February 2010 Archives

Had to accompany 'imself to Parents Evening up at the school last night to be told that the Littley's organisation skills were comparable to Eddie the Eagle's commanding grasp on world class skiing.

You'll appreciate that this did not come as a great surprise. Blimey. I just hate Parents Evenings; it isn't so much having to be polite to the other mummies (thankfully, altogether less yummy, now we've hit secondary school, which is something of a relief) although that's bad enough.

But, worse, I'm always on the back foot as the working mother and always come away with another serious bout of BMF (bad mother feeling). Last night was no exception: starting this weekend I am going to get that kid organised if it kills me! Whew! It is knackering being me.

It also meant I had to miss the Mishcon de Reya party which was a bit of a blow as it's always a good bash and, as I keep asserting, we are - none of us - having anything like enough fun and we need to take our pleasures where we can.

I'd written to Susan Freeman (my fellow blogger) to tell her I wasn't able to do it and we agreed to hook up in MIPIM but I still resented it. Susan runs a super stylish party: I like a decent flute of champagne and the chance to rub shoulders with the heady mixture of property establishment and high net worth individuals that she blends together (although you do have to be careful not to get photographed next to Susan as she is too beautiful and thin to be seen with).

We're still coping with the aftermath of BURA@20 which does indeed seem to have been terribly well received.

Of course the thing about being 20 years old and being in business to share best practice is that BURA has seen a lot of regeneration initiatives come and go and we have a pretty good idea, probably the best idea of anyone really, of what works and what doesn't.

As I was telling the conference, we were born in the dog days of the Thatcher government - we were Heseltinies really (I won't divulge the terrible Freudian slip I made at the conference about this) and we were established during the era of the first generation UDCs (and in particular, the London Docklands Development Corporation, many of whose diaspora rocked up on Tuesday to say hello) and, of course, City Challenge.

As rehearsed elsewhere in this blog (it's official: I have become a crashing bore!) we rather like City Challenge, the ultimate bottom-up model, rewarding as it does the quality of the ideas, the proposals and the partnerships involved, rather than that other - less rigorous, dare I say soppier - game of getting rewards for multiple indices of deprivation.

BURA@20 yesterday at the old German Gym in King's Cross - what a party! Still nursing the hangover.

Well now! I think it was a success. Certainly it was a lot more cerebral than some of the daft industry events that I've been invited to recently, in the run up to the general election. 

In the conference session, we had a sort of fireside chat with each of the regeneration spokespeople proffered by the three main parties. 

It wasn't designed to be adversarial or confrontational, but more to tease out emerging policy; dare I say, to lead the witness a little. 

Poor Gordon Marsden MP (John Denham's PPS) was a bit between a rock and a hard place, having been brought in off the subs bench in the first place, as he was supposed to be somewhere else at the same time so he was a tad late for us and that knocked the schedule a bit, but whatever!  (Never work with children or animals, or politicians huh.)

So, finally, finally, finally! Yesterday afternoon the Conservatives published their Planning Green Paper, which they clearly orchestrated to be ready just in time for our Bura@20 event this afternoon. Thanking you kindly, Mr Cameron, for this act of great support!

And, as expected, the Infrastructure Planning Commission gets binned, as does the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) - if the Tories get in, then the CIL could be forever known as the "Lady Jane Grey" of the planning system - the IPC could be "Edward VI" (you can tell I've been reading my Churchill again!).

And, as leaked by Ms Spelman five months ago, the tier of regional planning and the RSSs get scrapped. There is to be a presumption in favour of sustainable development (my italics) which, of course, could always be construed as a presumption-against-development (on-grounds-of-sustainability) but hey!

There are the expected fulminations about the Green Belt and "the scourge of garden grabbing" (which I resolutely choose to interpret as being different from infilling - see blog 9th February - and can therefore heartily applaud).

So far, well, so predicted.

But I'm not quite sure that I buy into David Cameron's rather purple construct of a "broken" planning system - finding this a bit melodramatic (even for me!) since I believe the British planning system still to be the envy of the world (although if the South Somerset Planning Committee goes the wrong way for Teresa Sienkiewicz and her neighbours in Lopen tomorrow evening then I may be forced to concede there might be something in it).

It's official! Brent is the new Southwark. It is, quite simply, Land of Opportunity.

This has been a pet thesis of mine in recent years but is now totally reinforced in the light of the news that my very good mates over at Brent council have launched their vision for a new Alperton. And quite right too!

I regularly used to eye up Alperton when I was CE at the Park Royal Partnership. And me and my old muckers at the dear-departed Brixton plc used to stomp around there on a regular basis (btw is it really true that the beauteous, but thoroughly mild-mannered, buttoned-down, measured and considered Peter Dawson is going to give evidence against Tim Wheeler at the high court next month? The mind seriously seriously boggles!).

Now, the energetic and pragmatic cllr John Detre, lead member for regeneration at Brent, wants to see Alperton transformed into a place that people choose to live, work and invest. Opening up the splendid Paddington branch of the Grand Union canal "turning it not only into a place to travel to and from home, work and school but also a place to visit and enjoy". 

