June 2009 Archives

I do get about you know! This morning I found myself at a China and the New Green Deal conference hosted by the All Party Parliamentary China Group at Portcullis House in Westminster. Blimey! They were hanging from the rafters at this event!

Ben Chapman MP, the group's chair, is to be congratulated on drumming up such huge interest in a subject that - on the face of it - looks a bit dry and technical.

It's not as daft as it sounds you know, me attending a conference on Chinese environmental issues.

Would you Adam an' Eve it? On Saturday night, me and 'im indoors went to a ....rock concert!

This is soooo out of character I cannot begin to tell you. We NEVER go to rock concerts (well not since we had the babies so that's 19 years, and as we started having the babies almost immediately after we met, I reckon that's never). Certainly I can't remember another occasion (you can't count corporate entertaining trips to the opera).

I still can't quite believe we did it! It was Neil Young. And I'm such a sad old hippy, I was thrilled!

My very good friend, the completely brilliant and completely ego-less (such a refreshing combination) Tom Dobson had e-mailed around Friday to say anyone want his spare tickets for the concert in Hyde Park? And I responded (it never occurred to me that as a result I could actually have them!).

Then, when Tom rang to tell me they were mine, I had to gird my loins to persuade 'im indoors to forego his Saturday night ritual (his bottle of shiraz and viewing "The Last Detective" featuring shots of sunny Willesden on Alibi) which I never thought possible. But he was remarkably up for it and we pootled along to Hyde Park on the 94 bus at the allocated time to see (sic) the old boy Neil Young (needless to say the stage was so far away we couldn't make him out but never mind).

Was up at the illustrious Wembley Plaza hotel (pictured left) on Monday for the Brent Housing Strategy Conference. Quite remarkable to find so many diverse stakeholders in the (albeit windowless) room, from private sector developers and suppliers, through the multitude of weird and wonderful Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and - crucially - inclusive of a huge number of real residents and tenants representatives.

The room was packed. Cllr Paul Lorber, the immensely dapper leader of Brent council led proceedings, with his doughty Director of Housing, Martin Cheeseman (recently made an OBE - hurrah!) directing the troops.

Brent are to be congratulated on this very inclusive model of engagement. And, indeed, the lovely David Lunts of the Homes and Community Agency (HCA) did say as much, when he made his address to the assembled throng.

I saw a news report with the new Secretary of State - Yvette Cooper (well known to us in regeneration of course) - being challenged about recent negative public comment that JCP has been receiving. She talked about how the organisation has transformed itself since the 1970s.

Well I should hope it has!

Allowance-gate shows no sign of abating it would seem. Surely the powers-that-be (sic) must have known what an own-goal they would score publishing the various allowances claims with parts blacked out! And what a mockery it makes of the so-called Freedom of Information act! When you compare what was released "under the act" with what the Telegraph has reported, you see just how deep-rooted this problem is. Ultimately, we are all suffering. We need a political system that we can be proud of and we simply don't have one. A London cabbie gave me his perspective (as they do) last week. We want fewer MPs. We want MPs with real life experience and integrity who have achieved things outside politics. If we want the best - we need to pay them well. Makes sense to me.

So the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) has launched a new advisory group to look at sources of private finance for housing. This is truly splendid news in my view.

And nobody better to chair this than my old gaffer, the lovely Nigel Hugill, who can bore for Europe on the development of future investment sources in both private and affordable housing.

Nigel will be assisted by an illustrious group of boffins including Sir Adrian Montague (who I once had the honour of serving on a committee and who, I have to confess, I nigh-on worship) and the other Montague - David - of L&Q (who I don't really know but who is very highly regarded) as well as Barclays' Nick Salisbury (who is such a complete love, a welcome addition to any party).

This really is the A team here. And these guys aren't just smart finance thinkers, they're also trying to do some real good: they've all got their hearts in the right place when it comes to driving away poverty through providing real viable homes for real people.

Royal Ascot. Twice. In two days. What am I like? Was feeling so decadent about accepting two different invitations one after the other, that I went and booked out holiday for the two days (something that would never have occurred to me in less credit crunched times).

Actually, they could not have been more different experiences, albeit that they were both in the same place and glorious. 

And it meant I got my money's worth out of the hat hastily purchased from TK Maxx on Saturday which, although far too small for my huge bonce (let alone the ever wilder hair), did the job OK.

For the Tuesday I had bought a ticket for what I can only describe as a hen party for lady regeneration practitioners of a certain age. I wasn't quite the youngest there, but you get the drift.

