Why is it, then, that so many public-private projects founder on the rocks of mutual incomprehension? No one is denying the urgent need to redevelop brownfield sites, but time and time again schemes that common sense says are deliverable don’t get any further than computer images. Nowhere is this clash of cultures more evident than at Elephant & Castle, where ambitious regeneration plans are no further forward than they were three years ago (page 16). Meanwhile, numerous PFI housing schemes are still waiting to sign on the dotted line after years of negotiation. And at Allerton Bywater in Yorkshire, not a single sod has been turned to make way for one of the government’s flagship millennium villages, four years after it was launched.
Regeneration is rarely simple. It is by nature a long, drawn-out affair. Lining up funding from numerous pots while consulting with myriad tenants’ groups and other interested bodies are two reasons why timetables for transformation are, more often than not, set out in years rather than months. And obviously the bigger and more ambitious the scheme, the more hurdles there are to navigate.
Time and time again schemes don’t get any further than computer images
Where it gets frustrating and cumbersome for all involved in attempting to deliver new homes is when either side has no real appreciation of the needs and aspirations of the other or how the sums add up. Do councils fully understand that, for developers, time really does mean money? Markets can quickly rise or fall and delays can add millions to projects’ construction costs. In some ways it’s understandable that decisions drag on. Developers do million-pound deals every day but council officers often don’t know the first thing about this type of negotiation. But developers, in turn, often do themselves no favours. They seduce local authorities with big promises only to be told later by their banks that they can only really afford to deliver half the number of affordable homes they first proposed.
Source
Housing Today
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