English Partnership

ENGLISH PARTNERSHIPS: DELIVERING THE GOODS

English Partnerships is the national regeneration agency, supporting high-quality, sustainable growth across England. We are a key delivery agency for the urban renaissance and the government's new Sustainable Communities Plan. This article focuses on how English Partnerships will help the government to deliver the Plan and some of our major regeneration initiatives that are helping to rebuild communities across the English regions.

The Deputy Prime Minister, the Rt Hon John Prescott, has affirmed that: "A step change is essential to tackle the challenges of a rapidly changing population, the needs of the economy, serious housing shortages in London and the south-east and the impact of housing and abandonment in places in the North and the Midlands." The Sustainable Communities Plan of February 2003 sets out the policies, resources and partnerships for the next three years that will achieve this step change.

Our five key areas of activity which help to support the activities outlined in the Plan are as follows:

· Increasing the amount of housing - where there is strong demand for housing and prices are high, we will work with the Regional Housing Boards, the private sector, the Housing Corporation and local authorities to increase the amount of affordable housing
. Building new communities - where a major increase in the supply of housing of all types is required, we will work with local authorities and local people to build new communities and create high-quality extensions to existing urban areas
. Seeking to bring new life to our towns and cities - we are supporting communities in areas of economic restructuring and areas suffering from the decline in traditional manufacturing industries
. Making best use of the nation's scarce supply of land - we are working with Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and other partners to prepare and maintain a national 'brownfield' strategy and register of public-sector land to ensure that as much new development as possible is accommodated on previously developed land
. Best practice and research - we are leading on research and creating forums for sharing expertise in regeneration and development, particularly good urban design, to develop, inspire and disseminate new approaches and methodologies which help us meet our wider objectives.

Increasing the amount of housing
English Partnerships will play a major role in delivering the government's Sustainable Communities Plan to ensure that high-quality, low-cost and affordable housing is available in areas of market pressure and to tackle housing abandonment and decay. This programme of action addresses the need for decent homes and a good-quality local environment in all regions. We are embarking upon a number of initiatives with other agencies to bring forward sites for housing development rapidly, particularly those for affordable and keyworker housing.

In areas of high market demand like the south-east, we are seeking to deliver new housing via three key areas of focus: first, we will seek to deliver it to the 42 strategic sites where we already own land or have a major role in this region. Second, we will also be seeking to purchase new sites in the four major growth areas identified in the Sustainable Communities plan (Milton Keynes/south Midlands, Ashford, Cambridge/Stansted and the Thames Gateway). Finally, a joint unit with the Housing Corporation will bring together English Partnerships' land holdings and expertise and the Housing Corporation's affordable housing programme.

The unit will facilitate the provision of affordable homes in areas of high market value by pooling and funding to ensure their early delivery for sale in London and the south-east. It will seek to do this by increasing volume, speeding up delivery and adding value to the development process through improved design, procurement and innovation. This includes the use of modern methods of construction to get homes built more quickly and to a higher standard.

Building new communities
We will also work alongside the RDAs, the Housing Corporation and Local Strategic Partnerships to develop strategies to bring about market renewal in the nine 'Pathfinder' areas (areas suffering from low housing demand and abandonment), tailoring solutions to the requirements of the area. Already English Partnerships has assisted the Pathfinder areas through:

. The purchase of 300 vacant dwellings in the Everton area in partnership with Liverpool City Council to assist in stabilising the local market
. Facilitating the redevelopment of Manchester City's former ground at Maine Road and the surrounding area
. Investing in the purchase of sites of former derelict mills in Rochdale
. Securing development opportunities along the Leeds-Liverpool canal in Bootle.

Working with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and the RDAs, we are also seeking to create a new gap-funding regime to help deliver housing projects in deprived areas like the Pathfinders where there is a gap between the cost of development and likely sale values.

English Partnerships is also taking up its positions on each of the new Regional Housing Boards to ensure the effective targeting of the huge investment for social housing through Regional Housing Strategies to deliver sustainable communities across the regions.

Examples of extensions to existing urban areas include Upton, Northampton and Lawley, Telford. Upton is part of the much larger area known as 'the South West District of Northampton' and will cover around 43ha. Outline planning consent has already been secured for 1000 homes and 1000 sq m of commercial floor space. The eight-year Lawley 'sustainable urban extension' programme aims to deliver 2500 dwellings (including affordable homes), commercial space and 500 jobs.

Seeking to bring life to our towns and cities
English Partnerships is seeking to bring new life into our towns and cities and those areas suffering from the decline in traditional manufacturing industries.