It was organised by the brilliant and formidable Pamela Mansi, a community leader at Kings Cross who does a lot of good work with the boyos up there - notably the sainted Stephen Jordan at LCR and his partner in crime, Roger Madelin at Argent.

It wasn't so long ago (certainly it was the case when I first started at Paddington in 1997) that I worked without e-mail. I remember a time before mobile phones and I can even recall people using typewriters with nasty carbon papers for the file copies. It is indeed dreadful to be so antediluvian but there isn't much I can do about it. I'm really a bit long in the tooth.

My less than heroic efforts to keep up with technology became even more necessary on taking up my post as EG regeneration blogger, since folk now genuinely think I can do it all.

Incidentally, whilst I'm here, just what is Twitter exactly? I can't work out the difference between that and text messages. Those lovely folk at EG are going to show me how. Apparently I need an application for my BlackBerry called "TweetBerry" (I kid you not!).

Anyway, in one of my informal technology tutorials (these are, of course, held in various wine bars around our metropolis, which may explain the slow progress) I have been advised by the trusty Reg to check out "Google Adwords".

This is the way in which businesses buy keywords so they show up on the Google search for that item. For example, if you type in "Town Planning" you will find that Drivers Jonas is the top result. They paid for that, so they must think it's worth it I guess. Perhaps they're all techies.

Unemployed regeneration professionals tell me that the very worst thing is that feeling of isolation. Even if you do motivate yourself to spend all your time sitting at your computer firing off CVs and e-mails to prospects, you soon become eroded if you do not get out and meet people.

Somebody told me the other day (alright I confess, it was one of the resident Board Members of Local Space - I'm sorry but I really was rather taken with them. Does it show?) that a study showed that you have to speak to at least 20 different people every day in order to maintain well-being. Actually this was a study of the elderly, but frankly I cannot think that this wouldn't have some read-across to the unemployed. People are fragile and vulnerable in isolated circumstances.

BURA is working to ensure that those displaced from the regeneration industry remain connected and informed.

We recognize that the greatest threat our sector faces is that valuable skills and experience will be lost as practitioners must look to other industries for employment. Certainly that was our experience in the last recession and indeed the one before that (and Michael Parkinson only reinforced this recently in his latest report).

We want to ensure, that even if this happens in the short term, previous members stay connected to BURA and share their knowledge as well as - and this is crucial - feeling supported by the association.

It is surely grim out there. How many colleagues and friends have been impacted by this awful recession? And how many more are there to come?

I have become like a cross between an Agony Aunt and Outplacement Counsellor for dozens of professionals feeling vulnerable and fragile about the future.

And while every story is different - there are some remarkable similarities. People want challenging jobs where they can make a real contribution. They want to be part of an amazing team. They need - at least - a degree of security so that they can feed their bairns. Above all, they are concerned for their reputations - especially those who have been made redundant.

I have heard some hair-raising stories. Particularly from those unfortunates who have had to engage with Job Centre Plus, an inescapable destination for those needing to secure Job Seeker Allowance in order to trigger their mortgage protection policies.

The job centres now have to deal with escalating levels of unemployed people - many of whom have held senior roles or who have very specialist skills and who find themselves in this situation for the first time. It is clear that this vitally important agency just does not have the right resources with the right skills in place to deal with the hugely diverse range of job seekers they now have to deal with.

Like everyone who lives or works in   London, I've been impacted by the current tube strike in the capital.

Today I sat for forty minutes on the A40, not moving an inch, with the fuel light on (even I knew this signified I was about to run out of juice).

Eventually, of course, I abandoned my scheduled meeting in North London and turned around at Paddington, reaching the petrol station with not a great deal to spare. 

After I had crawled home I encountered the kidult in the kitchen frying herself a bit of bacon. She listened very sympathetically to my tale of woe before announcing - somewhat gnomically - this was a "metaphor for recession".

My mate, the lovely Pat Brown, rang me to tell me that she was about to get on a bike to try to get from her house in Bermondsey to reach a meeting with Ken Dytor and Jack Jacobs in St John's Wood. Pat is a lady of a certain age, like myself. "Good luck, dear" I said. I then looked out of the window and saw it had started to rain. Gawd love her.

Over the last two days I've heard of stories of people walking, cycling, roller skating and taking the most complicated routes to go about their normal business. The volume of traffic (understandably) has dramatically increased as people resort to their cars (as I learnt to my cost). So congestion and pollution have increased and life is that bit more stressful.

