So Stephen "fire' 'n' brimstone" Greenhalgh has stepped down from being leader at LB Hammersmith and Fulham and takes up post as Boris's deputy mayor, with responsibility for crime and policing. Congratulations to him. He's a bloke who relishes a challenge, and he's certainly got one now! I understand that Stuart Lipton is nearly ready to submit his report on the unrest in Tottenham last summer, and I can see the two of them forming a powerful axis and some hard-hitting proposals. New thinking is desperately and urgently needed in this area, of course.
And hearty congratulations to Nick Botterill, Cllr Greenhalgh's successor, who has been conclusively elected leader by his group (although it is subject to ratification of full council on 30 May) and who now takes up what has to be one of the most important jobs in local government in the UK. Cllr Botterill himself acknowledged this in a rather sweet quote at the weekend: "It is an honour and a privilege to be nominated to be leader of not only the best council in London but the best council in Britain." What an expression of hope!
It has been my own honour and privilege to have known Nick Botterill from back in the day when we were nippers in student politics (ahhhh) albeit from differing camps (and different universities! His was just a tiny tad better), and it certainly is the case that he's a pukka geezer alright. Cllr Botterill is a very bright and a very astute man with brilliant connections, built over a couple of decades' experience in senior Conservative politics. And, rather more importantly, he has an impressive track record as a businessman in his own right; he built his own very successful business from scratch, which he later sold very well, and he has huge commercial acumen and a thorough understanding of the agendas around job creation and growth. He works hard, and is a warm human being. He is funny. And he has impeccable manners.
I dedicate this blog to Jonathan Bull Diamond (a great real estate professional, who has done so much to help establish UKR) of Jones Lang LaSalle, who has been remonstrating with me recently about not sufficiently appreciating some of our northern towns and cities.
Well! As we all now know, since my last post, nine out of ten cities have said No to a directly elected mayor. Shortly after I pressed "send", as predicted, Sheffield and Newcastle promptly announced their No vote. And Birmingham soon followed, also a resounding No. This will probably be a relief to new Brum Leader, Sir Albert Bore, who would have faced the prospect of standing for selection for mayor for Labour against some serious heavy hitters (wasn't in his game plan really!). Only Bristol bucked the trend, voting Yes for a mayor with an election now scheduled to be held in November (hot favourite there is George Ferguson, of course, which should please the design luvvies and of course he is a local guy, and far from new to Bristol local politics).
This wholesale resistance to the holy grail of elected mayors is a bit of a blow for the "city chatterati" who have, in time-honoured tradition, blamed the government for not communicating the benefits clearly enough. The most common comment is "a missed opportunity". But was it?
Keeping close to matters in Nottingham (as I do) I can confirm that the turnout there was less than a quarter of the electorate. And the most cited bone of contention was one of resourcing; a mayoral office would be an extra expense (although this had been robustly disputed by Mr Pickles) in a city already well-led. The official statement from the City Council on Friday reads: "The outcome means that the council will continue to run as it already was under the leader and cabinet model. Nottingham City Council had agreed a policy position ahead of the referendum that it was opposed to the introduction of an Elected Mayor as it would not represent value for money City Council Leader, Councillor Jon Collins, has said: 'This was a referendum imposed on us by the Coalition Government which the majority of local people clearly did not agree with. I am pleased with this outcome because an Elected Mayor would have been expensive and unnecessary. This outcome shows that local people recognise we have a system in Nottingham which is working well for them and the city'."
There have been a few reasons to be cheerful over the past couple of days. Not serious green shoots you understand, just a few glimmers of hope. I'm just so bloody desperate I nearly put the bunting out when I saw that yesterday's Leader in the Daily Telegraph contained the word "regeneration". Admittedly, it was in the context of a vote-for-Boris puff and doesn't really count, but still, beggars can't be choosers, I think you'll agree. I immediately chalked it up as progress.
And I was thrilled to learn that my old friend (and sometime sparring partner) Graham King from Westminster council has won the Alan Cherry Award for Placemaking at the Alan Cherry Debate this year. A much-deserved accolade for our bearded man-mountain, sorry that should have read "institution in the property industry". I have a long standing personal connection (aka bone to pick) with Graham King. As architect of the PSPA (Paddington Special Policy Area), Graham was instrumental in causing me a certain amount of trouble and strife during six years of my own career. But the bloke's a genius (Paul Finch once brilliantly described him as "a delight"), and our creative tension was all to great effect at Paddington, I think you'll agree. And it was very good to see him receive this fine tribute, awarded in the name of the great Alan Cherry, that very fine placemaker. My hearty congratulations to him.
