Facelifting? the front of your house

[terminator]

Hi, has anybody had the front of their house grit blasted by 'Elevate' and felt that they should now upgrade the rear of their property?

Is all this 'facelifting' for the benefit of those visiting Burnley as they ride through in their cars or on the bus?

I am trying to understand the purpose of 'facelifting' when? what? Burnley needs is capital investment?

What do you all think?

John

[Col.Kurtz]

I don't understand how all this facelift thing works, so can't make an informed comment. Doesn't seem fair to me that if you look after your property you get no help from anyone else towards work done but if your area is starting to look tatty through neglect there's agencies throwing money left right and centre at it.

I think it is a tart up exercise, but I have to admit it has made some areas more presentable - for how long I don't really know.

I suppose it's all in order to try and show an improved look on the main routes through town, but you only have to look down any side street off these areas and you see the real picture.

[Neal]

It annoys me how people who have left their home to fall into disrepair (On purpose, who knows?) get all the mod cons installed for basically free, whilst those hard working people who struggle to make ends meet and keep their homes tidy get nothing.

Why not do this for ALL homes in the borough, we all pay Council Tax? I bet a lot getting their homes done for free don't!

I may become a landlord, buy a knackered house in a bad area, get it done up for free and sell or lease it for profit.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Neal

It annoys me how people who have left their home to fall into disrepair (On purpose, who knows?) get all the mod cons installed for basically free, whilst those hard working people who struggle to make ends meet and keep their homes tidy get nothing.

Why not do this for ALL homes in the borough, we all pay Council Tax? I bet a lot getting their homes done for free don't!

I may become a landlord, buy a knackered house in a bad area, get it done up for free and sell or lease it for profit.

I think this a nation wide problem not just Burnley, one of the bigest problems is absent landlords who own property but just leave them to rot, the lord only knows why. I think councils are now take this problem very seriously and make compulsary purchase orders to landlords who let their properties fall into disrepair

[James1234]

When I lived Smith Street,Nelson I remember when, (back in 1996) properties when done up same sort of thing a elevate but the area had and still has the same problem of rented accommodation with landlords neglecting their properties and renting to 'undesirables' who wreck the properties and some move out, me mum owned her house and got next to nowt for her property because of the state of the area.

It made the exercise of doing them up a waste of tax payers money, complete waste of time in my opinion.

As aforementioned in an earlier posting, the back streets that I've seen in some area's are a disgrace and although people shouldn't dump rubbish there or anything else they do so, plus more often then not without any punishment and the council don't seem to make any effort to remove these items, or indeed find out who's responsible for such offenses it's really infuriates me no end.

Sometimes I think you're better off unemployed, scrounging off the state, and living in squaller as it's the only way you seem to get anywhere and it's really sad me having to say such things as you'd be only lowering yourself to their standard, but it's true to my mind.

Incidentally other properties have also been done up on the surrounding streets, but the area doesn't look that much better in my opinion, ok the house's, appearance wise look better for having sandblasteding done and been given a lick of paint but thats about all.

What you do really need is to ship out all the bad tenants, the scrotes that contribute towards the problem and strip bad landlords of their properties, that'll make big difference for the better leave decent folk there who'll take good care their property and the area as a whole then things might start looking up, saving a fortune in the future.

[Col.Kurtz]

Originally Posted by jaysay

I think this a nation wide problem not just Burnley, one of the bigest problems is absent landlords who own property but just leave them to rot, the lord only knows why. I think councils are now take this problem very seriously and make compulsary purchase orders to landlords who let their properties fall into disrepair

I think you're probably right, although I think the dithering that goes on regarding the council planning to buy up properties for demolition doesn't inspire people to invest their money in home improvements.

Some landlords must not care much about who they rent their houses out to, and some tennants who don't care what kind of squallor they live in. There are lots of houses about that have no plumbing/wiring boiler etc...after some deadbeat tennant has done a flit.

[Col.Kurtz]

Originally Posted by James1234

What you do really need is to ship out all the bad tenants, the scrotes that contribute towards the problem and strip bad landlords of their properties, that'll make big difference for the better leave decent folk there who'll take good care their property and the area as a whole then things might start looking up, saving a fortune in the future.

I think that's spot-on James, I don't know where they all come from...probably importing them from other areas that are being developed!

I'm sure there are many people who are/have been in the same situation as your mother James - it's a disgrace.

[James1234]

Originally Posted by Col.Kurtz

I think you're probably right, although I think the dithering that goes on regarding the council planning to buy up properties for demolition doesn't inspire people to invest their money in home improvements.

Some landlords must not care much about who they rent their houses out to, and some tennants who don't care what kind of squallor they live in. There are lots of houses about that have no plumbing/wiring boiler etc...after some deadbeat tennant has done a flit.