People keep asking me (Local Space being a prime example), how do you prepare for the likely change in administration? What should we be doing? How do we get equipped? What do we put in place?

I really don't know why folk think I know anything, but I never like disappointing people, so I always attempt to come up with something. Whilst my contact base is wide and multifarious (which is how I can do what I do) I have no "hotline" to the Conservative policy wonks and I have taken to reading, assiduously, all documents and pamphlets from think tanks and pressure groups which may have a bearing (those of you who know me personally - Banana Boy come on down - will tell you this is most out of character; I don't normally read anything, not even the instructions on the wretched ready meals).

Fortunately, to bale me out, like the cavalry on the horizon, Michael Ward at BURA is putting all the best brains in regeneration in the country into a workshop next week to work out what new products and services the regeneration sector needs NOW to prepare, so I will keep you posted as to the more - ahem - informed outcome.

But in the meantime, my current advice is this: you know not what is coming next, so get as ready as you can. Have a total clear out (in every sense), trim down, strip back everything and establish your priorities. 

Nearly at last knockings on the wretched examinations, and frankly the end can't come soon enough. I guess my adolescent kids will then find new ways of putting me through the wringer.

To have a sprog doing A levels at the same time as another sprog doing GCSEs this year is very bad planning on my part, by any objective analysis. My West London Princess and Prince seem to think that the way to pass exams is do nothing all year round and then become a bag of nerves the night before the actual paper. All of this, naturally, justifies them giving their mother a good kicking in the process. And it doesn't seem yesterday that they were bundles of heaving joy, screaming the house down and puking on my best suit before a job interview.

Well, even if they're not swotting, I certainly am! I am still trying to get my head around the emergency regeneration measures in the Pre-Budget Report 08 and Budget 09, both for BURA, and to support m'learned friends in CBRE. And I'm trying to get under the skin of the proposals and ideas put forward by other organisations, such as the lovely Dermot Finch's Centre for Cities and the British Property Federation.

This blogging lark is getting me into hot water! I've just taken a call from Andy, Ace Reporter on the Kilburn Times (love him!): do I have any comment to make about the story he intends to run this week about my rather - uh - intemperate remarks about £50m spent in South Kilburn and it not being too clear where it all went.

Well! I had to confess to the lovely Andy that I had been just a little reckless and unguarded (yet again!). And I did try to place my slightly foolish remarks in the context that I am basically incandescent with rage about the waste in the regeneration sector in general over the last ten years. (Incidentally, I went past "The Public" gallery in West Bromwich this morning for the first time (pictured below) and was genuinely shocked! Another blog, another day I reckon).

Furthermore, that most objective commentators are somewhat critical of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme - of which South Kilburn is a leading light of course - and I am nothing if not a commentator on such matters. AND actually, just to completely compound my felony, there is really rather a lot to show in South Kilburn, some very good work has been done and it's wholly irresponsible of me not to pay huge tribute to that. So there you are. I have been a bad person and I'm in the naughty corner again.

I did a gig last night. A speech at a dinner at Ashridge Management College (pictured below) for the Board and staff of Local Space, an innovative new housing association. To be honest, at about 4pm yesterday, I was genuinely wishing that I hadn't said "yes" all those months ago. After all, it has been a long week (yet again!) and I was a bit exhausted at the prospect of even the short schlep up to the outskirts of Berkhamsted.

Then, but of course, the trains out of Euston were round the chute due to signal failure at Bletchley so it was standing room only on the one train that was going. AND I've sustained a rather silly injury to my foot which means I can't walk in anything but flip flops, carrying my shoes in a Boots carrier bag (just so very stylish!). So I was a weeny bit depleted altogether really.

But, despite limping - both physically and metaphorically - up to the event, I am just so very very glad I made the effort. Not only is Ashridge rather a pukka place to spend an evening, I was seriously uplifted by what I learnt of Local Space and deeply inspired by the remarkable team that Bob Young, the Chief Executive, has assembled around him: they are a glittery and diverse bunch (not least of all because I met them tricked out for a black tie dinner, some in their national dress). Every one of the team is idiosyncratic and gloriously gorgeous in their own fashion.

What on earth is going on? While almost all big businesses are suffering the effects of the recession, some facing total annihilation, certain ethical producers seem to be thriving.

One such is "Honeybuns", a bakery company specializing in goods that are as sugary as its trading name.

