The Regeneration Blog

I fear that article in The Times today will be the first of many.....

2010-03-12T14:37:30Z

A double-page spread in the Times' Bricks & Mortar section today has the screaming headline "Inner-city regeneration has 'failed to materialise'".

Another feature in the four page section asks whether the 2012 Olympic project is enough to "save Stratford", whatever that means, and there's a review of Heron's planned 36-storey tower in the City.

I will be studying this feature over the weekend and formally responding to my friends at The Times, as is right and proper, but I am afraid to say that I have been expecting this for some time.

Regular readers of this blog will know how deeply troubled I am about the waste that we've witnessed in the regeneration sector over the last ten years and our attenuated need to do something about it and fast. Sooner or later, someone was going to notice. And I'm sorry to say I predict a spate of such articles in the next few weeks. There has been waste. And people are right to be angry.

BURA chips away at our mission to share best practice and we are making some real inroads at sharing what works out there and - more importantly - what doesn't. We must step up our efforts on this front.

Our very best offer is Regeneration Masterclass 2010. Never before has it been as important to have a forum to enable senior managers from the public private and community sectors to meet, learn and share knowledge.

]]> As Peter Housden, Permanent Secretary at Communities and Local Government, says "The Masterclass programme has quickly established a strong reputation in the sector for broad-based, challenging and enjoyable sessions. It embodies the cross-sectoral and creative approach essential to the success of regeneration".

We've got a really fantastic programme this year and for the first module we've got the glittering combination of Michael Parkinson, Peter Housden and Stewart Jackson MP - all very hard-pressed individuals making time for us, and our delegates, because it's important.

Securing Professor Parkinson in particular was a bit of a coup since he'd had four other requests but he is doing this for us because "you're BURA" (love him!). We always get amazing speakers but I think we've surpassed ourselves on this occasion and I would urge any of you out there to sign immediately. Dates are the 17th/18th March, 21st/22nd April and 19th/20th May. (Each session is for 24 hours which is why there are two dates for each module.)

And the Masterclass is flexible and responsive to delegates' needs; a recent delegate, Suzanna Wood, Housing Strategy and Planning Policy Manager of Uttlesford District Council said "The Masterclass helped me drive my authority forward even in the current financial crisis". Can't be bad.

We run this programme in partnership with the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and the HCA. And our good friends over at Charles Russell LLP (is Rob Highmore of Charles Russell really a property litigation lawyer? I actually had to ask him yesterday. He was being so scrupulous and morally fastidious, I had to query it; that man gives lawyers a good name!) are delighted to host such a prestigious event, and to join in wherever possible.

I recommend the Masterclass programme unreservedly as the Real Deal. E-mail jane@bura.org.uk to take advantage.

We need more movement between public and private sectors

2010-03-11T12:53:51Z

A lovely guy came up to me after the Sheffield gig the other day and thanked me for being kind to him a few months ago, when he had on-spec approached me after he had been made redundant by St Modwen.

Nigel Cunis - who is clearly a very talented bloke - has now found gainful employment at Sheffield City Council in their property department. So that's great for him and even greater for Sheffield.

It was a delight to meet him, and his colleague, Nalin Seneviratne, a pair of complete charmers, both ex-private sector and both great appointments for any council badly needing professionals who bring a bit of business discipline and rigour to a challenging property portfolio.

I can see the two of these as being very proactive in this market; they clearly had not missed the fact that it could be land of opportunity out there, and this is a refreshing new mindset for a local authority.

There should be more opportunities for people to cross from the private sector to the public sector, and back, for the health of regeneration. This should not be the rarity, this should be the norm. I always encourage folk I meet from the private sector (like those made redundant in recent years from real estate consultancies) to have a stint in the public sector. And vice versa.

It's done wonders for the likes of Reg, who is now a fully rounded urban regeneration professional if ever you needed an exemplar (despite his slightly irreverent remarks on this blog) and I would encourage others to follow suit. Out of your comfort zone, you learn. You develop.

]]> If I'm going to be entirely honest, I had no real recollection of Nigel having contacted me so many months ago, but thank gawd I'd had the presence of mind to be kind to him at the time (although, as I was getting about five such approaches each week at that point perhaps I could be forgiven if some got overlooked!)

These days if an unemployed professional comes to me of course, I just direct them to BURA Connect and at least they then have a ready-made network to tap into. The first phone interviews with those individuals who would like to be part of BURA Connect are happening today and pretty soon we will have a network of "BURA Connect Associates" to begin to put out into member organisations whenever the need arises.

