Recently in General Election 2010 Category

The national political situation is really shredding my nerves now (OK, OK, I know I'm hardly alone here).  We all just need a resolution now so we can get on with the serious business of rebuilding the economy.

And I'm beginning to feel seriously sorry for Nick Clegg who is simply trying to do his best in reconciling his party, and its agenda, with the "national interest" (because this latter is what the British are now demanding). Clearly, he has to talk to both sides. He really didn't deserve for David Blunket to accuse him of "behaving like every harlot in history" on R4 this morning. Tsk tsk.

You know: I just don't get it. Why wasn't an honest campaign conducted from the outset?

George Osborne made a seminal speech at Tory party conference last October in respect of the need for savage cuts. It was an analytical piece of work, portraying a fairly forensic understanding, and left many in the hall wondering whether the country had the stomach.  Sure enough, the opinion polls dipped immediately and the Tories throttled back.  And throttled back right up to last Thursday night. And no other party was facing up to it either. 

So....the country has spoken and the chatterati has sent out for a translation. We watch agog.

I have been speaking out too, and I've had a huge response, mostly favourable, to the piece I wrote for the Times last Friday about the failure of regeneration policy over the last ten years.

But one correspondent on a trade press blog who signed his or herself "anonymous" (a bit lily-livered, I think you'll agree) was not very complimentary, saying "She went out on an unnecessary limb by saying that regeneration is beset by so much waste. There is waste but anyone reading her comment piece would think that few good things had happened over the last decade".

"Anonymous" then went on to accuse me of "trying to appeal to what she presumed would be a Cameron government. Now the formation of such a government is in doubt".

Well! This is a bit harsh since I go out of my way to champion good practice and (pro bono I might add) I chair an organisation whose very mission is "to share best practice".

Being a glass-half-full kind of gal I will find good in a situation if I possibly can and of course some - loads of - good things have happened in the last few years (many of them in receipt of BURA Awards and celebrated here in this blog).

However, I stand by my comments: we've been beset with waste and it is shameful. Moreover, since 2004 I have been expressing doubts, repeatedly and in public, about the way that resources were being deployed in regeneration. This is far from an opportunist point. Or a party political one. This is honesty.

When I was 23 years old, I was arrested for chaining myself to the railings of the Palace of Westminster in a student protest in favour of proportional representation (PR).

The protest lasted all of about 40 seconds before the Old Bill came a-screeching around the corner (lurking, as they were, in Cannon Row nick there).

Me and nine of my mates - two of us girls and eight lads in total - were swiftly extricated from the fine ironwork with wire cutters, bundled into the meat wagon, and banged up in Bow Street Magistrates slammer (now no longer with us, of course) for a few hours to cool our heads.

We even made "News at Ten" that night (we'd lined up ITN of course, even then I was a true professional). It were a right giggle. The next day we were all fined a tenner and bound over to keep the peace. I had a criminal record for several years after that. Needless to say, my mum was not best pleased.

I tell this story not to make you smile (although I hope it has) but to establish my credentials as one who has been steeped in, and who understands, the theory of electoral reform.

As a graduate student, I worked for the Campaign for Electoral Reform for over a year; it is a sad fact that, even now, I can bore for Europe about electoral systems and can explain the "Single Transferable Vote moveable quota" in some detail (this bizarre fact could be compared with, say, Bet Lynch being able to explain the off-side rule).

Had a great end to last week at Russell Harris's WLB West London Property Lunch on Friday.

Ian Coull of SEGRO was in great form as guest speaker, despite being a little hoarse, having had a very busy week indeed (winning that Award for Deal of the Year for the Brixton acquisition was one thing, taking over 50% of the BAA airport land holdings, yet another triumph), the great man is seriously On The Up. 

He made a crackling address, including an impassioned plea from the property industry NOT to have a hung parliament and a coherent argument for the Third Runway at Heathrow (ever since I started at Park Royal I have been convinced of the merits of R3 but I have to say, to my mind, the argument is lost - if only for the time being - what we should all be crying out for now is a genuinely coherent National Airport Strategy; and the more self-interested among us should be crying out for this the loudest).

Anyway, matters of national policy aside, it was such a good lunch and went on for much of the afternoon, so I had a very slight headache on Saturday morning (Happy May Day everyone btw)... but did I really hear this on R4 on Saturday morning in my slumber?

"All this talk of immigration..... nobody ever talks about Madonna. Don't people realise that if Madonna were not here showing her bottom night and day to everyone, then Shirley Bassey might still have a job. Or Lulu."

Blimey I'm cross. I can't sleep. I mean, if politicians are going to ignore regeneration - even though it represents a rare bright hope for the economy - how do they propose to hang onto any sort of housing strategy? How will they deliver housing in any significant quantity? Are they seriously proposing to build swathes of housing with no infrastructure or amenities at all (because that is the logical extension of the documents all being silent on regeneration) let alone any sense of community?

I continue to be outraged. As Alex says: "Damn them all."

In the midst of my anguish it was a joy to be alerted to one political manifesto from one political party in one borough who, far from turning their back on regeneration, embrace it wholeheartedly as a central plank of their strategy to improve the lot of their residents.

