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Open Meeting 2003: Synopsis
12 November 2003
Tate Modern, Bankside, London
Welcome and Introduction
Margaret Ford
Chairman, English Partnerships
Margaret Ford opened the event by welcoming all delegates to English Partnerships 4th Open Meeting at the Tate Modern, Bankside, London. English Partnerships had been one of the first parties committed to the development of the Tate Modern in 1995, funding decontamination and land reclamation.
She set out English Partnerships’ role in delivering the vision for regeneration and housing set out in the Sustainable Communities Plan published in February 2003. English Partnerships’ five main areas of activity flowed from that strategy for high quality sustainable growth.
First, the development of the portfolio of strategic sites, typically large, high profile and nationally significant sites across the country: notably Omega, Warrington; the work on the Greenwich Peninsula in London (where Margaret paid specific tribute to Mike Appleton’s contribution); and the urban extension in Northampton. These are the kind of projects at which English Partnerships excels: large-scale mixed-use development, high quality masterplanning, involving communities, demonstrating best practice.
Second, English Partnerships had been tasked with acting as the Government’s advisor on brownfield land. One aspect of this was the development of the first national brownfield strategy for Government. This information was already being collated and English Partnerships published the first cut the previous week: where the brownfield land is, its condition, accessibility, barriers to its re-use. She noted that English Partnerships also had the practical experience and remit to develop in its own right and with partners- the majority of the strategic sites were brownfield and the organisation had a key role in the coalfields, very important work on often difficult sites.
The third area was described as English Partnerships role as broker of surplus public sector land and buildings. In this role the organisation would compile and hold a Register of Public Sector Assets - Government Departments now needed to inform English Partnerships if they intended to dispose of surplus land and buildings. There would then be a 40 day “window” in which English Partnerships would have the ability to influence the development brief to best deliver wider government policy or to, where appropriate, enter into joint ventures with the disposing departments to facilitate the supply of affordable housing on the land to be disposed.
The fourth area of business was identified as English Partnerships’ housing remit. This was a national policy priority – addressed by a range of different mechanisms. First, in the four designated growth areas where the organisation was focused on increasing and accelerating the supply of affordable housing and key worker housing, through land acquisition, remediation, land assembly, and/or early stage infrastructure provision, to get the sites market ready. She detailed English Partnerships’ different role in the north and the midlands where the challenge was serious housing abandonment, decay and collapse of housing markets and here the Agency was charged with working with the nine Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder partnerships on developing and delivering their strategies. English Partnerships would also be involved in low demand outside the pathfinder areas where we would be able to add value to the work to turn around the problems of housing abandonment and decay, such as the Meden Valley. There was also the important new partnership with the Housing Corporation – the Housing Partnership. Margaret stressed that EP’s programme would therefore be balanced nationwide.
The fifth and final area of English Partnerships activity was identified as support for the urban renaissance, in urban regeneration companies across the country, demonstration projects like the Millennium Communities, town centre regeneration in the former new towns, best practice work, notably the Urban Design Compendium – to be licensed shortly for the US market - and other partnerships with other organisations to improve quality and highlight good design.
Margaret Ford concluded with a tribute to the staff of English Partnerships for their energy and commitment and warmly welcomed the new Chief Executive, David Higgins who had joined the organisation in March.
Highlights of the Past Year & The Communities Plan Challenge
David Higgins
Chief Executive, English Partnerships
David Higgins set out his view of the way forward for English Partnerships, identifying the challenges and opportunities ahead for the Agency. He described the key challenge of the Sustainable Communities Plan, to achieve a greater balance of housing, regeneration and economic renewal in areas of market failure in the north and midlands and addressing under supply in the south.
He referred back to Margaret Ford’s description of English Partnerships’ key areas of activity as set out in the current Corporate Plan. English Partnerships was delivering its objectives as set out in the Plan in partnership with key partners including the Housing Corporation, the RDAs, our sponsor Department at ODPM, and the private sector.
He detailed some of the achievements of English Partnerships over the past year, paying tribute to John Walker who had been Acting Chief Executive for the period and to David Shelton, formerly Development Director who had recently left the organisation to pursue interests in the private sector. Highlights of the year included the joint venture agreement signed with Millers and the Royal Bank of Scotland for the development of the Omega site in Warrington, the formation and first project announcements of the Housing Partnership and progress in the URCs through investment in land assembly and best practice development. He noted especially the progress made during the past year on the concept of and delivery of sustainable communities. Examples here included the CMK development framework and the urban extension to Northampton at Upton. He referred to the development of the coalfields programme which was extended during 2002/03 to some 100 sites with increased flexibility for delivery agreed with ODPM and the launch by the DPM of Phase 2 of Priority Sites.
