North East

Back in 2001 the City of Sunderland made history when 36,000 properties got a new landlord when the Council sold virtually all its houses over to a new company.

It was the biggest transfer of homes that Britain had ever seen.

The new company promised to improve life on the city's estates.

Inside Out meets the people at the heart of Sunderland's housing revolution - and looks at the impact of the housing regeneration plans.

Dream home?

David and Pearl McLoughlin moved to Doxford Park Estate in Sunderland when it was first built in the 1960s.

They say it's a demolition zone and Pearl compares it to "living in Beirut".

Her partner David explains, "There's nothing to stop kids getting into the house next door and braying through the wall - or again they could be setting fires in the house next door. You wouldn't know it till it was ablaze."

Sunderland Housing Group - now called Gentoo - owns most of the houses around David and Pearl's old house.

The McLoughlins bought it 17 years ago thinking they had a home for life. Instead it's surrounded by dereliction.

A distraught Pearl wasn't keen to move away: "It's my home and I don't want to move. It's as simple as that. I just do not want to move…"

New homes, new hopes

Seven years ago council tenants on Sunderland's council estates received a video about future housing plans. They were asked to vote on a deal involving the council selling all its homes to a new company.

Peter Walls, the Council's Director of Housing, spelled out the benefits of voting "yes" - and the majority of tenants agreed.

As a result Gentoo, formerly Sunderland Housing Group, bought more than 36,000 council houses for less than £7,000 each.

Its new Chief Executive was - Peter Walls. His first challenge was to ensure that Gentoo delivered on their vision for Sunderland.

Over the next six years that was to bring controversy and conflict in some of the city's housing estates.

Housing renewal

Alex and Brenda Maskell own their home on the Ford Estate in Sunderland.

It's another of Gentoo's renewal estates, and has had its fair share of problems in the past.

The company says that the vast majority of people on these estates support renewal.

But the Maskells are unhappy: "When you come in, you pretend when you're sitting in the house that everything is normal…

"It doesn't matter how many times we negotiate with them or whatever we do, it's not going to make anything better, because in the cold light of day, I think the people who we're talking to - Gentoo - they've got a set agenda which they're told to work to - just a criteria and that's it." 

Alex and Brenda say they're trapped because Gentoo is offering them a deal that leaves them worse off.

Two and a half years ago Gentoo offered them £42,000 for their home.

The offer has now been increased to £60,000 - plus they'd get an extra £7,000 to compensate for the disturbance of moving out.

But that still won't buy them a comparable house, as Alex explains:

"We've actually looked around different estate agents and spoke to different people, and it would cost around £120,000 or £130,000 to actually replace what we have here."

Brenda agrees, "I just want to be left alone in my own house… As Maggie Thatcher used to say: 'I'm not for turning'. I'm not for moving."  

Community spirit?

Danny Atkinson was Pearl and David McLoughlin's neighbour on Doxford Park Estate.

He rents his house, and is considered an excellent tenant.

Danny voted "yes" to the transfer of the housing stock, believing his estate would be modernised.

But three years on Gentoo said the houses had severe structural defects and needed to be demolished. Danny feels misled.

"I voted for the stock transfer because I thought at the time, the promises they were making… would be a good thing…

"We thought that we would end up with a better estate… but now we're not so sure because it's been destroyed. The community's been destroyed… I do regret voting for the stock transfer now."

Now Danny, who has a wife with an incurable lung disease, is moving to a temporary home on Doxford, while he waits for one of the houses Gentoo is building.

Rebuilding the city

Gentoo has huge ambitions to rebuild Sunderland's housing estates and has promised to remodel the skyline of the city.

It hopes that the lives of the tenants will be transformed after years of putting up with substandard houses. But what wasn't spelled out in the original video was the level of demolition in store.

In fact, Gentoo had inherited a council plan to demolish more than 3,000 homes over five years. A year after taking over Gentoo doubled the figure to 6,000 houses to be demolished in 10 years

It set about moving out tenants and trying to persuade people who had bought their homes to sell up so the estates could be rebuilt.

But just three years after starting the job, a report commissioned by Gentoo suggested that not everything was going well.

