1. The Eldonian Village Project, Vauxhall, Liverpool The Eldonian Village Project in Liverpool is a world famous example of how local people worked in partnership to ensure that the inner city area of Vauxhall was regenerated with them in mind and so that the original local residents could continue to live in an established community.

4. Why did the area decline and what were the consequences? By the late 1970s, the dock complex began to decline because changes to the global economy. This meant there was less employment opportunities. There were factory closures resulting in high levels of unemployment, with whole families thrown out of work by the loss of a single large-scale employer. So the area started to de-populate, as people sought work elsewhere. The social consequences were poor housing conditions, a poor urban environment and a lack of local facilities. The Vauxhall area had long suffered from the effects of long-term neglect; run-down housing, a declining environment, depopulation, high unemployment and poor local facilities.

6. The First Regeneration Scheme (2) The Co-operative was a response to plans drawn up by Liverpool City Council to clear the old decayed tenements and to disperse the population living in them throughout Merseyside. However the Vauxhall community wanted to stay together and was a key driving force behind the development.

7. THE 1980s: A TIME FOR CHANGE However, the election of a new city council in 1983 saw the Portland Gardens project taken over by the council threatening to break the community of Vauxhall to estates all over Merseyside. Also the Tate and Lyle sugar refinery on Vauxhall Road closed in 1981, and the British American Tobacco plant on Commercial Road also closed. Over 3,000 local jobs were lost as a result, and the future of the Vauxhall area seemed to disappear. The Tate and Lyle site was also heavily contaminated and polluted, and its closure left a huge derelict area in the middle of the Vauxhall ward. The Eldonians were determined to respond and create a better future for all, to work to keep the community together and to provide quality, affordable housing. The community's need for new affordable housing, and the huge derelict site left vacant by Tate and Lyle started the Eldonians on the road to totally re-developing the area. In 1986 they secured an offer of 6.6m of grants and loans to develop the original housing.

8. Today All the housing projects and the great majority of the wider developments are self financing without resource to ongoing grant assistance. They aim to provide good quality, affordable housing. It currently rents out 310 properties to those in housing need, and also manages 147 other properties on three adjacent sites. The Association employs fourteen staff, has over 300 members, and 75% of the Board of Management are tenants, reflecting the community-based nature of the association. Today the organisation directly employs 90 staff but has created jobs for over 250 people. it has a total asset base of £50 million and an annual turnover in the region of £2 million .

9. Today (2) The Eldonians is a Community Based Housing Association which is an officially recognised social landlord and has a distinctive approach towards housing, which seeks to involve everyone in the design and layout of each estate, which tries to ensure that each property looks different, that houses overlook one another, that integrates the needs of the disabled, the elderly and those with special needs within the wider community and the planning and construction process. This is to encourage a genuine sense of ownership within the local community, which underpins all the work the CBHA does. This attitude is also reflected in the recent purchase of Eldonian House Residential Home by the CBHA, and in the visit by European Union social housing network CECODHAS to the Village in February 2003.

12. Threats The waiting list for housing runs to hundreds, with applications from the US and Germany, but nobody wants to leave. Three-bedroom houses are most popular and the last family to get one had waited seven years.