Pictured left working hard in the kitchen, the - extraordinarily named - (for a baker) Emma Goss-Custard (nearly as good as Mayor Nutter), the founder of the company, says: "Last year was our strongest year ever, and this year looks set to be the same.... it went beyond all expectations."

And Honeybuns is not alone. Frugi, a family-run online organic children's wear specialist, has seen its business double in the past 12 months and Jackie Williams, owner of the Organic Health store in Cambridge, which sells organic and locally sourced foods, is also doing well. She has seen some monthly sales this year increase by 40% compared to last year, adding to 14 years of steady growth.

Experts suggest that one reason for the success of these businesses is consumers seeking out more affordable treats. People are "treating themselves with small things, rather than buying new cars", says the Grocer Magazine (and certainly behavior in my own household would bear this out - 'im indoors is NOT getting a new motorbike to celebrate his mid-life crisis).

The first thing for Mr Altman to tackle on starting in post at the Olympics Legacy Company on 1st August is the nonsense of the current proposals for the new DLR extension to Stratford International from Canning Town. We are sooooo missing a trick here.

The aerial photo on the left shows what, in my humble opinion, the line should do in order to drop in to the Media Centre site and create a hub (combined with the planned bus depot and station upgrade at Hackney Wick, not to mention the 1,200 odd space multi-storey car park). The thick blue line shows the approximate route. The line should continue from Stratford International and loop around the park following existing boundaries (like the A12).

The Media Centre is about 11ha or so and in terms of the Main Press Centre (MPC) and Broadcast Centre (IBC) is providing about 1.3m sq ft. Assuming a clean slate and a site coverage of 25% and an average height of 20 storeys (small compared to Canary Wharf) you would get 6m sq ft, a gain of about 5m sq ft. Not an inconsiderable uplift for a small amount of extra track.

One of my little friends has measured the approximate route for me and makes it 2.5 km.

This is a public transport opportunity that the Swiss would be proud of. Why oh why are we not (literally) more joined up?

So, Hazel Blears has now gone. Well I never! If the Prime Minister has any sense of reality and truly appreciates the scale of these complex, interdependent problems that we are all facing - collapse of the financial markets, escalating unemployment, contempt for the political system, disengaged communities, global warming, nuclear tension, constitutional renewal etc - he would grasp the opportunity that his much trailed reshuffle presents.

He would think outside the box and be brave. He would surprise us all and appoint the most remarkable team NOW. He would take our breath away. What's he got to lose? What might that team look like? We need gravitas, wisdom and a real depth of experience. We need perspective that is global and from outside the political elite. We need sustainable thinking and solutions. We need inspiring leadership that will mobilise this country's talent.

David (not Danny) Blanchflower - recently departed from the MPC - asks the sobering question 'Have we hit the bottom of this recession yet?'. He predicts that 100,000 people will continue to lose their jobs each month through 2009 and 2010. Even as the economy begins to stabilise, the aftershocks will continue to reverberate for a long time to come.

As the late great Jim Morrison had it "Strange days have found us. Strange days have tracked us down". Well never a truer word was spoke (although admittedly 40 odd years ago) !

It's meltdown out there. And I'm not talking about the weather. Most of us are - for obvious reasons - fixated on the current, parlous, state of the world and the dramatic issues that we are attempting to confront.

The UK government went to war to impose democracy on others, yet our own system of democracy is now being, rightly, questioned.

(Incidentally, my mother wants to know why we're all so angry about MPs expenses, when only the select few seemed to be incandescent with rage - as she was - with the war in Iraq "where children were killed".) 

Banks developed products and services that they didn't really understand (some at the criminal expense of very poor people) and took unacceptable risks that have plunged the global economy into recession. Those who took those decisions were handsomely rewarded, and will continue to be rewarded well for the rest of their lives. Yet the people who are the victims - including many of our own colleagues - are losing their jobs and homes. These folk had nothing to do with those decisions.

Ever since Professor Michael Parkinson published his report on The Credit Crunch and Regeneration: Impact and Implications (January 2009) we at BURA have been grappling with what he means by the "right sort of long term leadership and resources". We need to know what this will look like for the "New World" and equip our members accordingly.

Parkinson says that everyone - from the private sector, councils, regional agencies and central Government - has a part to play in getting through the downturn and preparing for the upturn. And so say all of us! My own quibble being: wasn't it always the case that it was only a genuine partnership approach that worked ever - even in the height of the boom times?