Very soon, anyone wishing to register with Connect - unemployed professionals looking for work, or someone with an urgent skill requirement - will be able to go to www.bura.org.uk to be routed through to a workable more-for-less solution. Nice.

I was interested to see that Leeds has decided to collaborate with its rivals Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield to promote the "Bradford-Leeds City Region" as a whole at MIPIM.

I'm going to see them next Thursday morning and I'm a great believer in this type of collective action and economy of scale. I'm not sure where this leaves Sheffield, but I would certainly have faith in Mr Cunis and Mr Seneviratne to grab any opportunities going, whether at MIPIM or elsewhere. Excellent pair of lads.

Yes, I was certainly impressed by Sheffield.

Why we should not apologise for going to Cannes

2010-03-10T14:28:01Z

I don't know why we never learn. There are a number of excellent business reasons, more than enough really, for public sector agencies, particularly those with land or other assets seeking partners for development, to be out at MIPIM.

But already this year Croydon's had a serious drubbing in the weekend papers and who knows how many red-top reporters will be sent out to stalk Boris Johnson around the duty-free shop in Nice airport as he attempts to buy some perfume for the missus whilst beating a hasty retreat having (apologetically) spent only one day at the event in order not to provoke press attention.

As with so many other things, we never seem to share best practice. We need to pool local authority experience and devise a blueprint for public sector attendees at MIPIM to get the best price for participation, and the best value for so doing.

Too frequently, elected members and officers alike are left defenceless before the onslaught of journalists on the hunt for waste-of-public-money stories. We need to track contacts made by local authorities at MIPIM over the last ten years and see what investment was leveraged as a result; the more sensationalist in the press pack may not have much of a leg to stand on then!

Smart local authorities see clearly that MIPIM is a valuable forum in which to promote regeneration projects and attract inward investment. Having said that, with a potential 25% cut in public sector budgets over next few years, we're going to have to work cuter and smarter if we are to keep local authorities - so very vital to the Cannes experience - in the MIPIM fold.

]]> Now I'm not allowed to divulge too much (or I'll seriously get my bottom whacked) but BURA is moving decisively to assist with the dilemma facing local authorities looking for a best value route to market. Alex King MBE, Deputy Leader, Kent County Council is leading this mission for us.

There is a major disconnect: local authorities are sitting on billions of pounds worth of assets, but the regeneration sector is stymied for the lack of a cost-effective mechanism to finding the right partners. BURA will be working with its local authority (and other) members to make MIPIM work better for them.

I can say no more right now, but if you want to learn about this you should be at the BURA@20 Seminar at MIPIM: "More-for-Less Regeneration", Room Croisette, Gray D'Albion Hotel, 38 Rue des Serbes, Cannes at 12.00 on Wednesday 17th March, kindly hosted by CB Richard Ellis. You need only e-mail Ross Sturley at chartlane@chartlane.co.uk to be assured of a place.

Developers are always asking me how to access opportunities, de-risked as far as is possible by public sector intervention, and I do my very best for my clients at CBRE or my members at BURA.

But my response tends to be a bit hit and miss, depending on who has floated across my radar recently. This initiative is a much more structured way of getting these opportunities to the attention of the market - we might even arrange for some sort of dating agency to be set up (that'd be a laugh!). Our intention is nothing short of kick starting regeneration projects in the UK - by force if necessary.

Look out for more - much more - in this vein over the next weeks and months and expect us to be out in some numbers leading local authorities (some who've never been before) to market at MIPIM 2011.

Seeing how it should be done in Sheffield

2010-03-09T16:59:10Z

To Sheffield, for a lovely day out with my NBFs, Pro-Sheffield, stylishly hosted by Nabarro in their superb canal-side office. If you ever were looking for a living example of a regeneration strategy predicated entirely on superlative public realm delivery, Sheffield is, of course, the pre-eminent city in the UK.

Given what an exemplar it is, it is to my eternal discredit that I hadn't been there since I was a student and my old mate Mark Hatton had been President of Sheffield Poly (so about 1806, then).

Yes, I was mightily impressed by Sheffield! And also mightily impressed also by the group of concerned professionals who had come together to debate "Shaping the Agenda for Regeneration and the Built Environment". These are serious people who care passionately about what happens next.