Although the report says Gentoo wasn't deliberately trying to force people out by making life on the estates difficult, it says the result of running a programme affecting thousands of properties without a "…clear strategy and action plan" had been "delay" and "uncertainty".

There had also been "changes to original "promises" that contributed to "piecemeal" and "ad hoc responses to residents".

Housing clearance

The Housing Corporation, which regulates Gentoo's work, told us that Gentoo were asked to address the weaknesses highlighted in the report and felt no further follow up action was needed.

But there are still questions for some including Conservative MEP, Martin Callanan: "Why did they not do it one estate at a time? Why blight five or six different areas at the same time?"

"Secondly, why did this large scale clearance need to be done in the first place?"

Gentoo has been reported as saying that "difficulties and challenges with planning permission" meant it has not been possible for estates to be demolished one by one.

But now it appears at least one of the areas didn't need to be cleared...

Selective demolition

Gentoo were planning to bulldoze the whole of Marley Potts Estate, but in the last few weeks they've told residents that won't be happening now.

Instead, most of the estate will be modernised and there will be only selective demolition.

But that's cold comfort for people like Rosina Blenkinsop. She sold her home and moved out thinking that it would be demolished.

News that her old house isn't going to be demolished has hit her hard.

"Practically every day I pass this house. I look at it and I think that I could have still been here with my neighbours," she says. 

"It's like a bereavement."

People's lives

Stephen Hanratty used to live on the Marley Potts estate.

He says that he sold his home after Gentoo starting boarding up their houses - and homes across the road from him were torched by vandals.

Stephen says a group of homeowners were also shocked when Peter Walls described his unique tenant selection policy to them in 2003.

Even a Gentoo commissioned report noted that owner occupiers felt that Peter Walls had an "unconstructive attitude" towards them.

Martin Callanan says, "If it is the case that he did say these comments… this is not a serious way for a responsible executive director of a housing company to behave. These are irresponsible comments."

Inside Out invited Mr Walls to take part in the programme but he declined to be interviewed.

Success stories

Of course - there are two sides to most stories and, despite the criticism, Gentoo has scored some notable successes.

It has spent more than £300 million modernising 17,500 houses to the highest standards - and it's done this ahead of schedule.

Pennywell resident Angela Stephenson is delighted with her home:

"All the electricals were done… They skimmed the whole kitchen and the ceilings. They did all the rewiring… It looks much better.!

Jackie Waites agrees: "Oh, it's lovely. You can walk along the street now and be proud you live where you live".

Gentoo has also been cleared of serious allegations about the management of clearance areas by a number of independent investigations.

It has also received consistently positive reports from the Audit Commission and the Housing Corporation, which says Gentoo is delivering quality housing and demonstrates good performance in meeting its targets.

But it's not an assessment that the Maskells would recognise.

On the Ford Estate part of the estate is being demolished by Gentoo, but the vandals appear to be beating them to it.

This part of the estate can't be cleared until homeowners and tenants move out.

Gentoo says it is doing its best to make it financially attractive for owners to sell up. But residents like the Maskells say Gentoo's offer to buy their house will leave them worse off.

So, it's stalemate.

In the meantime the strain for some residents is almost unbearable:

The Maskells say "every time you turn your back, the thieves are there".

Vision for the future

Once Gentoo gets everyone out of its renewal zone on the Ford Estate, it wants to build smart new homes

It's part of an ambitious plan across the city - announced in 2002 - to build a total of 4,000 new houses, a quarter of them for sale, by 2008.

But so far it has built a total of just 365 - and has demolished 2,139.

Some say this has contributed to the numbers on the waiting list for a home in Sunderland. In six years it's quadrupled to more than 24,000.

Inside Out invited Gentoo to be interviewed for this programme but it declined. It said it had not been given details of the allegations, adding that "after seeing this programme we will respond in full on our website to the BBC's allegations".

Seven years on from the vote which saw the biggest transfer of public housing in Britain, there are real questions for Gentoo from some of the people whose lives it has changed.

Gentoo can point to good reports and thousands of bright modernised houses.

But equally few anticipated that more than 2,000 homes would be demolished and just 365 built - leaving families stranded and desperate for an end to a miserable existence.

The challenge for Gentoo is now not just to rebuild homes - but, for some, to rebuild trust.