One of the key responsibilities of local authorities is to preserve their local environments which will often entail the comprehensive regeneration of an area. Housing is a key part of urban renewal and is frequently the driving issue behind the establishment of renewal areas by local authorities. Environmental Health Practitioners are at the forefront of the housing aspects of renewal areas.
Renewal areas are based on partnership approaches to engage communities and to stimulate private investment alongside public resources. One of the key aims of renewal areas is to encourage confidence in an area and thereby halt its decline. Areas in decline invariably include abandoned houses and houses in a poor state of repair.
Local authorities have to publish their policies on private sector renewal and how they will provide financial assistance to support home owners. They also have to undertake a socio-economic assessment of the area(s) in question. This to ensure that a renewal area is the most effective way of improving conditions in the area; they also need to consult local residents before during and after the declaration.
In order to justify the declaration of an area, local authorities have to produce a report setting out:
- The living conditions in the area
- Ways in which those conditions may be improved
- Powers available and the local authority’s detailed proposals to exercise these
- The cost and financial resources available.
The key method used to evaluate an area to ensure that a local authority has a thorough understanding of the relevant issues (and the views of stakeholders) is via a Neighbourhood Renewal Assessment (NRA). It is necessary that an NRA be carried out to provide assurance that the declaration of a renewal area is the most effective way of improving living conditions in the area
The NRA process involves:
- An understanding of present and future housing demand, the local population and economy (possibly working with adjacent local authorities)
- An awareness of the role of other services including education, transport infrastructure, health and crime in respect of local markets
- Collation of stock condition information across tenures and the investment need over the proposed renewal area period.
The NRA process can only be fully successful if the local authority takes a wide corporate approach. Housing is a fundamental part of area renewal but it is not the only part. The NRA process is based on a series of logical steps that, when taken together, provide a thorough and systematic appraisal for considering alternative courses of action in an area.
There are many ways to tackle the problems of an area. The main reason for undertaking an NRA assessment is to decide whether or not a renewal area is likely to be the right way of tackling the problems of a particular neighbourhood.
The key part of the NRA process is the development and justification of a preferred strategy, such as a statutory renewal area. If a local authority is to embark on the process it is crucial that the LA knows exactly what it wants to achieve in an area. It also needs to know why and how it can go about it.