The city of Salzgitter is generally responsible for financing the redevelopment measures, using its own funds or loans.

The comprehensive and coordinated individual measures during the redevelopment process are often associated with an increase in land value. For this reason, the owners of the properties located in the redevelopment area participate in the financing of the redevelopment in accordance with the provisions of the German Building Code (§ 154 BauGB) in the case of redevelopment measures that - as here - are carried out in the so-called "comprehensive procedure":

Upon completion of the redevelopment procedure, the owners pay a financial compensation amount that corresponds to the increase in the land value of their respective property caused by the redevelopment. This earmarked income flows in full into the redevelopment process and thus into the district. If a redevelopment measure is included in an urban development program, the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony generally contribute 2/3 of the financing of eligible expenditure that is not covered by earmarked income.

Example:

The "SZ-Bad/Ost- und Westsiedlung" redevelopment project was first included in the "Districts with special development needs - the Socially Integrative City" urban development funding program of the state of Lower Saxony in 2004 and remained in the program as a so-called continuation project from then on after corresponding annual program applications. Due to a change in the funding framework for urban development funding, the redevelopment measure was transferred from the old program to the new "Social cohesion - shaping life together in the neighbourhood" program with effect from the 2020 program year.

By the end of 2020, the eligible expenditure for the renovation measure implemented as part of the urban development funding amounted to around 6.6 million euros.

The structure of urban development funding was fundamentally overhauled in 2020. The previous "Socially Integrative City" program will be continued and developed in the new "Social Cohesion - Shaping Neighbourhoods Together" program. The objectives of the program continue to be to increase the quality of housing and life as well as the diversity of use in the neighbourhoods, to support the integration of all population groups and to strengthen cohesion in the neighbourhood.

The funds are used for investment and investment-related overall urban development measures to stabilize and upgrade urban and local districts that are significantly disadvantaged due to the composition and economic situation of the people living and working there. Further information can be found on the urban development funding websites of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (opens in a new tab)and the Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy, Building and Climate Protection (opens in a new tab)

The east and west housing estate was built in the 1930/40s to provide housing for the workers of the Reichswerke Hermann-Göring (now Salzgitter AG), which was founded in 1937. The workers' housing estate is located in the southern district of Salzgitter-Bad, the second largest district in Salzgitter with around 25,000 inhabitants (as at 31.12.2019).

Based on the model of the "garden city" in Lebenstedt, the construction of the estate created a housing supply of around 3,000 residential units. In addition to housing construction, in the early years of the city of Salzgitter, which was founded in 1942, and in the post-war period, the two estates were equipped with appropriate infrastructure facilities such as three school complexes (now used as a primary school, secondary school and grammar school), two kindergartens and a children's and youth club. There are also sufficient shopping facilities for basic needs.

The concept of a garden city gives the area special qualities such as the loose perimeter block development with attractive, varying building positions, the favorable inner development largely without through traffic, the high design qualities in the public street space and public squares as well as the high proportion of privately usable green spaces and gardens.

Nevertheless, the eastern and western estates now exhibit a number of urban, structural, technical, infrastructural, social and cultural deficits and shortcomings - measured against today's requirements for an attractive and lively residential area. These include, for example, apartments that are often small, unfavourably laid out or not modernized and poorly equipped. These structural problems ultimately lead to high vacancy rates and one-sided occupancy.