And we had a bit of knock about fun. I was characteristically badly behaved as usual (actually, I think I'm getting worse! I just can't help myself really as I do find my default position to be incandescent-with-rage at the waste in the regeneration sector over the last ten or more years of the rising market).

And I didn't merely rehearse my usual "why oh why" shtick about TIFs (although that came out too of course) but I found myself fulminating at the tiers of intermediate structures, the top heavy apparatus of the regeneration sector. It is a sad fact that there is simply no other industry that can support the amount of overhead currently committed to regeneration structures (not actual delivery, note, but back office activity).

]]> Given that reductions in public spending will be of the order of 20% across the board, our sector needs to get a lot leaner and fitter. We need to re-think the institutional infrastructure. We seek stripped back and simplified structures. And fast.

We're going out to MIPIM next week with a massive cri de couer for real localism please, whilst firmly confronting the elephant in the room: localism cannot be some sort of chaotic ad hoc irresponsible handing of power without accountability to unelected groups of residents.

No. Trust me, I've tried all that and it doesn't work. Localism must mean handing power back, first and foremost, to local authorities, who are democratically elected and who are not going to go away.

There! I've said it! And nobody struck me down. And just because some local authorities aren't very good (and, believe me, I've worked with some right shockers!) doesn't negate this central point.

Localism means that local authorities must be made fit for purpose and given their head from the centre. They must be given licence to be entrepreneurial and firm positive guidance as to how to do this within the rules.

If brilliant local authorities, such as Manchester City Council and Bradford City Council are able to underpin regeneration projects, they shouldn't be left as the exception to prove the rule. All local authorities should be encouraged to best utilise their assets and given serious support to avoid the obvious pitfalls.

You'll be hearing more about this over the next few weeks, and I'm grateful to Pro Sheffield and Nabarro for taking a brave lead in this important debate. Bravo lads!

Olympic medal for town planning? What a marvellous idea!

2010-03-08T13:43:06Z

The kidult texted me from Exeter to say (and I quote) "Until 1948 there was a medal for town planning in the Olympic games. Love you." Can this be true? (The medal for town planning thing, not the love bit).

Mike Hayes? Leonora? Alex? Can you shed any light please?

On interrogation it transpires that kidult got this from QI - that fount of all adolescent knowledge - so I guess it must be true.

How absolutely marvellous! Let's get this medal reinstated immediately. After all, it's our show next, surely. (And you try telling that to the IOC!).

Talking of town planning, some of my correspondents have been anxious as to what transpired down in Ambridge - er, Lopen, sorry - at the planning committee the other night. I tapped up Teresa Sienkiewicz for a report on the latest in the saga. It seems that the proposal to extend the site has been withdrawn!

]]> So, victory for residents on the second half of the site. And the application for B8 use was deferred; Teresa and her gang go back into battle on the B8 again on Monday 15th on the first half of the site (which is outline permission, as opposed to the full permission for the hideous building already there; do please keep up at the back of the class).

Apparently there's lots of e-mail traffic between people in the village and things are really hotting up. Teresa will take time out of work to be there on 15th to do a three-minute plea for sense. As she so eloquently puts it: "There is a special committee meeting just to deal with this planning permission which strikes me as extremely odd but what do I know, as an accountant, about SSDC's weird processes?"

Teresa's neighbours have really got the bit between their teeth. Some are going a bit rabid. Teresa reports "Barry and Kim have had the brilliant idea that if SSDC give B8 permission up the road, we should force them to reopen all the B1 and B2 stuff all over South Somerset to give them B8 too, and watch the ensuing mayhem...."

That is one very disgruntled community. And normally so mild mannered too! I don't suppose they'll be nominating SSDC for any Olympics medals in town planning. A B8 development in a textbook Somerset village seems to be so inappropriate as to be almost comical... the serious point here being, if this had been proposed in that other textbook case - the fictional village of Ambridge - the whole country would be as indignant and the residents of Lopen.

I am a great supporter of shed development, as a locus for industry and employment. When I was chief executive of the Park Royal Partnership (Park Royal being the largest industrial estate in Europe) I was quoted in the Guardian as saying "sheds are the new sex". A bit sensationalist, I admit, but you get the drift.

But, please, let's put these sheds in the right places. Let us not lose sight of what's important here.

Honing my digger-skills in South Kilburn

2010-03-08T11:51:13Z

Please see the very nice photograph(s) of me in a digger-thing on the South Kilburn estate. I have to say, what a total thrill!

