From where I’m sitting … private eye

In 1988 we received a regeneration grant of £17m to regenerate 150 acres of Hull’s derelict dockland. At the time the area was colonised by twilight businesses with no long-term future. Today, the same area, which is less than a mile from the city centre, has a variety of housing stock as well as shops, offices, a medical centre, a pub and a new school. There is a flourishing residents’ association and people tend to move within the development. Cynics at the time questioned the public funding, yet today Victoria Dock is a regeneration success: a sustainable community where people are choosing to live.

The government’s target of building 60% of homes on brownfield land by 2008 has already been met, and contradicts the assertion that developers prefer greenfield. However, a recent report from English Partnerships revealed that just 11% of Britain’s brownfield is both available and viable for housing. If targets for brownfield regeneration are to be achieved in future, the government will need to work with the private sector and invest in cleaning up land and putting the infrastructure in place to make more sites usable. We can do the rest.

On a micro level, it is the places with the poorest housing that display the worst social problems. Ploughing new money into these places throws a lifeline to their residents and often curtails a wider decline. It is here that we want to be involved at the earliest stage where we can co-invest with the public sector to create housing choice and boost wider regeneration.

Take Hulme in Manchester, formerly characterised by high-rise blocks. This was one of the most notorious 1960s council estates in England. Thanks to the support of public funding, Hulme today is a vibrant community, the centrepiece of which is the revamped historic thoroughfare.

Attaching funding to sub-regional initiatives can make a real and lasting difference. However, the process must include a clear understanding of what has caused the decline in the first place, whether it is the performance of a particular school or the impact of a crime hot spot, for example. There needs to be a clear appreciation of the social, economic, environmental and physical attributes of the area.

Ploughing cash into the poorest housing curtails a wider decline

The benefits of focusing support in this way filter through to the wider economy and help support new investment and enterprise.

Regeneration comes down to the needs, desires and rights of the people whose lives will be affected by the process. They need to be working with the development partners at the earliest stage.

Ian Cox is director of regeneration at Bellway