David Taylor, businessman, politician and father of English Partnerships, has arguably done more than anyone to show how regeneration should work. Josephine Smit asks him what his secret is

The office is arctic white, chic as a private Belgravia gallery. The man framed by this dramatic space is wearing a black polo-neck for maximum contrast. This is David Taylor’s London persona and he wears it well: he looks every inch the affluent property developer.

But next week, Taylor will be equally at home in deprived Preston, where he’ll be working out how to revive areas where 18 out of 20 houses have been abandoned, and where a home costs the same as a four-year-old Peugeot 406.

This peripatetic working life, which involves spending alternate weeks in London and Preston, demonstrates how difficult it is to pigeonhole David Taylor. He’s a pal of John Prescott, yet he pays tribute to the work of Michael Heseltine. He talks to City bankers by day, and community groups by evening. He manages to bridge regeneration’s big divides: between the public and private sectors, and the North and the South.

In his 25 year career in regeneration, Taylor has taken on some big tasks. While he headed Amec’s regeneration arm, he worked with David Lunts (later head of urban policy at the ODPM and now at the Greater London Authority) on the blueprint for the regeneration of Manchester’s Hulme estate, and helped to create English Partnerships. Today, he is taking on challenges across the private and public sectors at the same time.

In London, Taylor runs David Taylor Partnerships, which is co-developer of Silvertown Quays, a massive mixed-use scheme in London Docklands centred on an aquarium designed by Terry Farrell. Taylor steered the project through planning, and has now persuaded the team to let the BBC film the building of the aquarium. No wonder Alasdair Nicholls, managing director of Native Land, the development manager of Silvertown Quays, says Taylor “ knows exactly what he wants to achieve and how to get it.”

Those who know Taylor use words like ‘passionate’, ‘empathetic’, ‘visionary’ and ‘a supreme motivator’

As well as Silvertown Quays, Taylor is co-developer on a 3000 home mixed-use scheme at Canada Quays in Southwark, south London, that is expected to go to planning in September. Together the two schemes will put Taylor behind the delivery of about 8000 homes in the capital.

But once Taylor’s train pulls out of Euston, his mind turns to different matters. He chairs Hull’s urban regeneration company, Hull Citybuild, and the housing market renewal pathfinder Elevate East Lancashire. Founded two years ago, the URC is aiming to deliver £1.5bn of commercial investment and £240m of residential investment in the city centre alone. Meanwhile, Elevate East Lancashire poses the challenge of applying demolition to aid regeneration in one of the country’s most problematic areas.

Those who know Taylor say he is the right man to take on these challenges. “Passionate”, “empathetic”, “visionary” and “a supreme motivator” are some of the words that people use to describe him. “He likes doing things,” says Lesley Chalmers, chief executive of the English Cities Fund, who met Taylor when she went to work on Hulme in the early 1990s. “You’ve got to really want to do some of the things that he does.” So what does the man himself say?

Q&A

What has been the impact of the Labour government’s regeneration policy?

Generally progress has been good, although it varies geographically. The climate is a lot more conducive to working together now.

The Thatcher government planted a lot of seeds, notably with the work done by Peter Walker in Wales and Michael Heseltine, but Labour has built on the best of it. The Thames Gateway was Michael Heseltine’s idea and it is now being carried forward.

You say that the climate is more conducive to working together, but how is the working relationship between the private and public sectors?

It is better than it has ever been. The concept of working together is no longer a fringe thing, it’s mainstream. Under the Thatcher government private was good and public was bad.

Does that mean the two sectors understand each other now?

No they don’t, but they try. They still have different cultures. A lot of what I do is interpretation. The private sector is impatient. It wants to get on with developing and can’t understand why all this bureaucracy is in the way. But if you are patient, you get the better deal. If you go at it in a confrontational way, then it will all end in tears.

The public sector has changed. There are certain local authorities that I’m lost in admiration for. If Manchester council were a company, it would be in the FTSE 100.

Which of your roles poses the greatest challenge?

East Lancashire by a mile. In Hull we’ve come through difficult times and are starting to make progress. But in East Lancashire, everyone I have taken to the area, whether they are government officials, banks, or whatever, has been shocked at what they saw.

Can you bring about the change?

We think we will do it. We are starting to make progress. We have commissioned a range of development frameworks and pilot projects and we are putting money into further education for construction training. It’s a modest start, but I would rather do that than go in with a bang and then find three years later that things are not working. The contrast between the Conservative and Labour governments is that Labour adopted a very long-term approach. The last Conservative government went for quick fixes.

But isn’t it difficult getting investment in areas like East Lancashire?

It is very difficult, but the public sector has to create a context within which the private sector can invest with confidence. Private investors need to know that there is a plan of attack.

But they are coming in. We’re working with British Land at Canada Quays, and that is the company’s first tight urban mixed use scheme. A big City institution asked me to come in and explain urban regeneration to them. The fact that they feel they ought to know about it is a sign of change.

Is there common ground for you on either side of the private–public divide?

There are connections, especially at a community level. Whether I am talking to community groups in Southwark or East Lancashire it still takes a while to get people’s trust. Once you have got that the job gets easier. You won’t always see eye to eye with the community on everything, but you can look for an honest dialogue.

What’s the secret to doing the impossible?

I’m not telling you. That’s like the formula for Coca-Cola. But one thing that is irreplaceable is experience. You need to be able to understand a broad range of agendas at one time.

The working life and times of David Taylor

1983-89 Became a regeneration player as deputy and then managing director of Lancashire Enterprises, a council-sponsored regeneration company.

“With Lancashire Enterprises, we pioneered partnership when it was almost frowned upon by a government that didn’t see a role for the public sector. It was 20 years ahead of its time. We raised money from Rothschilds bank to put into redeveloping industrial estates. I’m proudest of some of the early things that we did in Lancashire. They were the big and brave, and they made a lot of money.”

1989-1993 Taylor crosses to the private sector to head up Amec Regeneration/Amec Developments. There he played a key role on the project that was to be a breeding ground for regeneration talent, Hulme in east Manchester. “East Manchester is transformed. Seeing really is believing. The before and after stuff is really important.”

1993-1996 After four years in the private sector, Taylor is lured back to the public sector to be the first chief executive of English Partnerships. “The original name for EP was the urban regeneration agency. I didn’t like the sound of the URA, so we came up with EP. At EP, I did the Time for Design publication. The Conservatives were geared to getting private investment into deprived areas, and that resulted in people doing terrible schemes. There was one just behind EP’s office in Mercury Court in Liverpool, in fact. We took a stand and said that if you want our money, you have to do what we say. It was entirely reasonable to dictate design.”

1997-98 Taylor served as a special advisor to John Prescott, helping to draft the white paper that paved the way for Regional Development Agencies.

The move marked a return to Prescott’s office for Taylor as he started his career in regeneration in 1981 as the MP’s research assistant.

“RDAs have generally been a big step forward,” Taylor asserts.

Source

RegenerateLive