Of course, the reality is I wouldn't have any idea as to what to do with the digger-thing (other than pose for pictures in it) but it does your heart good to see the next round of demolition seriously underway at South Kilburn and four more planning permissions in the pipeline.

Councillor Anthony Dunn, our resident and vigilant eco-warrior, is seeing us right on the greening of the estate and, given that we're necessarily doing things piecemeal, there has had to be some innovative fancy footwork from the planners on the phasing.

There is a massive element of retro-fitting involved here, and it's complicated. Pragmatism is the watchword. This does not quite go to the heart of the affordability versus sustainability debate (more on this, this week I suspect), but it certainly makes some contribution.

]]> The CHP plants, which will ultimately provide the estate with heat and power, will be commissioned when 60% of the "heat load" across new development in the area is ready for occupation. At that point, the sites already built will be connected to the CHP to achieve a reduction in CO2 sufficient to achieve Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) Level 4.

Brent council is collecting £1200 per property out of the S106 in order to help fund the decentralised energy centres; they've already identified two sites for the plants and are costing them (together with the pipe work needed) in more detail.

This will be the case on three of the blocks, one is rather smaller and unable to have a centralised single boiler, so the 28 units involved there will have individual boilers and not be connected in (but they will make the S106 contribution).

Brent is actively talking to ESCOs to act as providers and possible capital funders (in whole or in part). The three sites all have Photo Voltaic Cells on their roofs; this isn't because Anthony Eco-Warrior was particularly keen (since he points out, rather snippily, that they typically make up 3% savings) but because the GLA insisted on it, as part of the renewable provision. And the buildings achieve very good thermal insulation and air tightness, d'accord.

So....it isn't perfect. But, thanks to healthy civic leadership, it's a step in the right direction. And, of course, we will have a fuller costed energy strategy if we get the right HCA grant to keep the redevelopment moving. And although we did bid for one carbon programme (the GLA one) we were knocked back; being nothing if not fast learners, we'll be back around when we've done more work to the strategy with something well thought through and properly costed, to bid to the other available programmes. We think we have a compelling case.

It's an achievement to be proud of. Dave Carroll, the senior officer at Brent council, deserves credit. And nobody had better cross Councillor Anthony Eco-Warrior or I'll have to come after you in my digger (and you wouldn't want that. Blimey! I can't even manage parallel parking!).

Making the connection with sustainable development

2010-03-05T09:43:00Z

I was out plotting again with some pals the other evening, all senior regeneration practitioners (for which read: "old") of one sort or another and, admittedly, a glass or two of wine had been taken.

We got onto discussing whether "sustainability is the new regeneration" in terms of being the new emerging exciting industry to be part of, for the Noughties and the Tens, in the same way as regeneration was the party-to-be-at for the Eighties and the Nineties. And our verdict was: well, yes!

The parallels are all there. Environmental jobs are created on the fringe and (at least in the general perception) are still not mainstream. Despite a pretty coherent case, environmentalists still seem to be outsiders, banging on the door of the establishment. Those who choose the environment industry tend to be as messianic and passionate, as pointy-headed, as we were when we "invented" urban regeneration, in London Docklands (among other places) all those years ago.

Environmental projects tend to need the same skills that we deploy in urban regeneration - partnership working, building alliances and coalitions, an ability to manage cocktail funding, a forensic understanding of risk management capacity in both the public and private sectors. All this coupled with excellent technical grasp of one's subject and the patience of a saint! What's the betting that all this sounds very familiar to anyone in a so-called "green job"?

]]> So, as BURA launches itself at MIPIM into the next 20 years, as a "learning organisation" we are (as you all know) naturally looking at what worked and what didn't, and, as I advised the environment industry only the other day in some august journal, it may be salutary for those guys to pick up any "read across" from our experiences in regeneration.

One of the things we didn't always get right is routing projects - thoroughly - through our local communities and it is the projects that managed to effect this that have been the most successful (and this was never achieved 100%, although people cite Brindley Place or Paddington or Castleford as having elements of best practice; those that are worthy of copying).

In an analogous drive to improve the sustainability of our built environment, there is now a strong focus on communities - especially communities in which people can work, shop, learn and play near their homes, and not have to drive miles from residential areas to distant business districts, shopping centres, schools and other facilities.

I believe that the environmental agenda and the regeneration sector are closely aligned, if not exactly the same! It may not be flavour of the month right now, but I reckon it is inescapable. As some other old trout once said: "There is no alternative".

