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.
Swot up on localism and reconnect with your bottom-up roots. If you are able to deliver decent outputs (notably jobs or homes) you will be safe even if - or perhaps especially if - as we suspect, the RDA's get wiped away and their responsibilities are given to County Councils and the like.
We will all need to deliver More for Less and I am now rushing to get a guide out to tell people exactly how to do this. Its working title is the very catchy More for Less: How to Leverage Resources for Regeneration Projects (and it goes without saying that part of my technique to get it written quickly is to tell you guys out there in Estates Gazette land that I am doing it, and then there is no going back!).
And it will be hard. Even the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), frankly just about the only show in town, had its budget fundamentally slashed recently, as a sort of last hurrah by Ms Blears. There are not going to be any dollops of grant lying funding around, that is for sure.
We all have to open our minds. There is no doubt that it will be a different world, but one in which regeneration skills will be desperately needed.
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