Nevin said: "I came to North Staffordshire to put together the strategy for housing market renewal and to achieve political and community consensus on the prospectus.
"I feel the time is now right to hand the management of this major capital programme to someone who has national experience in delivering large-scale regeneration projects."
In the remainder of his time at the pathfinder he will help appoint a 25-person team, including a director, to lead the market renewal over the next two years.
The team will be responsible for a programme that is expected to involve the demolition of 14,000 homes, the building of 12,000 to replace them and the creation of a new city centre for Stoke-on-Trent.
The pathfinder's draft strategy, unveiled last Tuesday, called on the government to provide more than £860m over the next 20 years. It also hopes to attract £1.37bn from other public sources and from the private sector.
The loss of Nevin, once described by The Guardian as among the UK's "top 100" most influential public services specialists, is a major blow to the pathfinder. Nevin was one of the leading minds behind the idea of market renewal areas, and was instrumental in getting the government to launch the nine pathfinders.
A spokeswoman for the ODPM said: "We do not believe that Mr Nevin's departure will have a detrimental effect on the North Staffordshire housing market renewal pathfinder.
"The two councils covering most of the pathfinder area and the pathfinder board have both accepted the prospectus, which will be submitted to the ODPM later this month."
Nevin is to join Ecotec, a research and consultancy organisation, as the director of its housing team. Nevin's recruitment is a coup for Ecotec, coming less than two weeks after David Hucker, one of Birmingham council's interim housing managers, also joined the company.
Source
Housing Today
No comments yet