How can we stop being so mediocre?

At present, regeneration is high on the government agenda and serious amounts of money are available to deliver its targets. Indeed, in some areas of the country, it is delivery and not funding that is the major challenge. So why are there so many problems?

Conflicting agendas

For any major regeneration project there will be several partners: the council, government agencies, private business, primary care trusts and so on. Each has its own aims, business plan, funding regime and “clients”. If a project is not strongly managed, co-ordinated and pulled together into a coherent whole, that can be understood and evaluated by potential funders, it will be considered unattractive and high risk.

Viability and sustainability are major hurdles. While individual components of a masterplan may be self-financing in the short, medium and long term, there will almost certainly be interdependencies – for example, infrastructure, projected population and residential mix – that will have a direct impact on investors.

Perhaps the greatest obstacle of all is the lack of commercial awareness in putting together major plans for the future.

Whether the funds come from government, the private sector, banks or charities the objectives are the same: investment that delivers demonstrable long term returns in financial and social terms, preferably both.

Lack of vision

Regeneration is not just about now, next week or even next year. Yet too many proposals are bounded by immediate imperatives. It is easy to see why this happens the Housing Corporation, the Building Regulations, government offices and others all set minimum requirements without incentives to do better.

The EU procurement rules are a wonderful device for delivering mediocrity rather than quality. In too many public sector organisations, the cheapest always wins. This is the safest route for those administering the system and certainly requires less effort and commitment.

The planning and delivery of major programmes is often put in the hands of those without the commitment or the power to make things happen. As a result, projects chug on with low levels of investment at the crucial formative stages. Again this gives little confidence to those that will be asked to provide long-term funding.

The planning system

The current system is a war of attrition. Developers and delivery bodies need to be made of strong stuff to commit to the expense and energy of a long haul that can see good proposals eroded to mediocrity.

Lack of skills in the right places

There is an enormous skills gap in regeneration. There is insufficient sharing of knowledge for a number of reasons. Success is easy to advertise but who wants to say where they went wrong when funding is often dependent on performance assessments. Recent press articles have spoken about the lack of skills in those who undertake those assessments which only compounds those problems.

Salary levels in the public sector do not match those of the private sector and working conditions are often mediocre to poor. The public sector is the major driver of regeneration and therefore if we are to take the delivery of major high-quality regeneration projects seriously, there must be more investment in public sector staff, their training and support systems.

There is a commitment to community involvement in the planning and delivery of major programmes. This is quite right but is it fair to expect lay people to make decisions on complex issues without the expert support and advice they need if they are to make informed decisions? Funders will not be attracted to projects where decision-making is in the hands of lay people without a strong professional and accountable framework to provide guidance and credibility.