Walshovski i know where you are coming from about people losing out and people gaining, having sat on the partnership board which oversaw much of the regeneration i also meet a lot of these people. The basics were the housing market had collapsed in Seedley with the "market value" averaging about £7,000 for homes bought at between £25,000 and £30,000, I had one. Without the regeneration the whole area would have gone, but we only had a finite amount £13.75m between 4000 households so we had to attract outside investment which amounted to £70m over the last ten years. The council could only give "market value" so what happens as the first phases are carried out some values went up after 4 years Langworthy North had been done but only a small movement house back upto pre crash levels. then the Bombshell Two major building contracters pulled out, the choice now level all the houses from the Park to the Langworthy and grass it over or find another builder.

The find another biulder option was best to maintain house values, when Urban Splash came in they said the houses would be between £30,000 and £50,000, but then the "market forces" took over again, the prices of houses in other parts of Langworthy shot up to an average £75,000, now if Urban Splash sell there owns for £30,000 they undermine the existing Housing market which has just seen the raise and saw many people put their homes on the market and making a killing, even private landlords who didn't realise that work had been done were putting rents up.

So if the council would have insisted on a set price they would have called by the existing owners who now had equity in their homes. Sorry to go on so long but I spent many a sleepless night going over and over the same problem, knowing that in 1989 when the council tried to hold down the market price with a developer the said developer walked away and i was left looking at a croft for 4 years where my old house had been.

PS residents were given first choice and a small discount, and from memory about 12 residents bought the Urban Splash homes, many to rent out, and so the cycle starts again.

=redHazel Blears Labour 16,655 40.1 -15.3

Norman Owen Liberal Democrat 10,930 26.3 +3.5

Matthew Sephton Conservative 8,497 20.5 +3.6

Tina Wingfield British National Party 2,632 6.3 +6.3

Duran O'Dwyer UK Independence Party 1,084 2.6 -2.3

David Henry Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition 730 1.8 +1.8

Stephen Morris English Democrats 621 1.5 +1.5

Richard Carvath Independent 384 0.9 +0.9



Majority 5,725 13.8



Turnout 41,533 55.0 +9.5

Now then, Now then Iain, no need to get personal

Fair enough. I apologise unreservedly to Jimmy Saville for any offence caused.

Zooooom