Hilary Burrage

The status is still unclear of recent proposals by senior politicians that social housing (’council housing’ and the like in old parlance) be only for those in greatest financial need.

But whether simply political musing, or seriously on the agenda, these propositions are, even just for starters, a very bad idea.

And so, without very careful preparation, is the idea that if family changes mean your house becomes ‘underoccupied’, or you are job-seeking, you must move on.

Such proposals miss the point that people live in communities, not isolation; and communities require a degree of stability. These ideas can result only in one thing – more so-called ‘no hope’ estates, and fast. … read more …

A bit like redundancy, ‘more for less’ can look OK unless it’s you that’s in the firing line. There’s little most of us as individuals can add to the current commentary about what’s happening to the public sector, beyond hoping (a) that perhaps it won’t be our own name next on the list, and (b) that somehow we’ll cope.

But whilst individuals can rarely make a real difference in the face of fierce financial cuts – we need only so many heroes when the going’s this tough – there is a real role for brokerage, undertaken by non-partisan cross-industry bodies, to find a way forward.

The first priority, beyond politics, must surely be to minimise harm as far as possible in the face of a grim determination to reduce public spending at any cost. … read more …

Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary, proposes to help people move house in order to get work. This is not of itself a new idea; from Norman Tebbit’s ‘on your bike’ onwards it has been proposed in various ways by the main political parties that those without employment need encouragement to become domestically mobile.

And inevitably the counter-argument has been that jobs are not necessarily to be found just around the corner, a mere bikeride – or, in Duncan Smith’s proposals, within fifteen miles – of where jobless people currently live. This counter-argument is probably true for many areas of the UK; certainly the ‘north-south divide’ is not, in this respect at least, a figment of northerners’ imaginations. But perhaps in any case it misses some more fundamental, if rather less evident, aspects of the contexts of this proposal. … read more …

The electrification of railway lines in the NW of England (and elsewhere) has been planned for some while. Money was allocated for this programme by the last government, which recognised the need to modernise regional intercity connections for both economic and environmental reasons.

But in the new coalition government’s austerity-focused scheme of things it seems this plan is under threat.

Recent personal experience demonstrates why action now on upgrading these lines is essential. It’s the regional economy, people’s livelihoods and issues of energy efficiency which are at stake. Vague words of hope for the future will not do. … read more …

Has nationally-prescribed double devolution somehow morphed into nationally-prescribed strategic localism?
Is either of them actually meaningful without fairly generous national support – whether in resources or in serious leadership?
Can the previous double devolution consultation model really transmute as now intended into genuine local self-determination? And is this proposed shift really about strategy for the future, or nostalgia for the past? … read more …

The much-debated ’skills shortage’ in regeneration was never a clear-cut issue; plenty of volunteers (and some third sector workers) have skills which are consistently underused. And the current economic climate has left even experienced professionally qualified practitioners without a job.

Nonetheless, the skills and knowledge sets for the green economy will surely be different from those hitherto required.

Perhaps this emerging green economy agenda offers informal commonalities of interest between volunteers and under-used professionals which could produce work for both in the future.
… read more …

Elections offer the opportunity to take stock and choose futures – as do decisions taken in regeneration every day, year in year out.

But to act wisely we need to understand how things come about. Politics locally or nationally underpins almost everything which happens in urban and community renewal, yet it remains often unperceived as the changes occur.

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Apparently ‘Right to Buy’ – a key policy in Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s time – is with us once more.

It seems Conservatives in Wandsworth are keen to re-introduce the sale of council housing to tenants as a serious element in civic regeneration strategy.

There may also be other local authorities with the same idea, which some of us hoped had gone for good. … read more …