We are now over halfway through the ten-year, £365mn National Coalfields Programme, which is helping to create more than 40,000 new jobs, over 6500 new homes and 2 million sq m of commercial and industrial accommodation, as well as new areas of public open space. English Partnerships has recently completed a £17.7mn clearance and reclamation scheme at Hawthorn Colliery and Cokeworks in County Durham. The project is the largest of its kind in the north-east and exemplifies English Partnerships' commitment to reinvigorating coalfield communities.

The Urban Regeneration Company (URC) model - originally piloted in Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield - is now up and running in 14 locations. It brings together local partners to champion and stimulate new investment and co-ordinate plans for their regeneration and redevelopment. Derby, west Furness and Cumbria, and Sandwell in the west Midlands are the latest areas to gain government approval for URC status. English Partnerships has also extended its role to invest in the two south-western URCs, Camborne Pool Redruth Regeneration and The New Swindon Company. The highly successful URC's programme kick-starts the economic regeneration of towns and cities which have suffered from deprivation and neglect in the past, creating places where people want to live and work.

Making best use of the nation's scarce supply of land
The government's Sustainable Communities Plan outlined a new strategic role for English Partnerships to search out and assemble land, especially brownfield and publicly owned land, for sustainable development. We will help the government to meet its target of building at least 60 per cent of new homes on brownfield land, helping to reduce pressure on the greenbelt. We will produce and maintain a national brownfield strategy on behalf of the ODPM to ensure that as much new development as possible is accommodated on previously developed land.

Drawing on the National Land Use Database (NLUD), which we helped to create, we will assist local authorities in identifying sites for redevelopment. Around 66,000ha of previously developed land is currently available, a quarter of which has lain dormant or derelict for ten years or more.

We will be responsible for drawing up a register of surplus public-sector land across the country to ensure that wider government objectives, including housing need and regional economic strategies, are factored into disposal decisions.

Working alongside Groundwork and the Forestry Commission, with the support of the Environment Agency, we will create the Land Restoration Trust to restore and manage brownfield land for use as public green space, in partnership with local communities across England.

Best practice
As a national agency, one of English Partnerships' key roles is to ensure that we take the lessons we have learned in one part of the country and put them to good use in another. The recent restructuring of the organisation will enhance our capacity for innovation and best practice, which will be critical for the successful delivery of the Communities Plan.

Energy efficiency and sustainability are top priorities for English Partnerships and the Millennium Communities Programme embraces these concerns. The programme is challenging developers to use more ecologically friendly materials in housing construction and improve the environmental-consumption standards in the homes themselves. Seven sites have been identified to date, which will accommodate from 5000 to 6000 dwellings.

In chronological order, the sites are located at Greenwich Peninsula, south London; Allerton Bywater, near Leeds; New Islington in east Manchester; Nar Ouse at King's Lynn; East Ketley in Telford; Oakgrove in Milton Keynes and Hastings. Recent developments in this exemplar programme include the announcement of Taylor Woodrow as the preferred development partner at East Ketley, a major step towards the development of up to 800 new homes and new community, leisure and retail facilities on this 35ha brownfield site.

English Partnerships has adopted a wide-ranging set of environmental standards for all new homes, retail, office and industrial buildings constructed on our land. The standards could cut carbon emissions generated by new homes by up to 30 per cent and reduce water use by up to 40 per cent while contributing to a sustainable future and a higher quality of life. For occupiers, the implementation of the standards will lead to lower utility bills, as well as more pleasant surroundings.

Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) 'very good' standards are applied to all developments. In addition, for residential projects, the National Home Energy Rating (NHER) is applied. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the National Energy Foundation have devised the standards respectively.

Other examples of best practice include the Urban Design Compendium, which is an essential reference guide for all those involved in the development of a project from start to finish. It provides helpful guidance for planners, architects, developers and community groups on how good urban design can contribute to safety and sustainability.

We created and now manage and maintain the website www.urcs-online.co.uk for current and prospective URCs to share best practice and exchange information and ideas.

While our work is confined to England, we share the benefits internationally. We often receive study tours from countries around the world and enter into exchanges of best practice on particular specialities, such as coalfield regeneration.

Delivery
A major reshaping of English Partnerships is under way to ensure that we have a powerful new structure to deliver this vision for sustainable new communities. We now have five area teams to deliver our projects and to provide clear single points of contact with the communities we serve at a local level, covering the Thames Gateway, southern England, eastern England and Milton Keynes, the north-east and Yorkshire, the north-west and west Midlands.

Further information on all programmes and projects can be found on the website (www.englishpartnerships.co.uk).

Supplied by courtesy of David Higgins, Chief Executive, English Partnerships