Looking to the future he focused on three key areas. First English Partnerships’ role in co-ordinating surplus public sector land across Government, joining up the programmes of different Departments to match demand for housing with public sector assets. Second the supply of affordable housing in high demand areas and tackling deprivation and housing abandonment in areas of low demand. Third, he focused on EP’s current reshaping exercise which aimed to ensure the organisation could meet the challenges set for it. EP was extending its capacity to five regional areas and a few strong corporate functions to match and support these. He identified key features of the organisational structure as clarity and accountability so that the organisation is responsive to its partners and the needs of the sector.
He concluded that this was a huge challenge for English Partnerships but that the Agency was ready to take up that challenge with its Corporate Plan focused on those areas where we were best placed to make a difference.
Working with English Partnerships
Gillian Beasley
Chief Executive, Peterborough City Council
Gillian Beasley opened her presentation with a snapshot of Peterborough. She described the city with its a population of approximately 157,000, made up of four townships. It had been designated as a new town in 1968. It had the largest brownfield development in Europe on Hampton, delivering 7,300 homes. She detailed some of the achievements of the city over the past year including the delivery of 9,000 sq. m. of office space with 22,000 sq. m. currently under construction. During 2002/03 the city had delivered 46 hectares of industrial development and the highest annual total of dwellings since 1991, 94% of which were on brownfield sites. She detailed also Peterborough’s transport links, notably the A1M and the rail connections with London.
She went on to highlight some of the current issues facing the city, including low educational achievement, the urban and rural mix – with seven wards in the top 20% of the index of multiple deprivation, high crime rates, a mixed economic base and low wage economy. The city had also been designated as an Environment City, one of four in the country.
She went on to set out the relationship between Peterborough City Council and English Partnerships. She noted and welcomed English Partnerships’ adoption of a more innovative and flexible approach in its relationship with the new towns, most notably in a recently approved scheme which allowed the city to retain clawback for regeneration purposes.
She highlighted also some current projects, showcasing the masterplan for the city centre which was now out for public consultation. She paid particular tribute to the work of Dennis Hone and Sheila Keene from English Partnerships in taking the project forward. She described also the partnership working between the city council, EEDA and English Partnerships on regeneration sites within the city and the townships. She characterised the relationship between Peterborough City Council and English Partnerships as open, with a willingness to listen and understand and a “can do” attitude to take it forward, with strong management leadership.
She concluded by looking to the future for the city, highlighting the need for growth within the region, the delivery of the city centre masterplan, the challenge of the provision of affordable housing and the proposals for an urban regeneration company.
English Partnerships and Peterborough City Council shared an agenda and an objective to deliver a better city for Peterborough a better community and a better future for all.
Addressing the Communities Plan Housing Agenda
John Lewis
Strategic Joint Ventures Director, English Partnerships
John Lewis focused on to the area of English Partnerships’ business concerned with housing delivery at a national level. The Communities Plan had set down a challenge for English Partnerships and partners in terms of delivering housing and he described the organisation’s response to that challenge.
First the idea of “stretching” the English Partnerships portfolio. English Partnerships had a portfolio of 6,700 hectares across the country of which 42% was in the south east, presenting the Agency with a huge opportunity of delivering affordable and market housing on its own sites. English Partnerships was now considering increased densities for the sites within the portfolio as well as re-profiling the mix of tenures to increase the overall amount of housing delivered with particular emphasis on affordable and key worker housing.
The second response to the challenge for housing delivery was the formation of the Housing Partnership with the Housing Corporation where English Partnerships sites are being teamed with Housing Corporation funding to deliver more affordable housing. He referred to the competition for the initial 56 sites for which RSLs Genesis and Bedford Pilgrims had been selected and also to the scheme at Broughton Atterbury which Margaret Ford had announced at the House Builders Federation Conference earlier in the year where, unusually, a site is to be ringfenced for an RSL as lead developer.
He described also the work of English Partnerships in developing and delivering new strategic initiatives. Margaret Ford had already referred to the creation of the Register of Public Sector Land and this was a huge opportunity to add value in cross departmental working to deliver Government policy initiatives beyond what the market disposal of land assets would bring. He described progress to date in collating the data on public sector assets and set out plans for the future to develop an interactive database to engage with local authorities and other public sector partners. He announced that English Partnerships had identified some early opportunities in the south east which, if they came to fruition, had the ability to deliver nearly 5,000 additional key worker units over and above what the market would deliver. He described English Partnerships’ working with the NHS Estates and the MoD in particular to identify sites to bring forward urban extensions and also large scale development opportunities in the growth areas.
