Following the Prime Minister's announcement of
a new £140 million fund to pump prime regeneration of the 100
worst estates across the country, the government has now confirmed
the membership of the Estate Regeneration Advisory Panel which will
oversee this work.
ARCH member, Wandsworth Council is represented on the Panel by
the Leader of Council Cllr Ravia Govindia.
The Panel met for the first time on 9 February and will look at
how the layout of estates can be best used to deliver more quality
homes that people can buy and rent.
The 17-strong group, co-chaired by Lord Heseltine and Housing
Minister Brandon Lewis and reporting to the Prime Minister and
Communities Secretary Greg Clark, will develop a national estate
regeneration strategy and work with up to 100 estates to tackle
deprivation and transform them into vibrant communities.
The Prime Minister previously announced that £140 million would
be made available to jump-start the regeneration. The loan funding
will allow communities to lever in investment from the public and
private sector to deliver ambitious projects that local people can
be proud of.
In a DCLG press release announcing the
launch of the Panel, Lord Heseltine said:
"Estates regeneration is key to
transforming the lives of people living on poorly designed housing
projects. The panel will provide expert advice, support and explore
innovative funding solutions to drive forward the regeneration of
estates around the country.
However, I am clear that this has
to be locally led and we must work with the residents of such
estates. I now want to see local communities coming forward with
innovative ideas to achieve desirable neighbourhoods that local
people can be proud of."
Future meetings of the Panel will be held at estates across the
country. Members are:
- Councillor Ravi Govindia, leader of Wandsworth Council
- Nicholas Boys Smith, director of Create Streets, a social
enterprise and independent research institute which pushes for
well-designed estates
- Andrew Boff, leader of the Greater London Authority
Conservatives housing group
- Elaine Bailey, chief executive, from Hyde Housing Association,
which successfully regenerated the Packington Estate in
Islington
- Paul Tennant, chief executive from Orbit Housing Association,
which successfully regenerated Erith Estate in Bexley
- Tony Pidgley, chief executive of Berkeley Homes - a lead
partner on various estate regenerations across London
- Peter Vernon, chief executive of Grosvenor Estates
- Jane Duncan, president of the Royal Institute of British
Architects (RIBA)
- Ben Bolgar, senior director of the Princes Foundation
- Dominic Grace, head of London Residential Development at
estates agents Savills
- Emma Cariaga from the British Land and Thames Valley Housing
Association
- David Budd, Mayor of Middlesbrough
- Natalie Elphicke, chief executive of the Housing & Finance
Institute
- Graham Allen, MP for Nottingham North
- Félicie Krikler, director at Assael Architecture
The Panel will work with a range of local stakeholders,
including communities, local authorities, landlords, investors,
builders, housing associations, and anyone else with ideas and
ambition. It will draw up the national strategy for estate
regeneration by the autumn. Its objectives include:
- providing strong protection for existing residents, such as
rights of return
- delivering more homes for rent and ownership
- delivering homes more quickly
- promote high standards of design to provide commercially viable
schemes which have the potential to be self-financing
- encouraging and attracting more private and public sector
investment to help regenerate estates
Any additional financial resources to support the regeneration
of poorly designed council housing estates are to be very much
welcomed and there are some excellent examples of innovative work
by stock retained councils and almos in regenerating poorly
designed housing estates built in the 60's and 70's - including the
innovative work by Wandsworth Borough Council on the York Road
Estate in Battersea where the launch of the Panel was
announced.
However, the Savills Research report, on which
the programme is based, focusses entirely on London and London
property market and ARCH has concerns about whether this model will
work in lower value areas across the country and it will be
interesting to see how the model will work in other areas of the
country with lower land and property values.
ARCH welcomes Lord Heseltine's comments that estate regeneration
must be locally led. ARCH believes that the residents of such
estates must be put at the heart of any regeneration proposals.