Richard McCarthy and the road to civil service glory

If it had not had major problems – drugs, safety, physical decay, joblessness, skills and social disruption – it wouldn't have been an NDC candidate in the first place.

It is a project Richard McCarthy knows well. The Peabody Trust chief, about to describe a great career arc into the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, was involved from the early days, helping to get things going.

As a result, he surely understands two things. One is that "community" can impede social progress. In the early days, Peabody had made the fledgling NDC committee an offer to provide the administrative infrastructure, which might have saved the cost of creating a number of posts. Democracy – asking residents – is fine in principle; in practice it can stop things actually happening.

The other thing McCarthy knows is that over the NDC hovers a bulky shade, the Government Office for London. Its head, Liz Meek, may be a sensitive creature, but her minions interfere with bludgeons and sometimes appear bureaucratically jealous of any other partner for the enterprise.

The Government Office for London is a synonym for disjointedness, the fact that government's complexity is often the enemy of progress. This is especially true in the conurbations. McCarthy could even be said to be adding to the complexity.

His new position as director of the sustainable communities programme sounds a great job – I could name half a dozen RSL barons who are envious. But I'd like to see the organogramme that links his position with Genie Turton, senior director-general in charge of housing, planning and regeneration, and other colleagues at the ODPM – especially Liz Meek.

Wisely, McCarthy kept his comments on his appointment bland. But he let slip that he regarded the North as no less important than the South. I wonder if that’s wise

Then there are the adjacent departments. Unless McCarthy can quickly establish good lines of communication with David Rowlands, the permanent secretary at transport, Robin Young at trade and industry and Richard Mottram at work and pensions, he'll find it hard to create "sustainability". (Incidentally, why was it just deputy prime minister John Prescott showing the prime minister around the Thames Gateway the other week? The thing won't work unless there is a new bridge, new tram and rail lines, so where was transport secretary Alistair Darling? He did sign up to various bits of motorway but a physical presence would have testified to real commitment by his department).

Wisely, McCarthy kept his comments on appointment bland. But he let slip that he regarded the North as no less important than the South. I wonder if that's wise.

He is coming to Whitehall in a job that has no precedents. To succeed, he will need administrative vim, the backing of permanent secretary Mavis McDonald and political luck (what will happen to sustainable communities after Prescott steps down at the next election?). But he will also need to focus, I would say, on London and the Thames Gateway.

In the eyes of the Treasury, the North represents a drain on spending. It may be socially necessary but it is not regarded as rewarding. London and the Thames Gateway, however, are now regarded as investment territory: the more that gets put into housing and infrastructure there, the greater the reward in terms of GDP growth.