Needled over Christmas tree questions?

In the run up to next year's general election, opposition parties are waging war on what they believe to be public sector waste. As Christmas nears, the criticisms are now moving beyond the traditional attacks on quangos. The latest broadside, launched earlier this week, saw Tory MP Mike Penning slam the Department of Health for spending more than £3,200 on Christmas trees. Penning, the shadow health minister, said: "This is astonishing at a time when you would expect austerity from the department." He suggested that the funding should be spent on frontline services instead. 

The Cabinet Office, meanwhile, has also come fire for spending £3,027 on three Christmas trees. Jenny Willott, the Lib Dem third sector spokeswoman, told our sister magazine Third Sector that "they had better be the biggest and most beautiful Christmas trees in the world for that price". The Cabinet Office and the Department of Health are not alone in splashing the cash on Christmas trees - our graph below, compiled using data from parliamentary written answers, shows spending on trees across nine departments (click on graph to enlarge).

Personally, I find the mock indignation about spending on Christmas trees a little tiring. Of course government departments need to be careful with their money in the current financial climate. But is it a crime for them to put up a couple of trees at Christmas? I'm not so sure. 

Here are some interesting figures for you... In December 2007, the average cost of preparing a written answer in response to a question tabled in parliament by an MP was £140. Conservative MPs tabled no less than 23 written questions relating to departmental spending on Christmas trees in December 2009 alone. Using the average figure for preparing a response, these would have cost the taxpayer £3,220 to answer.

So what's worse - the Department of Health spending £3,250 on Christmas trees, or Conservative MPs spending £3,220 in less than one month asking questions about Christmas trees?

Finally, while I'm on the subject of MPs wasting money by asking pointless parliamentary questions, this example, of Lord Dykes asking when the Peers' Writing Room coffee machine "will resume functioning", surely takes the biscuit.

British Waterways eyes third sector future

After months of speculation about the future of British Waterways, the public agency responsible for the upkeep of the UK’s rivers and canals has published a report outlining its business case for acquiring charitable status. BW earns around £45 million a year from its waterfront land and properties – which include brownfield regeneration sites and 18th century warehouses – so it’s no surprise that the Treasury was until recently considering selling off the assets to tackle the budget deficit. But earlier this month the Government announced that there was no viable case to sell off BW's property assets and said it would welcome the agency considering “alternative proposals to ensure the upkeep of Britain’s 200-year-old network of waterways”.

BW’s ideas to move away from state control (it has been in the public sector since 1947) and create a "National Trust for the waterways"- type body have been welcomed far and wide and it is looking increasingly likely that the shift will go ahead. The agency is even launching a series of workshops in January to increase volunteering opportunities on the waterways. The new report says the move will create closer links with waterside communities, better protect the waterways’ heritage and “help close the current £30 million annual gap in funding for canal maintenance and repairs” – without relying on the taxpayer. It proposes that as a charity BW would sit on the boundary between the third and public sectors – like museums and universities. It would also be the UK’s 13th largest charity by income – close to the British Red Cross and Barnardo’s.

It’s a good idea – particularly at a time when public agencies face stark grant reductions at best and abolition at worst (if the Tories make up their minds about what to do with quangos). Acquiring third sector status would give British Waterways independence and also a chance to forge new funding partnerships. Nonetheless, they would do well to think through their decision and avoid making a ‘grass is greener’- style judgement: it’s straitened times in the third sector, too.

Any thoughts? Take a look at the full report for more information: Setting a new course: Britain’s waterways in the third sector

BY SARAH TOWNSEND

World Cup bid stadiums (selected by level of deprivation)

Twelve cities have been chosen to be part of England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup. But how does the selection shape up if judged by levels of deprivation? Here we have posted an interactive map detailing the runners and riders, with the stadium and the level of deprivation in the local authority area - and if today's winning stadiums had been chosen in the basis of this deprivation league table, then the list would look somewhat different, with Man United's Old Trafford missing out.


As it stands the winning venues are:

1. London: Wembley; Emirates; Olympic Stadium OR Tottenham's new stadium
2. Birmingham: Villa Park
3. Sunderland: Stadium of Light
4. Manchester; Old Trafford and Eastlands
5. Nottingham: new stadium,
6.Leeds: Elland Road,
7. Sheffield: Hillsborough
8. Newcastle: St James' Park,
9. Bristol: Bristol's new stadium,
10. Plymouth: Home Park
11. Liverpool: Anfield OR new stadium,
12. Milton Keynes: Stadium:MK

But if the bids were chosen by levels of local authority deprivation, then the announcement this afternoon would have been a little different. Wembley would have just scraped in as the London Borough of Brent ranks 53rd on the Indices of Multiple Deprivation. But perhaps the final would have to be held at the Olympic Stadium in Newham, which ranks sixth. No Old Trafford, however (Trafford ranks 185th), much to the joy of those in the blue half of the city and those in Merseyside up the road, as Eastlands would make it (Manchester is ranked 4th) as would either Anfield or the planned Stanley Park (Liverpool is the country's most deprived local authority area).

Across the Pennines, Manchester's great rivals in Leeds would also miss out (85th). Elsewhere Tottenham's new stadium (Haringey, 18th) and Arsenal's Emirates (Islington 8th) would both make it, as would St James' Park (Newcastle 37th) and the Stadium of Light (Sunderland, 35th). Villa Park (Birmingham 10th), KC Stadium (Hull 11th) and Walkers Stadium (Leicester 20th) would all make it and Hillsborough in Sheffield (63rd) and Pride Park in Derby (69th) would both just scrape in. But fans in Milton Keynes (212th) and Nottingham (331st) would be crying into their bitters.

