Recently in Regeneration Category

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.

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).

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"?

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).

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.

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."

I know that one swallow does not make a summer, but hot on the heels of Hugill and Butler setting up Urban & Civic (see my blog entry last November), I learn that those two rock-solid performers in the property sector - Mr. Mark ("Herbie") Hancock and Mr Adam Kerr - are setting up a new property company called Talisman Capital.

It hasn't done anything as yet, but is "open for business" as from this week. You may remember Messrs Hancock and Kerr from Kilmartin or Teesland days: really bright lads with a shed load to offer. Smart enough to have business interests in China too......

Sooooo....the lads have leased the obligatory offices on the corner of Brook Street (although Herbie will continue to operate also from his dirty great pile up in the wilds of Yorkshire) and they're starting small: there will be a mere four directors and two non-execs.

The gorgeous Frank Gillespie has also left Kilmartin to join them, and they've secured the services of a first class finance director, who has worked with Herbie before. A formidable team indeed.

Whew, that's a relief then! According to Mike Hayes we're all on the same page in urging stability: "Change the policies; but not the process and let the IPC, HCA and LDF's find their feet."

I genuinely did sleep a bit better last night as a result of his response (when one gets through life relying so much on instinct and emotional intelligence, it is indeed a huge validation to be told that the boffins are in agreement with your analysis) and my New Best Friend, Leonora Rozee (another Big Banana at RTPI and - until recently - senior gal at the Planning Inspectorate) can write any time.

I've already nicked her "It has never been more important to have a robust, effective and confident planning system than now when we face national and global economic, social and environmental challenges on an epic scale. Planners need to step up to the plate and demonstrate their willingness to make the systems we have been given work" for a speech I'm giving in the new year.

Wonderful stuff from a genuine leader in her field (and sorry, Leonora, no royalties will be forthcoming; this is the blogosphere after all).

A cri de coeur for stability is definitely in vogue in our industry. And another cri de coeur must be to, please, get real.

Recognising the much smaller public purse for regeneration going forward, we will certainly need to forego our preoccupation with scale: much of the Grand Projets type of regeneration seen over the last decade or more is detached from community delivery and benefits.