Prescott calls for EU sustainability summit

In a speech last Wednesday, the deputy prime minister revealed his “big idea” to host an informal meeting of ministers from the 24 other members of the European Union in Bristol on 6 and 7 December.

He said: “We will use the UK’s presidency of the EU to discuss a European approach to creating sustainable communities. Such thinking could create a framework to consider the newly emerging regional policy – not focused on narrow economic objectives, but on achieving sustainable communities.”

It is understood that the summit is classed as an informal meeting as it was hurriedly added to the list of meetings that form the UK’s EU presidency from 1 July, after officials realised that housing and regeneration had been missed off the formal list.

Officials said one of the main goals of the summit would be to agree a common approach to ensuring the range and supply of skills that are necessary to build sustainable communities across the EU.

Prescott added that the summit would seek to build on the “economic prosperity discussed by the EU in Lisbon, environment sustainability agreed in Gothenburg, and the commitment to strong and effective democratic governance decided in Warsaw”.

Claire Roumet, secretary general of the pan-EU social housing group CECODHAS, said that the principal aim for the summit should be to address how the £10bn in EU structural funding was going to be used to support “the sustainable development of neighbourhoods”.

She added that the best areas to spend this money were social inclusion and energy efficiency.

Sarah Webb, director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, said: “This is a timely idea – nobody has cracked the sustainable communities agenda but different countries are further ahead in some areas than others so sharing our experiences has got to be useful. We are probably doing more useful work on cohesion than some places.”