Fending off the vultures

2010-03-04T11:15:36Z

Just had to post this fantastic picture of Dan Sequerra, chair of the BURA Community Inspired Awards Panel, giving Stewart Jackson MP, the Conservative spokesperson on Regeneration, the "finger treatment" at BURA@20.

I adore Dan-Dan-the-Portuguese-Man. I love him with a fierce passion, but there is no avoiding the fact that the bloke can talk for Britain. Poor Stewart Jackson couldn't get a word in! And then you've got dear old Jim Briscoe of CB Richard Ellis looking on in exasperation, patiently waiting to have a serious conversation with Mr Jackson about the Private Rented Sector Initiative.

Ross Sturley is running a caption competition for this photograph around the BURA family as we speak. Current leader is "and you can put your localism...".

On a serious note though, it was a joy to bring something fresh and new to the table at BURA@20. Something that specifically addresses the heart of the problems that we're facing today: the need for us to have to respond to massive regeneration challenges with no money AND the need to find work for regeneration professionals who are out of work.

]]> Our sector has been plagued by organisations and people who have made lots of money out of us - money that should have been directed specifically to creating places and jobs and developing skills - and now that this is drying up, presumably they'll head off elsewhere leaving us deal with the aftermath of the recession. One is these "vultures" is undoubtedly seen in some of the worst elements of the recruitment industry.

Now don't get me wrong, there are some fine and upstanding professionals in that sector (and you know who you are) but there are probably more who know NOTHING about regeneration and they take large fees for placing adverts in the press (which we pay for); looking up potential candidates in Linked-In or other professional networking sites; interviewing them against a specification that WE have prepared; putting them though psychometric assessment (for an additional fee) and 'facilitating' any appointment. And if the wrong appointment is made, it's OUR fault because it's OUR decision at the end of the day.

It just doesn't seem right or fair. There may be an argument that it's all worthwhile if they add value - perhaps through giving outstanding candidate service - but a lot of the feedback I get (and this will resonate with most of you) is that the standard of service is often poor. There are exceptions but these are few and far between.

In a bizarre way, a culture of mutual dependence has been created. As individuals, we need them because they may be our passport to our next job. And, as leaders of organisations, they need our money!

At BURA, we've looked at this resourcing issue and we feel that we have an obligation to find a better way forward. We have launched BURA Connect - an army of highly professional self -employed practitioners capable of working with organisations to address either strategic issues or to support delivery on specific projects.

For our members, they will be able to access talent more cost effectively as its project specific. For associates, we can be one of their channels to work. We have high hopes for BURA Connect. Over the year, as BURA Connect grows, we'll be running associate events across the UK.

As I've said many times, we face extraordinary challenges and we need to think differently about the solutions. The old ways of doing things are just not working. But we need to be finding these solutions ourselves and not looking to others for them. Nobody knows this sector better than us.

We can draw on a wealth of skills and experience from within our sector. This is something that we will now be doing in BURA - some of the things we try will work, some may not. But at least we will have owned the challenge and worked through the solutions rather than passing it on.

Brent IS the new Southwark, I tell thee

2010-03-03T12:14:45Z

The admirable "Place West London" weekly e-letter carries the news this morning that Boris and Brent council have approved plans for the phased demolition and redevelopment of the Barham Park Estate.

This is hot on the heels of the hefty approval that we got in nearby South Kilburn last week, thus neatly proving not one, but two, of my recent pet theses: first that Brent is the new Southwark and, secondly, that there is no better time than this point in the cycle for local authorities to bring their de-risked projects to market.

Get your skates on out there!

Construction at Barham will start this summer and is estimated to take five years to complete, in this case by our old friends Notting Hill Housing Association and the late Alan Cherry's Countryside Properties (btw, Richard, Guy and others, I can only apologise about not being able to attend Alan's Memorial Service in a couple of weeks. I will be strutting my stuff out at MIPIM on that day, and I have to earn my crust. I will be deeply sad not to be with you).

]]> The Countryside/Notting Hill team will demolish 214 existing properties to make way for 335 new homes - 267 on the estate and 68 just outside on the Harrow Road. Homes will range from one-bedroom flats to proper family houses with gardens. The scheme will also include retail space and a community centre.

Sustainability is a key theme of design proposals and the development will feature green roofs (so councillor Anthony Dunn has clearly had a hand in things) which provide a range of benefits including absorption of rainwater, provision of insulation and a habitat for wildlife.

