The future of urban regeneration

I'm blogging from Tory Party Conference today, where I've just taken part in a roundtable discussion hosted by Centre for Cities looking at the future of urban regeneration.

CLG Minister Bob Neill MP was the primary keynote speaker, and localism and budget cuts dominated the discussion. It is clear that through the introduction of Local Enterprise Partnerships and Tax Increment Financing, the Coalition is absolutely committed to devolving responsibility down to a more local level (although there are still be details to ironed out with regards these specific mechanisms).

Less clear is the Coalition's vision for the kind of urban regeneration it wants to see going forward, and how it will prioritise what remaining national resources there are. Localism is very much the Government's watchword, but it needs to be married to a sense of how local economic development fits into a coherent national agenda for growth.

London will, despite talk of re-balancing the economy, inevitably sit at the centre of this agenda for growth, when it emerges. And it is in the capital, where regional government remains, that the localism agenda is most in need of definition. We're going to be exploring the potential impact of localism in London in two events this month - one looking at the planning system on 12 October, and the other looking at community-led housing on 19 October. Please contact Natalia Raha if you would like more information on either.

Ben H
FoL