Friday 19 January 2007
Source: Regeneration
Name: Les Brown
Job: Regional project manager
Employer: Countryside Properties
Currently regenerating: a 180-acre site in Lower Broughton, east Salford in partnership with Salford Council.
Site history: ‘The population has dropped over the last 30 years from around 12,000 to 14,000, to about 2,000 at the moment,’ says Mr Brown. ‘The area’s in need of regeneration not only in the sense of the number of people, community loss and employment, but everything else that goes with a sustainable community.’
Peter Connor, Salford’s councilor for housing, says the council ‘invested heavily’ in Lower Broughton in the 1990s through its Estate Action scheme, the Single Regeneration Budget and various other government funding. Some private housing was demolished, and some council houses refurbished.
But all this has left residents disillusioned, says Mr Brown: ‘They had other developers before and nothing happened’.
What went wrong then? : ‘Regeneration is something that everyone thinks will happen overnight. People’s perception of it is very simple. The problem with doing a big regeneration project like this is that we’re not just here for a five minute fix and a quick buck and then get out.’
What's happening now? : ‘We’ve been onsite since November 2006, with the project likely to last ten to 15 years. There’s some government funding via the market renewal pathfinder, the rest [is] from Countryside Properties.
‘The plans include 3,500 new homes- up to 1,000 will be social housing owned by Contour Housing Group- along with some new retail elements, shops, a nw primary school and community facilities. Last year we got outline planning permission for 1,500 homes.’
Has anything gone wrong so far? : ‘When the Environment Agency raised the one in 1,000 year flood plan [officially increasing the deemed flood risk in parts of Lower Broughton] we had to change the plans. The area is next to the river, so you have to build escape routes and we’ve had to build some of the open spaces in different places. It’s probably put us back six months’.
Any other pitfalls to warth out for? : ‘You are no longer [just] a developer. It’s a large, complicated piece of work. There are so many people involved with their own views, whether it’s the utility companies, environment agencies, anyone with an interest.
‘Organisations work at different speeds and paces and have got vastly different expectations of what a sustainable community would be.’
Hat about regulation change? : ‘Every year new legislation comes through that always has an effect. You have to try and pre-empt it as much as possible.
‘Changes in planning, policy moving forward. For example, with Ecohomes 2006, the move towards the reduction in carbon emissions. Those things will have major impact.’
Final verdict : ‘By April we will have made a massive impact on the area. In just 10 to 15 months we will have demonstrated that we are going to deliver, and there will be physical evidence of that.
‘The role of regeneration is to set targets high, but we shouldn’t beat ourselves up if we don’t achieve them, but get better or different ones.’
He’s hopeful the expo won’t suffer the fate of the aborted renewals that have gone before. ‘The main difference and why we’re optimistic about the future is that in the past regeneration projects have been mainly about housing. That’s a little bit superficial if you like. Most of the area’s problems have been social and economic.
‘What makes us more optimistic now is that pathfinder is not just about improving houses, but it is also about neighborhood management. ‘New primary schools have already been built and a local academy is due to open in 2008. ‘It’s a combination of housing, dealing with anti-social behavior and improving education as part of a package.’
Sadly, the circumstances do not augur well. Already the expo’s starting date has been pushed back from 2008 to 2010. Besides which, only 400 homes are on the current blueprint.
‘I think it’s better that it was, but there’s still a log way to go, ‘concluding Professor Robinson. ‘I certainly don’t go as far as Alan Milburn and say it’s 500 million quid poured down the drain. Parts of areas have survived, but it’s not all sweetness and light, that’s for sure.’