Councillor John Detre (lead member for regeneration for Brent) and Andy Donald (his AD Regeneration) are a formidable team and I congratulate them. They are clearly on a roll.

We are taking a number of jv opportunities from Brent out to MIPIM in just a few days; developers and investors would be very silly not to take Brent very seriously over the next five years.

In a time of uncertain political futures, the stability of this London borough coupled with its glorious asset base and its serious intent to develop and regenerate, make it fertile territory indeed. And they're green: sustainability is key. They are showing the way.

And I'm just off now to have my photo taken on a digger outside Marshall House to mark the next stage of our demolition programme in South Kilburn. Somebody has to.

BURA to join the dots at Mipim

2010-03-01T10:05:50Z

If it's not one darned thing, it's another! No sooner do I get through the BURA@20 Conference last week then we have to start working on our BURA@20 Seminar at Mipim: "More-for-Less Regeneration".

No peace for the wicked, I guess.

The BURA@20 Seminar will be the hot ticket this year, to be held in the Room Croisette, Gray D'Albion Hotel, 38 Rue des Serbes, Cannes, at midday on Wednesday 17 March.

We are trying to achieve rather a lot at this event but it promises much, and fresh from our interesting debates of last week, we already have a great deal of interest.

BURA always aims to combine an interesting mix of people - life's rich tapestry if you like - and we have tried to get a balance between private sector and public sector speakers (and also, from the local authority side, both a senior officer and a distinguished elected member).

]]> I will be chairing (and exercising a bit of nanny whip) setting the agenda: in the run-up to the most uncertain general election ever known, how do we chart a new course for regeneration in more-for-less Britain?

Our BURA "Framework" document will be launched (more of this on the blog this week) and then leading speakers including our own Martin Samworth, MD of CB Richard Ellis UK, Keith Mitchell, MD of Peter Brett Associates; Jim Wilkie, deputy chief executive of Wirral Metropolitan borough council, and Alex King MBE, deputy leader of Kent county council, will debate aspects of the new emerging world in which we find ourselves.

In a year when Mipim will suffer a serious decline in public sector participation, we place the focus securely onto the public sector. We will be exploring what many exemplar local authorities are doing to continue to encourage growth in their community while we wait for the market to return (supposing it does, in a form we understand!) to get "top-down" projects delivered?

The major theme is that there is a serious disconnect. Local authorities are sitting on billions of pounds worth of assets, but - short term - the regeneration sector is stymied for the lack of a cost effective route to market. How do we forge open, transparent, defensible relationships?

BURA is working with our members to bring opportunities (de-risked as far as is possible by public sector intervention) to the attention of the international market in a more systematic and streamlined way.

Anyone from the UK attending Mipim really should be there (and if you can't come I will need a note from your mum). You need only to RSVP to Ross Sturley on chartlane@chartlane.co.uk to secure a place.

Missed the party at Mishcon de Reya. Went to Parents Evening instead. Not happy.

2010-02-26T12:54:46Z

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).

]]> My resentment heightened as I got a text this morning from the lovely Lesley Fletcher which read "saw Sue Brown she told me you were doing your mother bit....rotten night but Mishcon always packs them in! Lxxxxx" so that really cheered me up. Not.

I first met Susan Freeman on a study tour, that Pat Brown of Central London Partnership had put together for about 20 of us to look at the Business Improvement Districts in New York in 2000 (this was before we imported them to London of course).

I'd never been to New York before and was fairly well captivated as you may imagine. Susan of course, being one the most glamorous entities to stalk this earth, was an old hand at New York, quite blasé in fact and, indeed, flew her husband and children out to join her at the end of the visit, which I just thought was the height of sophistication!

That was a great study visit, we genuinely learned a lot and it had its share of comic moments. Mark Boyes (then of Burford, now at Lend Lease of course) and I were in next door berths in the new BA flatbed business class seats (he'd paid £3k for his, Pat had kindly got BA to sponsor mine as my little Regeneration Partnership had no budget - he was fuming!) and ever since we have always claimed that we have slept together (sooooo childish).

Actually we didn't sleep much, just drank a lot of champagne. There was one cracking evening when a small group of us ran up a bill for $200 in half an hour in some poncy bar on two rounds of gin martinis. There weren't that many of us involved, it was just an uber-expensive gaff.

