in today’s Chronicle.

Homeowners Mortgage Support will from today allow borrowers to reduce their monthly mortgage interest payments to affordable levels for up to two years. This will support households who may have had working hours reduced or overtime cut or perhaps had two incomes and are now relying on one pay packet.

It will make a major difference by giving families more breathing space to come through a difficult period without the threat of repossession.

Lenders offering HMS will have the backing of Government financial guarantee that will protect the deferred payments. At the same time, some lenders have today confirmed that they will offer an equivalent deal to HMS, but without taking up the option of Government financial support.

As a result of today’s news, lenders covering more than 80 per cent of the mortgage market will now be providing enhanced support to their customers who may be facing difficulties at the moment.

Borrowers participating in HMS are able to postpone up to 70% of their monthly payments for up to two years. It is not a payment holiday – the money postponed is added on to the remaining balance of the mortgage, to be paid back when the homeowner leaves the scheme.

Nick Brown MP said: “This is welcome news, this starts from today. It’s real help now, for local people who are trying to hold down a job and mortgage payments through difficult times.”

The Agency have got off to a great start with this launch coming 4 months ahead of schedule.

This is what we are trying to do:

• create opportunity for people to live in high quality, sustainable places
• provide funding for affordable housing;
• to bring land back into productive use
• Improve quality of life by raising standards for the physical and social environment.

How we are going about doing it:

By bringing together the investment functions of the Housing Corporation, all of English Partnerships, the Academy for Sustainable Communities and the delivery programmes of CLG such as Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders, Growth Points and the Places of Change programme.

We’ve created a national agency that will work and deliver locally.

The regional structure is a good fit with the other agencies that focus on public service delivery in our region.

The case for the new structure is well made, but it couldn’t have come about at a more fortuitous time.

The recessionary forces at work in our economy have had an impact on most sectors, but surely none more so than the housing market.

In our region the housing market is intimately linked to the broader prospects for economic regeneration.

Just as we work our way through the downturn we should also build our way through it.

The Government response:

• A £200 million Mortgage Rescue Scheme is now live across the whole country and aims to help 6,000 of the most vulnerable households facing repossession over the next two years.

• In the North East, four local authorities agreed to be ‘fast track’ authorities and operate the scheme before it went national. These are:

• Stockton
• Middlesbrough
• Darlington
• North Tyneside

• There is also a Homeowner Mortgage Support Scheme to enable households that experience a significant and temporary loss of income as a result of the economic downturn to defer a proportion of the interest payments on their mortgage for up to two years.

• The Government has also doubled the capital limit on which eligibility for Income Support for Mortgage Interest is calculated to £200,000

• HomeBuy Direct is a new shared equity scheme designed to help up to 18,000 First-Time Buyers into affordable home ownership. The scheme will also help participating house builders by enabling more First-Time Buyers to purchase their newly built properties. The scheme has been allocated £400m of Communities and Local Government funding. Through this programme £39.5 million will be invested in the North East region, assisting in the purchase of more than 1,600 homes in schemes such as North Ormesby in Middlesbrough, Parkside Crescent in Widdrington, Northumberland and Hadrian Mews in Wallsend.

• The scheme will be offered on specific new build properties brought forward by developers. Buyers will be offered an equity loan of up to 30 per cent of the purchase price, co-funded by Government and the developer.

• Government has also been working with lenders to encourage them to resume investing in property. It is encouraging to see that Northern Rock has announced that it is to start lending again with loan-to-value rates of 80 per cent.

• The Government has also brought forward £400 million in order to deliver up to 5,500 new social homes

The Agencies Response:

The Homes and Communities Agency brings together the strengths of a number of organisations under one body which can provide a range of support to meet local needs.

• Since December last year, the Homes and Communities Agency has brought forward more than £8 million of investment that has allowed local Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) to buy more than 180 high quality homes in areas of strong demand such as the Staiths development in Gateshead and Northumberland Park in North Tyneside.

• This investment not only supports the needs of those seeking affordable housing in the region, it also gives much needed certainty to private sector development partners that enables them to continue to invest in developing new homes, while retaining jobs within the region.

• I know that Pat Ritchie and her team have continued to meet with RSLs and private developers in the region to discuss their needs in the current economic climate.

• This is the right approach. By engaging with these partners directly the Homes and Communities Agency can identify where and how to target investment and support to meet local needs and ensure projects can be delivered successfully on time.

• In places such as Scotswood in Newcastle this will mean a comprehensive regeneration in a massive scheme that will deliver 1,800 new homes, transform the image of the area and require an investment of £30 million.

• At the other end of the scale on Holy Island, in the north of the region, the Homes and Communities Agency has partnered with its first ever community land trust (CLT) to secure the delivery of the four affordable homes that will help to maintain vitality in the community there. This partnership between the CLT, Homes and Communities Agency and Tudor Trust will help to tackle issues of affordability in an area where the average house price is 18 times the income of local residents. The HCA grant of £200,000 will help to meet a third of the cost of providing these homes.

• Also the Homes and Communities Agency has worked with the local community at Mandale and Stockton Council, NomadE5 and Barratt Homes to develop a plan for a new, mixed community with excellent green spaces. By developing new private houses for sale as well as social rented homes, the community in Mandale has been completely transformed. Proof of this transformation is that even in the current climate homes are continuing to sell in the new Mandale. This community-led regeneration has been nominated for a number of national awards.

The housing market in our region has some clear features:

• The link between economic regeneration and housing (as I said earlier)

• Owner occupation is not the only model for those in work.

• Demand for rent, extends well beyond social housing.

• Strength of cooperative model and way of working in the North east. ONE and ANEC.

It is essential that the agency is a vehicle for delivery, works well as part of a team in the North East, avoids the dangerous error of process substituting for delivery.

The government’s intervention means that Council house residents across the North East will not have to pay above inflation rent increases, as long as councils bid for the money and pass the cut on to residents. This is part of the Government’s efforts to provide support for people in the economic downturn by intervening to make up for the lost revenue.

However on the week that it came to light that Lib Dem controlled Newcastle City Council had decided not to bid to bring forward £3.5m spending school building projects, Nick Brown has demanded that Newcastle bid for the government money to cut the rent increase in half.

Nick Brown MP said: “This will be widely welcomed in the region. It is a chance for councils to cut housing rent rises in half, providing real help now, for council house residents.

“In Newcastle, the council has proposed to increase the cost of housing by 6.31% from April. The Labour government has decided that this is not fair.

“Following the Lib Dems decision in Newcastle not to bid to get our fair share of school investment, I am demanding that they bid for the governments money and cut the rate increases in halve for hard working families.”