Is ‘review’ another way of saying ‘dead in the water’?

In the mid-1980s visitors to Scotland’s largest city were greeted by the bold phrase “Glasgow’s miles better” next to a massive yellow Mr Happy face. The slogan was daubed on the side of a gas storage cylinder next to the M8 as it entered the city. The reality at the time may have been very different to the one projected through the local authority’s marketing campaign, but it was perhaps the first evidence of the city wa king up to the need to reinvent itself.

Today that reinvention has made the city virtually unrecognisable from the place it was in the 1980s. The good times are definitely returning to Glasgow and the surrounding area [see What’s at stake, below]. Indeed, regeneration is booming in Scotland with figures from research company International Property Databank showing returns from office developments have averaged 16.4% over the past three years, up from 10.4% over the past 10 years. Over the same period the value of industrial property has quadrupled to £1.1bn in 2006.

However, the smiles of the firms that have been flocking to Scotland may soon turn to grimaces of despair if the newly elected but minority Scottish National Party gets its way in the Scottish Parliament. To balance its books following a series of populist election manifesto pledges such as scrapping the £2,000 graduate tax and introducing a £2,000 grant for first-time homebuyers, first minister Alex Salmond’s SNP has begun a root and branch review of planned infrastructure projects, including the proposed £1.1bn rail link to Edinburgh Airport. Could this level of political upheaval put the brakes on the Scottish regeneration juggernaut?

The developers, housebuilders, architects and consultants establishing offices in Scotland will hope the answer is no. Tom Campbell, chief executive of North Lanarkshire regeneration company Fusion Assets which operates to the south and west of Glasgow, says the recent Planning Act gives security that the regeneration boom will continue. “One of the crucial things leading to development has been the Planning Act which places regeneration as a priority,” he says. “Ultimately regeneration happens through planning and unless we support that direction of travel then the regeneration simply won’t happen… There is still very much a feeling of optimism in Scotland. The SNP have said that they are keen to press ahead with regeneration.”

Sandy Morrison, the head of architect HTA’s newly established Scottish office, agrees: “There are some huge projects at the moment in Glasgow and Aberdeen and we definitely expect there to be lots more work coming from Scotland…The reason for projects taking off now is that people are feeling much more ambitious about what they can do.”

We have been calling for 50,000 homes a year… we are facing a housing crisis

Allan Lundmark

Morrison does however point to one aspect of SNP policy that could hit neighbourhood regeneration hard: the party’s opposition to the transfer of homes from councils to housing associations [see ‘SNP pledges’, right]. “The only real way we have delivered regeneration in town centres in Scotland so far has been through stock transfers. But the SNP has come out against this process. It’ll be very interesting to see how it resolves this stance in order to get funds into regeneration.”

Funding is top of the list of concerns among property developers, too. David Melhouish, director of the Scottish Property Federation, welcomes the recent announcement by communities minister Stewart Maxwell that private housebuilding will be increased by 50% (to 30,000) by 2016, but adds: “It is a huge step but how is it going to be achieved – particularly if Communities Scotland is going to be abolished? There is no delivery agency that is the equivalent of English Partnerships south of the border.”

Allan Lundmark, director of planning at housebuilders’ trade body Homes For Scotland, echoes these concerns adding that the 30,000 target doesn’t go far enough. “We have been calling for 50,000 homes a year… we are facing a housing crisis,” he says. Lundmark cites the “chronic undersupply of land and the inordinate amount of time taken to get planning permission” as key areas that a new task force into the Scottish housing market will need to address.

In a statement to Regenerate the Scottish Executive sought to reassure the market, saying: “Scottish ministers are … strongly committed to supporting regeneration across Scotland.” If nothing else that should at least bring a wry smile to peoples’ faces.