Brown needs to put his money where his mouth is

The long-awaited arrival of Gordon Brown at Number Ten promises to focus everyone’s attention on money more than ever before. Type the words Gordon Brown and regeneration into parliamentary monitoring website, theyworkforyou.com and you find that almost every time Brown uses the word regeneration, he prefaces it with the adjective, economic. Regeneration is the economy, stupid.

Crucially, the chancellor with a reputation for prudence moves to the top job just as the industry is on tenterhooks waiting for answers to some key money questions: notably, what will be the outcome of the Brown-inspired comprehensive spending review? And how will the merger of English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation affect the public pot distributed for housing and regeneration?

The prospect of change at Number Ten also brings bigger questions; specifically how favourably will a new line-up of ministers – and potentially new government departments with the Home Office splitting into two and Defra mooted for expansion – look upon this industry? However much Tony Blair signals the change of PM as a continuation of his ideas, inevitably the coming months will bring changes in style and approach. With Blair gone and John Prescott gone, who will be regeneration’s champion?

How favourably will a new line-up of ministers look upon our industry?

The present government has thrown many challenges at industry, and industry has fulfilled its part of the bargain: in planning demands, Design for Manufacture homes and energy performance certificates as featured in this issue, and in myriad other programmes, initiatives and laws.

As our feature on page 12 shows, the industry is also within tantalising grasp of winning over the financiers of the Square Mile, an achievement that promises to pump more money into the sector, and best of all, money that comes from the private sector rather than the straitened public purse.

So will the new prime minister perceive the industry as representing a good deal for the country and pledge to invest in it? He must – or be prepared to squander his own inheritance.