It is very difficult to believe that the HCA Single Conversation is over a year old now! Doesn't time fly when you're having fun, huh!

And the verdict is truly a mixed one. 

On the one hand, it has been an excellent process for those local authorities that have passed through it. It has encouraged them to think creatively and strategically about housing supply both within their boundaries and - crucially - also in neighbouring districts. 

As for the HCA, it has allowed them to better forecast their expenditure, which is clearly no bad thing at all. 

The concern among local authorities that I speak to is this: can the HCA meet the expectations that they have inevitably raised among housing officers and members?  .

Having blogged about Michael Howard's manifesto last time, rather spookily, I found myself watching him in his home secretary days (when part of John Major's administration) in Michael Cockerell's The Great Offices of State series. 

Mr Howard was hardly the most attractive home secretary (section 28 was a shocking disgrace!) although as the programme explained it was (and is) nigh on impossible to find an appealing course in that office (the last one who managed it being the late Roy Jenkins, of course, having the benefit of being able to preside over the abolition of hanging). 

But what is now overlooked is the extraordinary circumstances under which Michael Howard became leader of the British Conservative Party in November 2003. 

If you recall, the party agreed not to have a damaging leadership election. And I don't think we should underestimate his effectiveness as leader of the opposition through the general election of 5 May 2005.

That last post got me thinking: you know, manifestos are fraught with danger (remember Gerald Kaufman describing the Labour Party's 1983 election manifesto as "the longest suicide note in history" ) and I am sympathetic to politicians in the run up to an election wrestling with the need for a coherent manifesto.

I am particularly sympathetic to Francis Maude right now who must be buckling under the sheer weight of expectation. And, worse even than the press, are the sectional interests (such as me and my lot in the regeneration lobby) who are now baying for the feeder documents; the green papers and such like.

Incidentally, and this is a complete aside, the very best manifesto I think I have read in recent times was Michael Howard's Conservative Manifesto for the 2005 election (I'm not counting the obvious turning points in history such as FDR's New Deal or Martin Luther King's "dream" speech, I'm just praising a piece of written policy work). Lean, spare and economical, the Howard manifesto was hugely graceful in its execution and easy to read.

I say this merely as an observation on an object lesson in communication, not intending any party political point. Of course a manifesto is not everything in a campaign (as was also ably demonstrated by the Conservatives in 2005 ) but it is a start.

So we still seem to be hanging around waiting for the Conservatives Planning Green Paper (let alone the policy statement on regeneration) and the excellent Patrick Clift watches this for us like a hawk in the EG planning blog. 

Actually, many of us are getting a bit frantic with anxiety about it all. 

Alex Kendall has been coming onto this blog and saying rather provocative things, which I think I agree with (in an much as I understand them!) and I think we do need an honest debate here - and we'll be looking to start this at the BURA@20 debate on Tuesday 23 February. 

I suppose, as the cynics would have it, there aint many votes in planning - and this is one for Ann Skippers, the admirable new president of the RTPI, to get her teeth into (yes, Alex, they are my friends).

The kidult was home from university at the weekend for her Dad's birthday and is already - just halfway though her first year - beginning to seriously panic (well, she does rather like a panic) about being unemployed when she leaves Exeter. 

My very own West London Princess is now, in all seriousness, talking about taking unpaid work over the summer in order to stiffen up her CV. 

Frankly, this was unimaginable hitherto (and will cost me a downright fortune!) but hey! I am thoroughly relieved that she recognises the extent of the problem.

Hats off to Thames Valley University then - for rather too long the Cinderella of the university sector - which has been splendidly entrepreneurial and responsive just recently. Its business-facing division, FutureSkills, is launching a Graduate Internship Scheme starting this week designed to tackle unprecedented levels of graduate unemployment and provide real benefits to businesses. 

The scheme places students with companies for a period of eight weeks in return for a small fee, significantly less than the cost of employing someone for that period. 

Was rather diverted by a feature in the Sunday Times at the weekend about "infill" houses.  Well! This is a most welcome arrival in the Sunday supplement mainstream. Some rather uplifting images were shown and, better still, comes the news that Boris has a gleam in his eye to build 30,000 new homes in the capital on GLA land (go, Boris!) while the HCA are looking at a scheme to deliver a (more modest) 1,250 homes across the UK. 

The RIBA, joining in, have launched a competition to unearth places as hitherto not worthy of development, working on the principle that it is those who live and work locally who are best placed to know. How wonderful! And there are websites that inform more: urbfill.com or the RIBA site at architecture.com. 

This reminds me that for some time I have been meaning to blog about the Steel House in Hart Street, Edinburgh, which I saw for the first time last autumn (when out for a stroll with the lovely June Barnes) and which is clearly very famous in architectural circles having won several awards. 

Levered into a sort of "in-between space" (where there was a garage or a shed at the end of the back garden of a Georgian House) I was captivated by it architecturally but - more to the point - was far more arrested by the sheer resourcefulness of the thing. 