He went on to describe a new pilot initiative known as the London Wide Initiative. In this programme English Partnerships would work with the private sector to take a portfolio approach to residential development using supply chain management techniques and development techniques more familiar to the commercial industry than to the housebuilders. This portfolio approach aimed to reduce production costs and reduce the risk through judicious use of English Partnerships’ funding in the pre-construction phase. Working with the Housing Corporation, English Partnerships would also aim to guarantee end users for the completed schemes and both of these approaches aimed to facilitate the process for the private sector. He gave brief details of progress to date in securing sites for this programme and noted that this work would, like the rest of English Partnerships’ programme, be about producing integrated schemes, not key worker ghettos.
He also described briefly English Partnerships’ role in housing in low demand areas including working with the Market Renewal Pathfinders and other areas of low demand outside the pathfinders including certain of the URCs and areas of the coalfields programme. He referred to the new Housing Gap Funding mechanism which would be used to support this work and a similarly based gap funding mechanism for land remediation on work was just beginning.
He concluded by re-iterating the need for partnership working with the public, private and community sectors and on achieving sustainability by a clear focus on need.
Partnership Working
Peter Walls
Chief Executive, Sunderland Housing Group
Peter Walls opened what was at times a very personal and light-hearted presentation with some contextual details of Sunderland and the achievements of the Sunderland Housing Group. He had worked in partnership with the local authority to deliver a huge stock transfer of 36,000 to the newly formed Housing Group two years previously and this had been achieved by a close partnership and community consultation exercise. He expressed his personal belief in innovative ways of working and “breaking the rules” to achieve regeneration benefits; for some it´s just seen as "let´s give them a bog and a kitchen, that´s regeneration" he joked. He noted the relationship between central Government and its agencies including EP and the Housing Corporation from his own experience whereby with central support the business was able to mature to its own agenda.
He detailed the investment made in the housing stock and the increase in that investment over the life of the organisation to date, rising to some £600m. He explained the structure of the Housing Group as a group structure with independent local companies which own their own stock, develop their individual business plans and let their own contracts. He worked closely with the Board of the Housing Group and detailed their recent agreement to an innovative growth strategy for the Group.
He continued his focus on delivery and the need to deliver on key promises made to the customers. These had included rent increase suppression, modernistaion of stock, achievement of and exceeding the decent home standard, service improvements, localised maintenance and he reported that the Group was currently well ahead of its programme and targets. He reported on the annual tenants’ exhibition, public events and the permanent mobile exhibition to ensure constant communication with the customers. He gave details of the Group’s strategy to limit cost increases by negotiating for example fixed term fixed price contracts with contractors and this had been successful in achieving nil increases over a five-year period. He noted also that the Housing Group had directly recruited local people to apprenticeships and that there was a huge interest in this scheme.
The mechanism used by the Group was described to assess neighbourhoods: the Neighbourhood Assessment Matrix which provided a formula to inform decisions regarding retention, refurbishment and demolition for the housing stock. This had been discussed with the local community and had received strong backing. He explained some of the property types and stressed the dangers of segregating market and social/affordable housing. He stressed also to English Partnerships in particular the need to retain quality in the drive for more units. He referred to the Housing Group’s commitment to consumer choice in housing for all.
He gave details behind the development of a joint venture agreement between the Sunderland Housing Group and English Partnerships to regenerate some of the historic buildings of the city centre in an attempt to reinvigorate the city centre evening economy. Mentioning the very positive contributions from Margaret Ford and John Walker, the agreement was now close to conclusion. This agreement would make a major contribution to the regeneration of the historic City Centre and attracting investment to the city.
He concluded by looking forward to a continuing working relationship with English Partnerships which would make a real difference to the people of Sunderland.
Q & A Panel Session
The Panel was comprised of Margaret Ford, Victor Benjamin, David Higgins and Norman Perry. The panel discussion included the need for the provision of infrastructure for regeneration and development projects, particularly in the growth areas; low demand outside of the housing pathfinders, specifically the coalfields; EP’s relationship with the RDAs; the tension between design quality and the need to deliver additional units quickly and proposals to extend the pilot London Wide Initiative outside of the capital.
© English Partnerships 2003-2008