Conservative plans to improve inner cities through new regeneration companies partly funded by private firms risk foundering unless the underlying causes of deprivation are tackled, a Tory MP has admitted.
Shadow urban regeneration spokesman Tim Loughton MP conceded that proposals to encourage private sector firms to finance new regeneration companies, announced at the Conservative's annual conference in Bournemouth this week, were "a bit chicken and egg".

He told Housing Today: "Before you commit any funds to a regeneration scheme you need to have tackled the underling problems in crime, education and [having] well-behaved neighbours."

He added: "By tackling the structural problems [we are going to encourage private firms to become involved in regeneration] because you are not going to get people wanting to live in those cities, having a workforce that wants to got to work unless you have made the streets safe, unless you have schools where families want to send their children to."

Offering initial tax breaks to firms would be another incentive to encourage private sector involvement in regeneration, Loughton said.

The new regeneration companies, proposed in the policy document Believing in Cities, would be "powerful new bodies to lever in private finance, headed up by significant private sector expertise."

The document says: "The regeneration companies will be set up with a limited lifespan and with a specific local regeneration purpose. Their purpose will be reflected in contracts with central government a, under which payment of grants will be linked to the delivery of regeneration outcomes."

National Housing Federation director of policy Liz Potter said: "The ideas of private and public funding and urban and housing regeneration companies are not new, they come from the Urban Task Force report."

She added: "What is needed from all political parties is recognition of the complexity of urban regeneration, and sustained commitment to achieving real improvements with local communities."

Chartered Institute of Housing chief executive David Butler said: "It is a question of how [the regeneration companies] are set up. If they are a result of a decisions made locally rather than being omposed there is more chance of success."

He added that tenants must retain the right to vote on the future of their housing, following the pledge in Believing in Cities for a Conservative government to plan the progressive transfer of remaining council stock to new ownership and management.

The document also contained the committment for a Conservative government during its first term to demolish some of the worst high-rise tower blocks and estates in Britain and replace them with mixed developments. As Housing Today reported last month, Conservative plans for housing include a tougher line on anti-social tenants (Housing Today, 7 September).

Source

Housing Today