I refer, of course, to the Conservative manifesto for the London Borough of Wandsworth, 'Better Today, Better Tomorrow'.  Put together by the very talented and able councillor Nick Cuff (One to Watch, methinks) the manifesto was launched earlier this week and it's now live on their new website. 

The key pledges include good housekeeping stuff like keeping a low council tax and a debt free borough but they also seek to innovate - pioneering free schools, reinvigorating the Right to Buy, promoting a Northern Line extension through Battersea and creating a 1,000 new car club space across the borough.

So, now we've done the work and BURA's analysis of the main party manifestos can now be found on www.bura.org.

Paul Evans was so traumatised by the experience that he felt the need to go back over ALL the manifesto pledges made in his illustrious career just to point up the stark contrast in how much used to be said about regeneration compared to how little is being said now (this is also included in the analysis, btw, a very useful crib sheet for you students currently wrestling with your dissertations out there). 

And the scores on the doors are sobering: close followers of this blog know that our traffic light code is to signal the way in which proposals stack up: green for right in line; amber for beginning to get there; red for positively damaging.

Overall there is nothing to choose between the manifestos. They all get a red for failing at the first hurdle of simply not telling a proper story about regeneration. There are flickering ambers here and there about individual proposals but almost none of them holds out a prospect of fundamental change. 

Our analysis shows that for the first time in more than 30 years no political party has made an explicit commitment to regenerate our most deprived communities. We are incensed. We are now writing to all the lead spokespeople, as well as joining in the many debates being held, whether here at the Estates Gazette, or elsewhere.  We will be inviting the lead spokespeople to show how their policies will deliver regeneration.

Now feel like I'm wading through porridge with these manifestos. It's truly very difficult to pick out what any of them mean for regeneration (or planning or housing) in this tide of warm words and noise.

We will get to the bottom of it and you can expect a comprehensive BURA analysis (courtesy of Two Brains Evans) by the start of next week with our now-fabled traffic lights scoring.

At first glance, the Lib Dems seems to chime somewhat with the Tories: they will reform business rates and seek to spread the burden more fairly between small and large firms (good news for the likes of the 2000 stalwart businesses in Park Royal, for instance).

They will "slim down" Regional Development Agencies and focus them solely on economic development (this seems a somewhat more rational position than outright abolition).

But they will abolish the (truly ill-fated) Infrastructure Planning Commission and return decision-making, including housing targets, to local people (how will this work?).

They will create a third-party right of appeal in cases where planning decisions go against locally agreed plans. They will give local authorities the power to set higher Council Tax rates for second homes and (fraught with danger, this) the option to require specific planning permission for new second homes in areas where the number of such homes is threatening the viability of a community.

Just at the point when British Waterways is being scaled back, the Lib Dems have gone all watery: they will introduce landscape-scale planning policies with a specific remit to restore water channels, rivers and wetlands and reduce flood risk by properly utilising the natural capacity of the landscape to retain water.

Well...... as I say, expect the pukka analysis from us in a few days, once Paul has done his homework. But I'm certainly not expecting any political party to score a green light from us for regeneration. And we really can't let the attack that Ed Miliband made on our sector on R4 on Monday go unchallenged.....

Since early this morning, we've been trying frantically to understand what the Labour manifesto means for regeneration and we're struggling. So far, it seems like pretty desperate stuff. Certainly on the thin side.

You'll get a traffic lights response against our Framework when Dr Evans has done the homework but first impressions do not foster hope.

The front cover seems to be taking us back to the 30s (although aiming at the sunlit uplands: nice touch) and the foreword makes 2011 sound like a "khaki" election!

Worst of all, Page 2.6 restates what Miliband said this morning about regeneration, to the effect of: job done, so cutting the money and focusing on worklessness. Then there's a few bits more, later on, about design (so the architectural lobby have got in) and about keeping pubs (whaaaaa?).

Clutching at straws. Total Place is totally for savings to the exclusion of anything else (which seriously misses a trick in regeneration terms) and City Regions are the answer (again!). Labour will extend home ownership but also look at new forms of social renting. Well I never!

So it's the 6th April and the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) comes into force today (and will anyone notice, I wonder? One eminent planning consultancy of our mutual acquaintance put out a briefing note on the CIL, rather apologetically, as "it is still legislation you may wish to acquaint yourself with". Honestly! This is a text book case study of how a government can allow an initiative to wither on the vine).

More importantly of course, it is expected that the General Election will be called today.The kidult is home from university for the holidays and is very excited as it's her first voting excursion.

And Paul Evans (BURA vice chair and the brains behind the operation - as I keep explaining, he can't help being an architect) and I will now have to literally spring into action on the BURA Framework.

We've had a phenomenal response to the BURA Framework. And not only favourable coverage, some favourable outcomes already: one consultant (who shall remain nameless) confessed he'd written his entire pitch to a public sector client around the Framework. And won the job to boot! So we were feeling very pleased with ourselves about all this.

That is, until Dr Evans and I began to draft up a timetable for BURA activity for the weeks between now and the General Election. And it is rather daunting...