We are all agreed that regeneration is a long game and must continue to have that outlook. I was at a conference the other day when a very clever person (oh, I wish, I wish, it had been me) said "less than three years ago we were confidently asserting that we had seen the end of boom-and-bust, now we are bust we are pinning our hopes back on the forthcoming boom. Well, you can't have it both ways".

It was our wedding anniversary last week. 19 years. We normally forget, but we didn't this time. We had some champagne with our three teenage kids (Connie is 12 next week so she nearly qualifies) and then 'im indoors and me went out for a curry at the up-market Indian down the road. It was lovely. We didn't take the kids to the restaurant although they tried to come as Bruno, the loud lanky lad, declared "we are the most successful element of your union" (we merely raised an eyebrow to that!). They ran down the road behind us as we were leaving. The kidult (Frances) finally relinquished the struggle but she demanded a doggie bag and chocolates. Neither were supplied. We (me and 'im) had a long chat about Life and Stuff; we don't talk much normally what with life being "so full of care" an' all , so it was significant. We must all count our blessings.

It is a time for all of us to take stock, n'est pas? The old man does PFI financing for a living and whilst the work is pretty steady right now that it is by no means assured for evermore. I am busy enough in regeneration, and CBRE gives me every opportunity and support to build the business, but it is still by no means clear what the "New World" will look like. We're all struggling.

I don't need to tell you we live in troubled times. A friend of mine, based in Manchester, has been made redundant again. This is the second time in four months. He is in his mid thirties, has a little baby and is Californian, married to a Manchester lass. Can you imagine? Surely it was enough of a culture shock to settle in rainy old Manchester from sun drenched California, less than two years ago, without then being hit by the juggernaut of recession - twice! Sometimes life is just not fair. My friend is, understandably, very lost and scared for the future of his family, despite the fact that he is formidably bright and has so much - a truly vast amount - to offer. It will be a sad loss to the property sector in the north west if he is forced to go back to the States.

People are so desperate and it's all so very sad. Those of us who can, must count our blessings.

Brilliant letter from my good friend Katherine Edwards of Tesco in Saturday's EG (which rather trumped my own effort but never let it be said that I'm competitive!) reminding us that regeneration is about people first and foremost. Bravo, missus, bravo!

I worked for Tesco myself on regeneration projects in the mid 1990s (just before they pulled off the smart stunt of getting Katherine in there) and I still follow the trajectory of the regeneration record of the most successful retailer in the world with a huge and very fond pride. In my day, the received wisdom was that the ideal site for a food retailer was the 100,000 sq ft-plus single story conforming Essex barn, sitting in a sea of car parking, preferably at a motorway junction (the Metro format existed but was really struggling to make the margins). I was involved with a couple of ground breaking in-town projects in 1996 (the Brook Green store and 93 flats in partnership with the Peabody Trust in one example, another is the West Ken store designed by Michael Aukett with Notting Hill Housing Trust) but it was bloody hard graft and it felt a bit thankless. I think it's fair to say (and they themselves would hold their hands up) that the development surveyors in the Tesco site acquisitions department at that time were somewhat - uh - set in their ways. John Gummer's (then) PPG6 was a massive shock to the system (the stick), but a huge breakthrough was achieved when the senior retailers pointed out that all they were interested in was floor space and that, frankly, they didn't care what was above their heads, as long as it didn't interfere with trading (the carrot). This meeting of the minds has enabled creative mixed-use Tesco developments to be brought forward over the last decade.

I am sorry to return to the topic of Westfield London (have you heard the joke about the Westfield shopping centre currently under construction in London E15? Gonna be known as "Eastfield"! Only kidding Mr Gutman!), but I commute through the wondrous bus station up there every day (as I crawl into CBRE) and I do like to keep an eye on progress. Was also tickled pink by the idea of Mary Portas opening a charity shop up there! The woman has style, there's no getting away from that.

Since I last lamented the funking of the local jobs opportunity for those on the White City Estate, I gained a new correspondent on the matter, who is an ex-civil servant (very senior) from the DoE, a planner (no prizes for guessing) who informs me that, as for the impact on employment in retailing in London, previous experience, such as Metrocentre, showed that at the regional level there is no increase - just a redistribution of the location of jobs and, unless there are customised training programmes, the jobs do not go to local people. I suspected as much but it is a bit depressing to have it confirmed by a rather well-informed planner. He says that a visit to Westfield shows this: "The unemployed youth are today's mallrats not shop assistants". It would seem that most of the Westfield staff have been transferred from existing stores or recruited from a London-wide labour pool - very few, even the cleaners (contract cleaners!) will be local people.