The government’s regeneration guru has pulled out of one of the country’s biggest attempts to turn around depressed inner-city communities.
The Richard Rogers Partnership confirmed this week it will not be bidding for further consultancy work aimed at turning around communities in the East and West End of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The proposed Going for Growth scheme involved demolishing 6,600 homes in an area synonymous with low demand - although the council has since said the proposals will be scaled down.

Rogers, chair of the Urban Task Force, distanced himself from the scheme after the council revealed the demolition targets. (Housing Today, 14 September)

Now Rogers’s firm has announced it will have nothing more to do with the council’s regeneration plan.

A spokesman for the partnership said: "We have gone on record about our differences in terms of perspective. The council included demolition targets which we could never have endorsed."

"Richard Rogers Partnership, Andrew Wright Associates and DTZ Pieda were appointed as a result of national competition to prepare initial plans for the West End area of Newcastle and this initial sketch has been completed.

"As we have emphasised on several occasions it contained analyses but no research or recommendations and certainly no specific opinion as to areas targeted for demolition."

He added there was no chance of the consultancy being involved on the second stage of Going for Growth.

A council spokesman attempted to allay fears: "Tenders for the second stage of Going for Growth have not even been put out yet. We don’t know what the criteria will be and neither does he [Richard Rogers]."

Liberal Democrat regeneration spokesman Greg Stone said: "This is another crisis for Going for Growth. It seems to me it’s a huge blow to the credibility of the project and to the city itself."

Source

Housing Today