A future for regeneration

Julian DobsonNew Start magazine

>≠∞[we can’t go on like this]

Why not?

AusterityUncertainty

Climate change

Seven regeneration principles for today

1 Sustain success

2 Let go – or get out of the way

3 Recognise communities’ potential

4 Keep tackling inequality

5 Focus on education and skills

6 Promote quality of life and

quality of place

7 Reform the banking system

…but we will have to find

different ways of getting

there

A dozen hints of hope

1 Find a shared language

‘Regeneration is the action of citizens and those who work with them to recreate home for new times, especially where there is poverty or disadvantage.’

New Start magazine, January 2010

2 Measure real value, not just GVA

The UK security industry is worth £6bn a year.

Is that a sign of a flourishing society?

3 Recognise that climate change

changes everything

Five principles of sustainable development:• living within environmental limits• ensuring a strong, healthy and just society• achieving a sustainable economy• promoting good governance• using sound science responsibly

Securing the Future, 2005

4 Neighbourhoods are the building blocks

‘There is a lot of jargon about regeneration... but really, as a resident, there is only one question. Is this an area I want my children to grow up in?’

Quoted in evaluation of Guide Neighbourhoods Programme, 2009

5 Get to grips with the housing market

In 1993 an average-priced house in Kensington would buy you two average-priced houses in Leven, Fife.

By 2003 a Kensington home would buy 24 comparable

properties in Leven.

National Housing and Planning Advice Unit, 2009

6 Work is only part of the solution to

poverty

In 1902 the employment rate for 15-64 year olds in the UK was 69%.

In 2000 the employment rate was 71%.

Office for National Statistics, 2003

7 Connectedness is at the heart of community

‘If you look back at the input into areas like this by professionals in the last 30 years, it’s resulted in guns on the street. Professionals will work with you for a few years and then bugger off. When you are a tenants’ organisation and your underpants are on the washing line you can’t pretend to be something you aren’t.’

Julie Fawcett

8 Responsiveness must be at the heart of

government

‘I do not believe that government should stand in the way of innovation, or turn back the clock to an older era of regulation. But I do believe that government has a role to play in advancing our common prosperity…’

Barack Obama

9 Distinctiveness is the future for place

‘Sheffield… is a city where men call each other “love” and women eat hot pork sandwiches…’

10 The value of the built environment lies in its use

‘Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.’

Jane Jacobs

11 Doing good must be at the heart of

doing well

When the Stranger says: ‘What is the meaning of this city ? Do you huddle close together because you love each other?’ What will you answer? ‘We all dwell together To make money from each other’? or ‘This is a community’?

T S Eliot, Choruses from the Rock

12 The soul of the city is what drives

regeneration

‘The soul of a city - the strength that makes it breathe, exist and progress - resides in each one of its citizens’

Jaime Lerner

>≠[the same road won’t lead us home]

Join the discussion

www.regenfuture.org

More from me at:

New Start magazine: www.newstartmag.co.uk

Living with Rats: http:livingwithrats.blogspot.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/juliandobson

Slideshare: www.slideshare.net/juliandobson