As I understand it (or think I understand it), the council has to buy up so many properties in order to get funding for this work, now I though I read somewhere that they get money of sorts or funding from ether Central Government or Elevate or even Europe(not just sure which) but for that they need to buy and demolish X number of houses or they lose that money.

I feel for the former owners of the those homes as the compensation (the money offered for the property) would not meet the market value of any new homes that are build or maybe not even be enough to buy a reasonable terraced house elsewhere with todays house prices even though the housing market has slumped just recently.

As for electrics and pluming yes bad landlards but as said earlier Scrotes for tenents who in there so called infernate wisdom just 'relieve' the house of its copper water tank or central heating system or electric cable or indeed else they can get their grubby thieving mitts on, like I said before just ship 'em out, get shut of 'em ,don't think twice about it , ask no questions.

[katex]

There has been quite a lot of facelifting going on down Clayton for whole blocks of houses, tenanted or owned, no matter what, and they are now starting to look very smart.

Seems have been done on some sort of 'block' grants, but honestly don't know much about it. I think funded by L.C.C. but not absolutely sure again, will try and find out.

[Kiki]

I noticed there has been alot of houses on Hollingreave Rd that are being facelifted and think its a good thing thats is being done! But did wonder that some other houses were scaffolded around the Victoria Hospital area around the time of a royal visit to Nelson coincidentally.
They were ages before they were eventually facelifted!

[WillowTheWhisp]

There have been batches of houses done up in Accrington. They seem to have done them in blocks of half a dozen or more but not necessarily in any consecutive order. This has resulted in odd ones here and there being missed out. They came almost all the way up the road at the back of us and then stopped just short of where it joins our road. When I asked the council what the criteria was for the upgrading they asked me about what we had and said we wouldn't qualify anyway because we've done all the things that other people are getting done for free.

Am I miffed? You betcha I am. As has been said previously it seems totally unfair that people who have tried to maintain and look after their property get nothing when people who have let theirs go to the dogs end up getting all mod cons.

[tommy]

stoops estate was fully refurbed in about roughly 1996 and take a look at it now people dont respect the properties nowadays in these areas of burnley.dont get me wrong there probally is the odd few good people up there but thay are overshaddowed by drug dealers and drug users and chavs who just dont have any self respect for them selfs and the area thay live in.sorry if this sounds a bit harsh but thats the way society is nowadays in the run down areas.

[fatgit]

One of the issues with the CPO process, is that the council have to purchase the property, and the freehold.
CPO'ing the property is the easier part - but not without it's problems. The issue has been the freeholds, as they need to buy these from the owner, and cannot (as I understand it), CPO the freehold.
In Burnley Wood for example, one company owns about 1/3 of the freeholds for properties that have been CPO'd, and wanted ~3 times the market value for those freeholds, and Elevate are only allowed to pay the market value. Obviously, this has caused huge problems. There can also be a lot of problems actually tracking down the freehold owners.

As for facelifting, yes, you can facelift the house but you can't facelift the resident. I saw this myself on the Kirkholt estate in Rochdale, where the worst part of the estate had millions spent on it, putting in double glazing, new garden walls and fences, security bars on windows etc, but the same trouble families were still there, and after a couple of years, the area looked just as bad as before.

What do you do though ?
Do you let entire areas degenerate into a slum, then knock it down and rebuild it ? Who wants to move to an area that's got that sort of reputation, whether it's been rebuilt or not.
What do you do with the bad residents ? They have to live somewhere, so you move them out, and push the problem into another area.

In my opinion, facelifting / renovation / regeneration should not just be about the properties, but also the people, the community, and the attitudes.
You can use mediation organisations, ASBO's, court orders, fines, social services(try not to laugh at that one!), community groups, support groups etc, to tackle the issues in the area, while you are renovating it.

[Col.Kurtz]

Originally Posted by fatgit

In Burnley Wood for example, one company owns about 1/3 of the freeholds for properties that have been CPO'd, and wanted ~3 times the market value for those freeholds, and Elevate are only allowed to pay the market value. Obviously, this has caused huge problems. There can also be a lot of problems actually tracking down the freehold owners.

That's just plain greed. I hate all this attitude of wanting something for nothing.

Originally Posted by fatgit

As for facelifting, yes, you can facelift the house but you can't facelift the resident.
In my opinion, facelifting / renovation / regeneration should not just be about the properties, but also the people, the community, and the attitudes.
You can use mediation organisations, ASBO's, court orders, fines, social services(try not to laugh at that one!), community groups, support groups etc, to tackle the issues in the area, while you are renovating it.

A good point well put.

There is too much of the attitude that "someone else will clean up my mess and get paid for it" these days, people need to realise that we all have a responsibility for our surroundings and renovation schemes might not be needed as often. Maybe then our council taxes wouldn't be rising so frequently.

[fatgit]

Of course, there's very little Government money available to "facelift residents", it's all based on property and environment, so much of the work is left to voluntary and community organisations to do for free.