Ken Dytor (then at Urban Catalyst) was certainly there, as was Sid Sporle (by that point, no longer at Westminster City Council and I can't really remember why he was there but we were all jolly glad he was, as he came at the whole thing as if he was in a "Carry On" film). Tony Bickmore (then at the Crown, now at TfL) may have been involved, as he was certainly on the tour, as was the lovely Alistair Subba Row of Farebrother and my old pal, Sandra Eyre of Creative Town Planning . But there were only four or five of us on that particular occasion although I think it is fair to say they were rather large martinis....

There are also poignant memories of that visit; Pat is nothing if not well connected and she had pulled enormous strings to get the Port of New York Authority to host a dinner for us with the Deputy Mayor of New York on the 107th floor of the south tower of the Twin Towers. It was an amazing night and, as must be the case for anyone who ever say it, I will never forget the view. But it is salutary to remember that not many of the fine officers of the Port of New York Authority (who entertained us so royally that evening and who were such a great laugh) would have survived 9/11 - just a year later - as their office was a few dozen floors beneath the room in which we had the dinner. It is a sobering thought. I can still picture their faces.

This is a rather long winded way of explaining that Susan and I are good mates and have been for over ten years. She'll forgive me for not being at her party last night.

Bura@20: we've been through a lot but we know what works

2010-02-25T14:39:41Z

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.

]]> So we've lived through, and have the unique institutional memory of, the first and second generation UDCs, City Challenge (and there were folk there on Tuesday who remembered Mike Gahagan's City Pride!), Single Regeneration Budget, Rounds 1 to 6 and Single Pot, the Urban White Paper leading to the Urban Summit of 2002, the establishment of the URCs, the establishment of the NDCs, the Prescott Sustainable Communities Plan of 2003 and the Growth Corridors, the Thames Gateway and the Northern Way, the concomitant raft of LDVs. The third generation UDCs of 2004, the Sustainable Communities Summit of 2005. And - in parallel - BURA has been celebrating successes led by the private sector, the voluntary land ownership partnerships that we saw with Paddington Waterside and the Birmingham Alliance and, of course, the Business Improvement Districts. This is by no means an exhaustive list either btw, although it is certainly an exhausting one!

In short, from bitter experience, we believe that regeneration is best delivered where there is a clear, light touch policy framework which provides the basic infrastructure necessary for public sector intervention to facilitate private sector investment. A policy framework which sets out the vision and parameters; and which in turn enables all partners to respond accordingly. And we are listening carefully to our (increasing number of) private sector members, who tell us that prescriptive policies and too many agencies involved lead to undue complexity, competing objectives and risk which, in turn, deters investment.

So, all of you frustrated bunnies out there (this means YOU, Reg, and YOU, Alex Kendall and YOU, Mike Hayes) please can you respond to Dr Paul Evans, BURA Vice Chair (he may be an architect but don't hold that against him) when the time comes in his consultation for our communiqué (dread word) - a framework for regeneration going forward. We'll be launching this at MIPIM, and anywhere else we can find, prior to the general election. With any luck we'll get our brand of common sense and pragmatism adopted. But if not, then at the very least we will have the satisfaction of being able to say we told 'em so!

Wisdom comes with age - at least for BURA that's true

2010-02-24T12:41:08Z

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.)

]]> He did share some real existential angst with us about his constituency in Blackpool (to which we responded with alacrity, BURA being rather keen on seaside towns, rather besotted in fact).

Stewart Jackson MP (Conservative spokesperson) was altogether more relaxed, and more self-assured and confident of his brief than ever I've seen him.

The dialogue with John Carleton of Local Partnerships felt authoritative and grown up; hats off to both really. And Julia Goldsworthy, the Lib Dem MP (who I hadn't met before), was something of a revelation: feisty, clear, articulate and charismatic (my gaffer at CBRE, the wondrous Adrian Bunnis, was seriously rather taken).

I was grateful to all of them for their insights and I was grateful to my interlocutors from the BURA board for their gentle non-Paxman-like, but thoroughly intellectual, style of questioning.

EG's Big Cheese, Damian Wild, then introduced my own Big Cheese, Peter Damesick of CBRE, who gave us a market view of the future of regeneration in a recession (which was a little like being hit by an express train, but it had to be said and we certainly needed it) and we launched BURA Connect (which you will hear more, a lot more, about in the next few weeks) before I was left to wrap up and try to plot us a course for the next 20 years.

And then, natch, we had a drink or two. Actually, I may have had three or four.

