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Open Meeting 2007: Synopsis
More than 350 guests attended English Partnerships’ eighth annual Open Meeting on Wednesday 14 November at the O2 arena in London, with the theme ‘Pioneering New Approaches to Delivery’.
Chairman, The Baroness Ford of Cunninghame, gave a short welcome and introduced the Minister.
Housing and Planning Minister, Yvette Cooper
The Minister emphasised the huge opportunities that lay ahead with the creation of the new Homes and Communities Agency and how for the first time public sector land and public sector investment in housing will be brought together.
She reiterated the challenge that lay ahead for the industry in the next eight years to deliver the tough housing targets outlined in the Housing Green Paper and the importance of achieving the right quality and sustainability as well as number of homes.
The Minister referred to English Partnerships’ successful track record of identifying locations for homes, bringing disused public sector land back into use and creating mixed communities and its contribution to growth. She added that the new agency would need to be more ambitious in delivering even better value.
On the issue of quality and design, the Minister cited the Greenwich Millennium Village and English Partnerships’ work on the Design for Manufacture Competition as central to the drive to improve the quality of new development.
As part of her address Yvette Cooper paid a special tribute to Baroness Ford for all her work as Chair of English Partnerships.
John Walker, Chief Executive
John Walker, focussed on the agency’s achievements during the past year and highlighted the role English Partnerships plays in influencing the way the regeneration and development industry operates, helping to raise the bar on quality, design and speed of delivery.
The presentation included footage of key projects in the London and Thames Gateway region such as the significant brownfield site at Barking Riverside, the Heart of East Greenwich, Dagenham town centre, Kidbrooke Estate, the O2 and Greenwich Millennium Village. The Chief Executive thanked the agency’s Board for its support and its staff for their hard work during the year.
Trevor Beattie, Corporate Strategy Director
Trevor Beattie, gave an overview of the National Coalfields Programme (NCP) which reached its tenth year in March 2007, highlighting its successes and achievements. Archive footage illustrated the scale and importance of the coal industry to the country just a few decades ago and its role in promoting innovation, while recent filming showed the transformation of the landscape and the mix of businesses and new homes that are now a hallmark of many former pits.
A tribute was paid to the late Bill Flanagan OBE, who was a true champion of the coalfield communities and the programme. The NCP was a complex and diverse regeneration programme, which had restored the reputation of the coalfields for innovation. The involvement of local communities through the Coalfields Community Campaign (now the Alliance) and the Coalfield Regeneration Trust had been crucial to its success.
Mr Beattie highlighted the additional investment being brought into the Programme, noting that it had just passed the milestone of investing more than the original ring fenced funding of £386.5m, with a further £400m of investment still to come. This had made possible the extension of the NCP to 107 sites. He concluded by reiterating English Partnerships’ on-going commitment to the coalfield communities and stressing the importance of the initiatives pioneered in the coalfields to the plans for the new Homes and Communities Agency.
Paul Spooner, Regional Director – North West & West Midlands
Paul Spooner outlined the agency’s role in relation to the reuse of surplus public sector land, focussing on the Hospital Sites Programme and in particular the planned re-development of the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. Mr Spooner said that the transfer of the portfolio of 96 sites from NHS Estates had been key to pioneering a new understanding between government departments and its delivery agencies, resulting in a more joined up approach in the disposal of surplus public sector land. The redeveloped sites will be built to the highest standards of design, quality and sustainability, providing the right environment for new communities to flourish.
John Lewis, Regional Director – Eastern England & Milton Keynes
John Lewis covered the topical subject of eco-towns by explaining the progress of Northstowe, which will act as a prototype for this new generation of communities. Northstowe, which lies close to Cambridge, is expected to deliver 9,500 homes borne out of a masterplan driven by climate change and the need to create a sustainable, low carbon development.
A key factor in the creation of the vision for the town has been an extensive community engagement programme that has not only drawn in local residents but has also sought the opinions and input of a ‘virtual community’ aimed at anticipating the needs of future residents of the town. John concluded his presentation by showing a lively short cartoon designed to highlight to a wide general audience the benefits of sustainable mixed communities and the importance of community involvement in delivering them.
The Baroness Ford of Cunninghame, Chairman
Baroness Ford closed the meeting by reflecting on the diverse range of projects that make up the work of English Partnerships, including salt mines in Northwich; stone mines in Bath; one of Europe’s most contaminated sites, the Avenue Coking works in Chesterfield; a new football stadium in Milton Keynes and the Kings Dock Arena and Conference Centre in Liverpool. She congratulated colleagues on the agency’s record of increasing productivity since 2002 and exceeding targets set by ministers.
Margaret Ford also reflected on the new challenge that lay ahead for English Partnerships to continue to focus on delivery, while “limbering up” to make the journey to the new agency. She emphasised the work that had been done across every English region to make sure that key partners at regional, sub regional and local authority levels understood the role of the proposed new Homes and Communities Agency.
As this was her last Open Meeting as Chair of the organisation, Margaret Ford took the opportunity to introduce her successor Robert Napier, who will take up the post of Chair from January 2008, with Dr Pauleen Lane continuing as Deputy Chair.
Finally Margaret Ford thanked the wide range of partner organisations that she had worked with during her term as chairman, and particularly singled out the strong relationships that she had enjoyed with local authorities. She said that English Partnerships had accomplished a huge amount in the last few years and was very appreciative of the highly skilled professional partners that had helped make this possible. Robert Napier thanked Baroness Ford on behalf of the entire staff and stakeholders of English Partnerships for her determined leadership and the major contribution that she had made during nearly six years as Chair.
The Open Meeting finished with a question and answer session.
Open Meeting 2007: Speakers' Biographies
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