Open Letter

We sent an open letter on 5 May 2020 to Gareth Swarbrick, Chief Executive, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing, Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, Paul Dennett, GMCA Portfolio Holder for Housing, Homelessness and Infrastructure, Tony Lloyd, Member of Parliament for Rochdale, Robert Jenrick, Secretary of State for Housing Communities and Local Government.

In support of the recent and unprecedented cross-party statement made by 57 Rochdale councillors, we are writing this open letter to call for the immediate and indefinite halt to the current ‘regeneration’ scheme on College Bank and Lower Falinge in Rochdale.

These two post-war housing estates have a special place in Rochdale’s proud council housing history as they brought over 1,300 new, modern, low-cost and secure council homes to a town centre previously dominated by slum housing and private landlords. The ‘Seven Sisters’ tower blocks on College Bank remain an iconic landmark for Rochdale and the Pennines skyline.

Like many estates across the country, College Bank and Lower Falinge were let down by decades of disinvestment from social housing. The need for finance led Rochdale council to ‘stock transfer’ its council housing to a new organisation, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing Ltd (RBH), in March 2012. 

Residents were promised that RBH would be no normal housing association: tenants and employees would co-own the organisation as a mutual echoing Rochdale’s cooperative history and ethos. At no point was there talk of bulldozing homes. 

We are shocked, therefore, that RBH now plans to demolish over 800 precious homes for social rent on these two estates, despite public opposition from residents and more recently Rochdale council itself.

While RBH has promised that it will replace demolished homes with more homes than before, current information suggests there will be a net loss of hundreds of homes for social rent. RBH does not have planning permission or funding in place for its redevelopment plans, and cannot confirm eventual numbers or types of homes that would be built.

Rochdale cannot afford to lose any social housing and needs much more: it has nearly 7000 households on the housing waiting list, one of the highest rates of homelessness in the North West (182 people in March 2019) and the number of families in B&Bs is nearly six times the national average. Demolishing social housing will simply exacerbate the housing crisis in Rochdale.

Then there is the stress and anxiety experienced by residents of College Bank and Lower Falinge, forced to live in limbo with little or contradictory information about their future and the threat of losing their homes and being displaced from the area hanging over them. The stress is being compounded by the lack of rehousing options: residents facing demolition have been told they have ‘no right to return’, only a vague promise of being able to live in the ‘town centre’ where there are routinely no homes available. 

This is having terrible effects on residents’ physical and mental health, made worse by the threat of a deadly virus and the social isolation we are all experiencing. Tragically, two residents threatened with home loss have recently suffered strokes and one of those died. 

As the Greater Manchester death toll continues to rise from the global coronavirus pandemic, hundreds of empty homes earmarked for demolition on College bank and Lower Falinge could be providing a safe home for families currently in often unsuitable and overcrowded temporary accommodation where self-isolation is virtually impossible.

Re-homing families on the estate would in turn help to free up temporary accommodation for other homeless households including rough sleepers, better protecting them from the pandemic whilst reducing the enormous costs of using hotels. Given the current urgent need for housing, RBH should not be in possession of any vacant properties.

We believe that to continue with this regeneration scheme now during the worst pandemic in a hundred years would be criminal. While we acknowledge the important work RBH is doing right now in supporting vulnerable households affected by the lockdown, RBH should be focusing 100% on supporting all existing residents to remain healthy, and protecting the homeless in Rochdale who are more vulnerable to illness and less able to take preventative measures than those in secure housing. It can only do this if it permanently stops this regeneration scheme and redirects those human and financial resources to saving lives.

Once the pandemic is over or at the very least under control, we would urge RBH, Rochdale Council, the local MP, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Homes England, and the Government to work together to enable an alternative, community-led approach to regeneration that improves the existing housing and area without further demolition and displacement.