In the next few days we (or, rather, Dr Paul Evans, my Vice Chair, who is the brains-behind-the-operation) will be sweeping up all of it: the BURA response to recent green papers; our conversations with the regeneration spokespeople; our take on any leaks in manifesto commitments (or any other halfway-relevant announcements that we can make sense of) into a communiqué (this wretched term that I can't seem to ditch) with our six (might it be seven? No, make that six) themes for the future of regeneration.

Our blueprint for the way forward drawing on 20 years' hard graft and, frankly, knowing better than anyone exactly what works and what doesn't. No mean feat for poor old Paul to pull off there, but he was a senior civil servant at the parent department and he's had the training (anyway it's all his fault that I'm in this fine mess, so he can bloody well pull his finger out).

Quite wonderful to see so many old lags turning out for us there. Quite a gathering of the clans. BURA boasts an eclectic membership: The weird and the wonderful; The purely commercial and the strictly wacky.

Life's rich tapestry indeed, and a lot of true love flying around the room.

At last the Tories nail their planning colours to the mast - just in time for Bura@20 !

2010-02-23T09:23:12Z

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).

]]> The only people I know who genuinely believe the UK planning system is broken are the more rapacious of our developer friends, who are aggrieved simply because they've not been allowed to get away with inappropriate schemes.

I'm a sweet old fashioned thing really. A child of Abercrombie.

However, this document seems a bold package and I am really really looking forward to the analysis over the next few days (starting this afternoon at BURA@20). Cameron has described it as one of the "biggest shifts in power for decades" and a move from "a system that was controlled by a few" to "be run by the many". And very laudable too.

It's going to take me and my pointy heads on the BURA Board some time to get our heads around "Open Source Planning"but one thing is for sure: both I and the BURA Members know a thing or two about neighbourhood involvement and community engagement. We are its most passionate advocates. And we sure as hell know how difficult it is to get right.

It is the aspiration of any regeneration practitioner to "get neighbourhoods to come together to solve problems together" as the document advises. But, as we have learnt from bitter experience, in the New Deal for Communities programmes and elsewhere, this is a very tough call, needing experience and skill and a shed load of emotional intelligence (not a common combination btw).

Community engagement is really very hard to get right, particularly in areas of deprivation, and almost impossible in areas where there is wide disparity of household income. It just feels a bit naive; "Planning for Real" was always a little fanciful (almost hippie-like) and there now seems to be some sort of romantic notion that we can become like the people in "Passport to Pimlico".

Frankly the Cameron claim that Open Source Planning "will mend our broken planning system" is really a very strong one. The claim that "it'll help to build stronger communities and help to mend our broken society too" is eye-wateringly ambitious indeed. The ideologue in me (still alive and kicking) would like to think it's worth giving it a go, but this policy is going to have to be implemented by people who really know what they are doing.

Opportunity knocks down in Brent

2010-02-22T10:24:29Z

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".

]]> Given the much under-utilised canal and the proximity to transport connections (no infrastructure needed then!) this is all just too plausible for words!

The council's vision for how the area could be improved covers three main themes:

· Alperton's core is seen as a cultural centre linking communities with facilities by drawing the attractions of Ealing Road closer to the tube station, and open space created for the whole community to use.

· The Waterside residential neighbourhood would provide new homes for families, couples and individuals in an attractive waterside location. New community facilities would be introduced in public spaces along the canal.

· The Industrial zone would exploit Alperton's proximity to Park Royal Industrial Estate to generate more jobs in new affordable premises to encourage more businesses to open up in the area.

John Detre is a man on a mission: "The vision for Alperton represents one of the most integrated and far reaching regeneration projects proposed for the borough. It will bring new jobs and homes as well as brightening up the area."

His officers have run a series of informal consultation sessions over the last year and spoken to residents, businesses and land owners to explore ideas of what changes in Alperton should happen.

A first draft of the vision document for Alperton was produced in September 2009 and consultation on this document will then inform a masterplan for the area. The masterplan itself will be developed over the coming months and statutory consultation on this document is due to take place in late summer 2010.

I think developers and investors have overlooked Brent for far too long. I take just one look at this borough and see opportunity after opportunity. Quintain certainly hasn't done too badly out of it (recession notwithstanding) and I am recommending to all my clients that they should have a really thorough look (particularly the "new breed" developers that are up for integrated mixed use schemes).

When Peter Dawson regroups and forms his new development company with the good guys (Alex Kington et al) from his Brixton days, then he'll be back in Brent, you mark my words.