Regeneration

George Howarth Excerpts

Thursday 19th April 2012 Westminster Hall

[Mr George Howarth (in the Chair)]

Before I call the next speaker, it might help if I explained that in the event of a Division in the House before the end of the debate, we will adjourn for 15 minutes and the time will be added on to the end.

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On resuming—

[Mr George Howarth (in the Chair)]

We now have half an hour added on, which takes us to 6 o’clock. When the sitting was suspended, the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) was in full flight.

[Bob Blackman]

As is popular, I should say, “As I was saying.” I was talking about a regeneration project for Harrow town centre that goes back two or three years. Harrow college had an imaginative scheme to transfer its main college from my constituency to the centre of Harrow. Harrow on the Hill tube station, which is a fundamental hub in north-west London, would be regenerated. The college would move; there would be new housing and a new shopping centre; and the council would relocate its main civic centre to the town centre.

The scheme was put together creatively by a key partnership of the public and private sector, including Transport for London, but the fundamental issue was whether we would get funding from the Learning and Skills Council. It was presented as a multi-million pound project, bringing in huge amounts of private sector investment. Harrow college spent more than £10 million of its own resources to develop the scheme.

At the last minute, of course, the LSC had over-committed all its funds and every scheme was pulled. As a result, the regeneration of Harrow town centre was put on the back burner and will never happen without substantial public sector investment. The key point is that a relatively small amount of money is required to produce huge private sector investment.

I regard that as a failure of regeneration activities under the previous Government, where everyone was led up the hill—to believe that all this would happen, funding was in place and it would all occur properly—only to be let down at the last minute, when there was never any possibility of public sector funding. That is why, in respect of a strategy for regeneration, we must be open and honest and say that the limited resources must be concentrated on areas that will produce the greatest possible return and improve the quality of life for the maximum number of people.

Page 36 of the report states what the strategy should provide. That is significant. We should have a strategy that emphasises the need for private sector leverage coming in on the back of public sector investment. We should aim for the maximum possible private sector leverage. I depart from the script in the report, because I believe that in competing for regeneration funds the whole process should be competitive, ensuring that we bring together partnerships of the private and voluntary sectors, the community, local authority and all other public bodies. There must be clear priorities, a clear plan and everyone must know what is going to be provided and committed.

In any form of regeneration, strong community involvement is needed. After all, the community living, working and playing in those areas will suffer the consequences if we get it wrong. Therefore, it is important that people are not only consulted, but are part and parcel of the schemes that are to be developed.

Each area listed on page 36 of our excellent report, which I was pleased to participate in and support, emanates from our review of the Hulme project and of city challenge. In my judgment, there has not been a proper and full review of all those different regeneration schemes and various types of activity that Governments of both persuasions have launched on society. As a result, we have in-built failure in many of the processes. It is important to hold a review of the successes and failures of the past. We need to be honest and up front with people, to say, “This is the money that will be available. If there is no money available right now, we will work towards making it available in the future, so that people can plan for that future.”

We can help and assist Ministers in the Department for Communities and Local Government to formulate a detailed regeneration strategy that is truly a strategy for regeneration, as opposed to a pulling together of lists of the various different programmes available. By doing so, we would give people the chance to create regeneration opportunities over the next five years. Under successive Governments, the Ministers responsible have changed fairly frequently, but we have had a period of stability under the current Government, and I hope that our Ministers can take the report forward in the spirit in which we give it, as critical friends of the Government. We warmly endorse the capability of regenerating local areas. There is no single way to do so, but a coherent and convincing strategy is necessary, so that everyone who participates in regeneration can believe that things will change.

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[Roberta Blackman-Woods]

The hon. Gentleman has raised two important issues. I was going to come on to those points, but I will make a comment now. The evidence given to the Select Committee about enterprise zones, and indeed my experience—I remember the first time that we had enterprise zones—suggest that although businesses moved into those zones because of the tax incentives and grants, the jobs were not necessarily new. It remains to be seen whether enterprise zones will create new jobs: if they do, that will be great. However, those jobs will not necessarily be available to people from the most disadvantaged areas, because other things such as training, skills, transport and good housing have to be in place. There has to be a holistic approach.

I am glad that the hon. Gentleman mentioned CILs. One worrying thing about the late changes that were made to the Localism Bill before it became an Act was that it became easier for developers to wangle their way out of a CIL and for schemes to be designated as unviable if a CIL were applied. That is something that we will have to watch carefully over time. Of course we know that it is a difficult economic environment and that things will be difficult for many developers. Nevertheless, it is important that CILs are applied where possible.

In my last few minutes—

[Mr George Howarth (in the Chair)]

I hope that the hon. Lady will be slightly briefer than that.

[Roberta Blackman-Woods]

I hope that the Minister will address the following five points that were raised by the Select Committee.

First, the Government need to develop and publish a strategy to address the problems faced by the most disadvantaged communities. Secondly, they need to publish a strategy that indicates how private investment will be attracted to areas of market failure. Thirdly, previous schemes must be properly evaluated and lessons learned. Fourthly, the DCLG needs to issue guidance about how public land can be used to stimulate regeneration. Finally, we need to have a holistic approach. It would be good to have a cross-departmental strategy for regeneration and an idea of how community budgets could be used to drive forward regeneration in partnership with local communities.

In conclusion, I was on the team from Newcastle university that evaluated the city challenge initiative. There was much in that initiative that would be welcomed today, and it was an approach that sought to be community led. I hope that the Minister will seek to bring such schemes forward.