Rogers is understood to be frustrated at the government's failure to implement recommendations in his 1999 report, Towards the Urban Renaissance. The taskforce has decided to reform in a bid to influence the government-organised Urban Summit in October.
This week Rogers called for a "housing-led urban renaissance", urging the government to view tackling the current housing crisis as the number one priority for urban regeneration.
"The deputy prime minister established the urban taskforce to tackle the worsening housing crisis that saw greenfield sites being consumed by new development while our towns and cities haemorrhaged their populations. We are still living that crisis today," he told delegates at a regeneration conference organised by the Commission for Architects and the Built Environment in London this week.
"A housing-led urban renaissance focusing on brownfield sites and transport hubs is still our greatest challenge and our greatest opportunity, calling for action carefully tailored to local needs and local circumstances by regional and local agencies."
Rogers' list includes demands for a comprehensive action plan building on the 2000 urban white paper, placing regional planning on a statutory footing and tax breaks for developers. Regional development agencies need to be given more powers or be replaced by another agency to deliver at a regional level, Rogers said.
He also called for the creation of a comprehensive housing market renewal programme and an affordable housing development programme.
"The taskforce took a year to produce the report on urban renaissance, which was enthusiastically embraced by those on the ground," said Chris Brown, development manager for the Igloo Fund and a taskforce member. "Now those people who championed the report have become frustrated that there has been no [delivery].
"The government hasn't made as much progress toward achieving the objectives as everyone would have hoped by now, so the taskforce is saying, 'It's three months to the Urban Summit, let us progress and make the leap forward by the time of the summit'."
Source
Housing Today
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