Regeneration

Description:The regenerated Castle Vale
Photograph by Tricia Crummay

In 1991 the Director of Housing at Birmingham City Council heard about the Housing Action Trust in North Hull and wondered whether a similar approach might work in Castle Vale. There followed much political discussion, campaigning and community consultation. Under the powers of the 1988 Housing Act, and following a feasibility study by the Council, a positive tenant/leaseholders' ballot in 1993 saw 92% in favour of a transfer. In 1993 Castle Vale Housing Action Trust (HAT) was set up to improve housing and general living conditions in Castle Vale and the estate, formally transferred from Birmingham City Council to the HAT in 1994.
HATs are non-departmental public bodies, each managed by a board appointed by the Deputy Prime Minister. The boards include residents elected as representatives of the estates and members of the local authority. The Castle Vale HAT was one of six HATs in the UK, funded by the Government through the Department of the Environment Transport and the Regions, set up to regenerate some of the most deprived local authority estates in England. Castle Vale HAT was one of the largest in the country and involved around £300 million of public and private investment.
The HAT's task was no less than the complete and lasting regeneration of Castle Vale and the reversal of nearly 30 years of physical, social and economic decline.
This meant:
•Improving and redeveloping housing.
•Improving the "quality of life" on the estate, i.e, the economic, social, living, health and environmental conditions.
•Providing a wider choice of tenure and forms of home ownership.
•Providing an effective service as
Landlord.
•Working with the community to ensure that the positive changes were maintained well into the future.

The physical problems of Castle Vale were of design, layout and construction. The estate is isolated by the major roads and railway lines that form its well defined boundaries. The approach taken by the HAT was to stimulate employment, involve and empower local people and community groups, address health and social needs, improve the environment as well as provide new homes and a major retail shopping centre. The HAT's preferred approach was one that was 'holistic', focusing not only on improving the physical fabric but addressing all the issues that affected people's quality of life.

In all areas of the HAT’s work, the HAT recognised that it alone couldn’t solve all the problems and adopted a multi-agency approach in practically all of its initiatives, including:
• Empowerment / succession strategy for the post-HAT estate
• Healthy Living
• Addressing crime & anti-social behaviour
• Improving the environment
• Sport, Leisure and the Arts in the community
• Opportunities for the young

*Information provided by CVCHA.