Edinburgh's New Town is an uplifting place and is built to generous scale and nobody in their right mind would suggest that this generosity should be compromised, so the Steel House shows the way: if it can be managed in Edinburgh then don't tell me that many (most) of our town centres could sustain (absorb) extra units of housing, if sensitively and appropriately handled.

Many readers of this blog will be familiar with the life and work of the great John Sienkiewicz, senior civil servant at the DoE (and its multitudinous descendants) and for many years, the head of development for the Government Office for London (including a stint as the London regional president of the RTPI). 

John was sadly whipped away from us (yet another!) when he died suddenly, in March of last year, well before his time, leaving a huge number of us bereft and grieving alongside his wonderful wife, Teresa and their delightful family. 

Larger than life in almost every respect, John was that rare public servant: one with forensic expertise in one field - that of planning (and regeneration) where he was second to none in cutting-edge thinking, and in telling it how it is.  

Ministers listened. Developers listened. Local authorities listened. He was hugely respected. And, if you knew what was good for you, you didn't argue. 

Reflecting on Arnie Vinick (and actually, very much more to the point, Al Gore) I am forced to conclude that power is an elusive concept.

One of the tricks in the armoury of the regeneration practitioner is to seize power, assume it really, where in reality none exists.

All of the many achievements of the Urban Regeneration Companies (URCs) for instance, were delivered despite the fact that the URCs didn't have any planning powers, or CPO powers; they didn't own any land and what budgets they had were limited in comparison to their host local authorities, RDAs and so forth.

I appreciate the picture is mixed but seriously it is a wonder that anything was achieved at all! And it was always easier to commission a feasibility study than to get any tangible benefits going on the ground for real people.

The good urban regeneration practitioner will use other peoples powers if necessary and combine this with influence (lobbying and publicity) and bullying and charm - in equal measure - to get something going. It's exhausting but it's how we do it. Of course, this "art" will become ever more necessary in more-for-less Britain.

I once sat on a private sector-public sector committee of an initiative called "Fair Cities" that was chaired by the luminous David Michels, then Chief Executive of Ladbroke Hilton. We were debating whether the then Prime Minister (Tony Blair) could do anything about a fairly trivial (in David's eyes at least) condition for those claiming Job Seeker's Allowance to not exceed so many hours training each week.

I've been tardy in responding to a certain newcomer on the blog and I must make amends.

The EG Regeneration Blog warmly welcomes our fraternal correspondent, senator Arnold Vinick (Republican) of the State of California to our merry band.  

I don't need to point out, to such an audience of aficionados, that I am of course referring to Senator Vinick of the "West Wing" - the second-best television series ever made. Delighted to see Arnold Vinick back in my life I must say. I have missed him.

I have a good friend who I used to text compulsively in the run-up to the election (Series Six I believe) and he and I both agreed (despite probably being more Democrat than Republican in persuasion) that Arnie Vinick was robbed! 

As I reported in the blog on 19 January, Michael Heseltine is to be brought back to advise the Conservative Party on their green paper although it still isn't very clear what this really entails. 

I was greatly diverted by Simon Cooke, a Conservative councillor from Bradford city council no less, blogging in New Start. He brands Hezza a "failure" citing the development corporations (Docklands in particular) as prima facia evidence. 

He makes a lot of sense, does councillor Cooke (and of course I am a huge fan of the local authority in Bradford and of the city itself so I tend to look on with warmth) and in a very feisty piece he concludes: 

"Above all, regeneration is about people. Not people with nice cars, good suits and expensive haircuts. Not men who think the way to regenerate is to push out all the poor people. Regeneration is about transforming the lives of people who live in poor places - places where the schools are crap, where the only available careers appear to be drug dealer, prostitute or benefits cheat and where having a job is the exception not the rule.

"All the planning rules, red lines, area-based initiatives, urban development corporations, property forums and assorted paraphernalia of regeneration amount to nothing if we ignore the basics - education, skills, housing and, first and foremost, the aspiration and confidence of people in poor communities."

Look, just to clear up any misunderstanding (I have been subjected to rude remarks): that last post suggesting that I might bake a cake was a little in-joke for those of you who know just how incompetent I am in the domestic goddess stakes. 

As insiders will attest, if 'imself didn't do all the cooking chez Elworthy, then my three dear little children would have starved to death long before they reached their adolescence.  

So, for the record then, be clear that I will not be baking a cake for the BURA@20 event on 23 February as I do not wish to be responsible for an outbreak of food poisoning among several hundred of my closest friends.

And while we're in the business of clearing up misunderstandings, can I say now, categorically and for the record: I am NOT, repeat NOT, opposed to Tax Increment Finance (TIF) models. And I will not have anyone saying otherwise. Both I, and the organisation that I have the privilege to chair (BURA) would like nothing more than TIF instruments, now now now, to kick-start regeneration schemes and to get our badly needed infrastructure projects underpinned.