Regeneration is failing our small towns

Burslem has extraordinary historic assets that belie a long history of poor living conditions and low wages. It enjoys strong tourism built around the ceramics industry – Stoke-on-Trent gets more tourists than Stratford-upon-Avon each year – but many of those pots are now made thousands of miles away. It has an economy based on creative design but there is little evidence of that creativity in recent buildings and spaces.

The recent travails of Burslem are reflected in the fortunes of local football club Port Vale. In administration and in danger of going out of business, with some stands half-built and the rest outdated, a mystery bidder tabled an offer for the club. The fans assumed their benefactor was one Robbie Williams, local boy made good. It turned out to be a posse of Icelandic fishmongers.

Unquenchable optimism in the wave of continuing economic disappointment is the story of this community. The latest rumour is that the Royal Doulton factory, an iconic presence in the town, could close, a prospect that the local MP describes as "unthinkable".

Since 1988 Burslem has had six or seven strategies for its revival. Other than a fragile millennium project – the Ceramica tourist attraction – and a small amount of money from the regional development agency and Heritage Lottery Fund to enhance the town centre, not one of these strategies has been acted upon.

There are places like Burslem up and down the country, secondary centres that are vital to the urban renaissance but where it is slow to take hold. A small number of lucky winners – Corby, Barrow, Walsall, Thurrock – now at least enjoy the benefit of urban regeneration company or urban development company status, but for the rest, the capacity and competence to make things happen is dispiritingly low.

There are places like Burslem up and down the country, secondary centres that are vital to the urban renaissance but where it is slow to take hold

Here in Burslem, the opportunity is tangible: a gem of a historic town centre with vast quantities of derelict land around it that, with clear ownership structures and a shared masterplan, could be turned into a very attractive place to live for both locals and newcomers. The RDA, Advantage West Midlands, has taken at least one significant step. It has helped create a regeneration partnership under the chairmanship of Huw Edwards, chairman of Moorcroft Potteries. Edwards is a lawyer, entrepreneur and ceramics collector who liked the product so much, he bought the company – and turned it back into a viable business. A confidant of chancellor Gordon Brown and with many strings to his bow, Edwards has thrown in his lot with Burslem.

With support from Edwards and enthusiastic advocacy from local MP Joan Whalley, one would have thought Burslem had a spirited chance of turning things around. In reality, as things stand, it is not going to happen. The regeneration company is paper-thin, with no executive structure to deliver the board's vision, no URC status in prospect, virtually no capacity within Stoke-on-Trent council to substitute into the executive role, no masterplan for the area, no coherent land assembly strategy and no design guidance. The list goes on.

I am not picking on Burslem as a cheap hit. The reality is that, over a number of visits, I have grown to really like the place and CABE has pledged to help in whatever way it can. My frustration is at the sheer intransigence of the regeneration programme in secondary locations like this, the inability of the key agencies to grasp the bull by the horns.