First, a leading urban development specialist said plans outlined in the government’s urban taskforce report, under the leadership of Lord Rogers, were impractical and socially exclusive. Then, the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research called for parts of the north of England to be demolished.
In the first attack, development specialist Professor Ash Amin of Durham University said Lord Rogers’ plans to rejuvenate inner cities were impractical.
He said: “Basically, Rogers’ and the government’s focus on the urban economy tends not to consider mainstream activities. “The government is obsessed with the information technology sector, while Rogers’ obsessions seem to lie with knowledge workers and the creative professions. Where do health services and crèche facilities fit in?”
Amin also accused the government of focusing on the middle classes in its plans for regenerating cities. “It needs to give the feeling that cities are for all,” he said. His comments were made at an Institute of British Geographers conference in Brighton last week.
Amin and a group of fellow geographers are to release a report with an alternative strategy for rejuvenating urban areas in March.
The attack on Lord Rogers’ vision comes at the same time as the CRESR called into question plans to rejuvenate parts of the north of England. It said that some estates should be knocked down because they were “beyond redemption”. The findings of the CRESR, which is funded by Sheffield Hallam University, received measured support from a leading housebuilder.
John Callcutt, the Mancunian chief executive of housebuilder Crest Nicholson, said: “The old Coronation Street-style housing should never have been knocked down, but now that it has been, it may well be that the run-down estates that replaced them will have to be bulldozed.”
Callcutt, who is one of the few housebuilders to support the Rogers report, added: “The ideas have to be connected with a lot of other ideas and policies such as the Egan report. What is needed is an integrated housing delivery strategy. There ought to be someone whose job it is to pull all the threads together.”
- Housebuilders are bracing themselves for an increase in interest rates, but most were bullish about the extent and impact of any rise.
Callcutt said: “Interest rate rises can hit us directly but a rise of just 0.5% will not have too much of an effect. The rise may cool the economy but I believe the housebuilding market is strong and will remain so.”
