SAVE secures JR over transitional fund set up after Pathfinder scheme axed

A conservation group has been given permission to bring judicial review proceedings over the Government’s establishment of a £35.5m transitional fund as it sought to exit the Pathfinder demolition scheme.

The funding was approved by former Housing Minister Grant Shapps, who scrapped the £2.2bn Pathfinder scheme in November 2011. It was intended to help those local authorities hardest hit by the decision.

Save Britain’s Heritage started legal proceedings over the £35.5m funds after FOI requests revealed that, when matched by councils, the sums would be used to demolish – rather than refurbish – 5,000 homes.

The group’s barrister, Richard Harwood of 39 Essex Street, argued that the award was in direct contravention of the minister’s promises to Parliament.

It emerged at the hearing that Shapps had not been informed when he signed the fund off that it would lead to demolitions on this scale.

However, the Government’s barrister, James Eadie QC, said the minister’s decision could not be quashed. He added that the Communities Secretary had no power to demand repayment from councils, nor could he impose conditions retrospectively.

Eadie argued that it would “legally extremely problematic, if possible at all” to unravel the payments.

The Government had instead sought to have discussions with local authorities, with the input of architect George Clarke.

However, SAVE has rejected this as inadequate. It pointed out that only 16 houses out of the 5,000 earmarked for demolition had been spared as a result.

The conservation group also told the hearing that the majority of the money had not been spent and the Communities Secretary was entitled to recover it. The money should instead be spent on refurbishment, SAVE argued.

Mrs Justice Lang ruled that SAVE had established an arguable case and was therefore entitled to have the claim considered by way of judicial review.

The judge’s ruling came two weeks after SAVE was granted permission to bring judicial review proceedings in a case involving a Welsh Presbyterian Chapel in Bootle on Merseyside.

At issue was the refusal by the Secretary of State to conduct an environmental impact assessment.

The conservation group argued that the chapel fell under a wider Pathfinder scheme which would have seen the demolition of 480 homes in the Klondyke neighbourhood, adding that there should be no ‘salami-slicing’.

Mr Justice Walker also said SAVE had an arguable case and ordered that a judicial review should take place before the end of the year.

The conservation group believes that refurbishment would be in line with the Government’s policy of seeking to bring empty homes back into use.

SAVE Director Clem Cecil said: “These are not cases in which nothing can be done. Far from forcing on the Secretary of State a weapon he does not want to use, we believe he is already sympathetic to the local campaigns. We hope this will steel Mr Pickles’ resolve to help residents still in the grip of an extremely destructive policy.”