My blog on the economy provoked a bit of a reaction yesterday. Ross Sturley wrote to me (at 6am today!) to commend the approach, saying: "It leaves aside the question around how local people in 'regeneration opportunity' areas tend to lack the skills to create the local jobs that a creative/technology-led economy might generate, which I'm going to leave aside too, but someone needs to take on. Still, I like the "work (near) where you live" angle, which chimes with Terry Farrell's 21st century high street stuff, with the way the Beirut economy has recreated itself after much war which left commercial property unusable (people work on wifi in cafes), and with my refrain about high streets being about more than just shopping. Flexible workspace near local centres, flexible enough to accommodate one-man-and-his-laptop, a small distributor, a specialist confectioner and so on - micro companies - could put jobs into local centres. Just a thought".
Well... it's a good thought, Ross. A very good thought. And the UKR Business Plan (our audacious aspiration to deliver 20,000 homes by 2020) intends to do just that. Homes with jobs as closely associated with them as can be achieved (although as Dr Evans keeps observing, with some amusement, we're not going down the road of tied cottages!). And there is much interest in our homes-with-economic-growth formula. I am delighted to be addressing an august gathering of the Association of Chief Estates Surveyors on this very subject next week (10 May) in Barnsley, and I hope to see a goodly few of you there. It's a long time since I've been to Barnsley.
I'm a bit hard-hearted as far as politicians are concerned but, after a difficult weekend in the press, I'm really feeling a bit sorry for George Osborne. If I were Mr Osborne I would find it a bit tough to take Ferdinand Mount, one of the architects of the wholesale deregulation of the city under the Thatcher administration, now writing a book ("The New Few") saying how wrong the entire strategy was and how we've created an elite of super-rich (nothing wrong with the analysis of course, admirably damning in fact, and from a very plausible quarter, but where are the solutions please?). And a cynic may have viewed the Jeremy Hunt business as a useful lightening conductor away from the economy were it not so very perilous for the government in its own right.
As it is, we are stalled. And we really do need to find a way through to seriously cracking our economic future. And I am beginning to think it is too important to leave to politicians and economists.
Oh dear, me and my big mouth. The great Matt Black, Head of East London for CBRE, takes serious issue with my last blog on the Olympics Legacy. He sent me an e-mail headed "Mr Grumpy here" and then goes on to demolish my position. Now I take Mathieu Le Noir very seriously indeed (see various previous blogs including 4th May 2009 and 10th October 2009) - not that I would ever admit that to HIM - as he is steeped in East London and frankly, what he doesn't know about the patch is not worth knowing. He is rigorously market-facing and (I'm afraid to admit) he always calls it like it is. So it looks like I was wrong....
And his reasoning is so very cogent and compelling that today's post is very nearly a guest blog by him.
Yes, Matt accepts fully my point (and the common consensus) that Barcelona set the benchmark for the regeneration of future Olympic cities. But he also points out that the other key driver for the Barcelona Olympics was to promote the city as a tourist destination and demonstrate to the world that it was open for business. He goes on to say, "Unlike Barcelona, London is already an established world city and this is a significant advantage that should allow it to create a lasting legacy beyond the 2012 Olympic Games."
I had a drink with an old chum who is now working for Crossrail the other night. I am a huge supporter of Crossrail, and was very impressed indeed at the way that they hit the ground running with their sudden holes all over London (piled in massive haste, presumably before anyone could stop them), but I was a bit shocked to learn that there are 800 of them in their office down there at Canary Wharf. I was even more astonished to learn that they have been told that - in stark contrast to the rest of the tenants of the City and Canary Wharf - the staff MUST be there every day, at the office, during the Olympics. Not only that, but all annual leave is banned for all staff.
I can only guess this is a knock-on from the uncomfortable concordat that's been struck with the tube and bus drivers. What's juice for the goose and so on... But is Boris really saying that he will make every single part of TfL attend every day; 800 Crossrail peeps and then the rest of TfL, the likes of the marketing department, the planners, the HR types, in fact almost all of the folk in all the various professions in employment. Surely this is mad. He should put those staff necessary to keeping the network going (the actual drivers, the station staff and the maintenance people) to the one side and plan for all the others not to be in the office. If that makes you too nervous, Mr Mayor, by all means have them all on 24-hour call; but several thousand people could be taken off the transport system in one fell swoop by having most of TfL work from home. Isn't that what you are suggesting to the rest of us?
It is absolutely bucketing with rain out there right now. It is
torrential. And it has been for hours. The kidult (now gearing up for
her finals - where does all the time go?) expostulates: "I don't think
much of this drought muvver", as she reaches for her trusty tube of St
Tropez.
Well, the rain suits my mood. Which is a bit bleak.
And apparently we're back in recession again. I went into a meeting at
9am this morning, before we were in recession, only to come out an hour
later to find that we now are. Official. The Twitter (it seriously is a
curse, particularly for anyone daft enough to elect to "follow" John
Prescott) was humming with it all. Commentary was fairly predictable,
with the two main parties playing blame politics. Pathetic really. And
the only voice of sweet reason coming through from that great thinker
and urbanist, Julian Dobson, our great hero, who Tweets: "The real story
isn't the double dip recession. It is that, for decades, we've had no
idea how to get our economy working for all and still don't".
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