Recently in Accelerated Development Zones Category

It might seem a little early to be thinking of MIPIM but I've learned the hard way that to get best value out of it all you should start before Christmas. And as I keep shouting at anyone who will listen, if you're Hell-bent on regenerating the UK, as we are, then now is the moment.

Whaddya reckon to the old TIF (Tax Increment Financing) then? An idea whose time has gone?

There were a few of us practitioners together at a conference in central London on Monday, where Hazel Blears launched her new Regeneration Framework for the UK (and no, she did not arrive on her motorbike in her leathers, much to the disappointment of the senior local government officer I was sitting next to and, no, nobody was rude enough to mention MPs expenses. The very idea!).

The government has given the TIF idea some encouragement (for what that's worth!) when it announced a study into allowing the use of Accelerated Development Zones (ADZs) - a form of TIF - in last month's Budget.