So who are the big winners today then? Well according to this analysis, Old Trafford (185th), Leeds (85th), Milton Keynes (212th) and Nottingham (331st) - as they wouldn't have gotten in if the decisions were made by our deprivation league table. The big losers are Hull (11th) and Leicester (20th), both considerably more deprived than the former, and Derby too (69th).

In sum then, if the 12 cities were selected on levels of deprivation, a World Cup in England would look like this:

1. London: Wembley; Emirates; Olympic Stadium OR Tottenham's new stadium
2. Birmingham: Villa Park
3. Sunderland: Stadium of Light
4. Manchester: Eastlands
5. Hull: KC Stadium
6. Sheffield: Hillsborough
7. Newcastle: St James' Park,
8. Bristol: Bristol's new stadium,
9. Plymouth: Home Park
10. Liverpool: Anfield OR new stadium,
11. Derby: Pride Park
12. Leicester: Walkers Stadium

Vote in our localism poll

Last week saw Prime Minister Gordon Brown set out plans to streamline local budgets and slash local authority targets. The Smarter Government paper, published by Brown, promises to remove local area agreement (Laa) indicators that are no longer relevant or needed by April 2010 and pledges proposals to reduce the level of ring-fenced funding for local authorities by next year's Budget. Guidance on effective pooling and aligning of public bodies budgets at a local level to "incentivise and support local partner organisations to do this more often and effectively" will also be released, the document says. For more detail on the proposals, view our analysis piece here.

The proposals are viewed by some as a late attempt by the Labour Party to prove it is serious about localism, which is becoming a key plank of Conservative Party policy in the run-up to next year's election. In his big speech last month on tackling poverty, Tory leader David Cameron said that devolving authority from the state and a new spirit of localism would generate social responsibility and engagement.  At face value, there's not a lot to choose between Labour's plans and the Conservatives' proposals, set out in their Control Shift paper, published in February. These include a pledge to abolish all "national process targets" for local government and a promise to "phase out" central government ring-fencing. Localism was also high on the agenda at the Liberal Democrats' party conference earlier this year in Bournemouth. In a speech last year to the LGA, Nick Clegg set out plans to transfer taxation downwards and localise business rates. 

The three parties seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet, but which party's localism plans do you think would give the biggest boost to regeneration? Vote in our poll (top right)

50 renewal chiefs who will face PM's "fat cat" test

With his reputation for prudence consigned to history's dustbin, last week Gordon Brown made a bid to seem, if not exactly hair-shirted, at least a little less profligate. Not in the PBR, mind you, where spending actually rose, but in a putative crackdown on public sector “fat cats”. Cherry picking a Tory policy, Brown said he would name all those in the public sector earning over £150,000. “Some senior pay and perks packages had,” he said, “lost touch with the reality of people's lives. This culture of excess must change and will change."

To tackle this menace, Brown announced a review, to be undertaken by Bill Cockburn, the chairman of the Senior Salaries Review Body. The Cockburn report – to be published in the Spring - will examine how pay has got out of control in the public sector, and what measures need to be taken, Brown said. "It cannot be right that taxpayers fund 300 local authority officials who have salaries over £150,000, or that in total over 300 staff across public sector bodies are paid more than £200,000,” he growled.

Notice the phrasing there: “It cannot be right”. Not: “It isn’t right”. Or better: “It’s wrong!” No, Brown's condemnation was more gesture than diatribe and fell a little flat, not least because he is the one – as chancellor and as PM - who has presided over the year on year pay inflation that he now decries. Calculating as always, Brown understands that to attack the public sector, who are blameless for the fiscal crisis, is also to attack Labour's core vote. But to sit on his hands is to be accused of doing nothing to address the deficit. So, unsurprisingly, he hedges his bets and announces a review.

What will that review look at? Well Brown wants all future public sector contracts over £150,000 to be vetted by the Treasury and those who are awarded such contracts to have their names published. That is a lot of jobs. A quick dig through the accounts of quangos and government departments in the regeneration sector - often accused of being awash with acronyms, quangos and profligacy - brought up 50 names of individuals earning more than £150,000.

Could these individuals feel Brown's wrath come next Spring? This would seem unlikely. Not least because come the election campaign the "crackdown" on highly-paid public sector officials is likely to be kicked into the long grass as Labour focuses on its dividing lines: investment versus cuts; Toffs, bankers and Tories versus the rest of us.

However, that doesn't mean that those listed below will escape the coming squeeze. After all, the Tories are still well ahead in the polls and it was from George Osborne that Brown pinched the policy. Indeed the shadow chancellor went much further than Brown. He said any public sector contract with a salary greater than the PM's would have to be approved, directly by him. Again, if you look at the list below, that's a lot of jobs in the regeneration sector alone.

Is this just pure politics from Brown and Osborne? Are those listed below really public sector “fat cats”? Or are they worth every pound of their taxpayer-funded salary? It doesn't seem quite right to me that the Olympic Delivery Authority's director of communications earns considerably more than the PM, but then I'm not a huge fan of PR.

But perhaps the better question is how we can determine value for money when it comes to these salaries, especially given the impact the recession has had on the sort of indicators (levels of deprivation etc) you might want to reach for to measure success. Or is it merely, as Brown seems to suggest, a matter of what the public can tolerate? Your thoughts please?

50 Renewal chiefs earning more than £150k *2008/09 figures

- David Higgins (above), Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) chief executive, £537,000
- Howard Shiplee, ODA director of construction, £362,000
- Dennis Hone, ODA director of finance and corporate services, £356,000
- Mark Haysom, Learning and Skills Council (LSC) chief executive (resigned March 2009), £289,000
- Alison Nimmo, ODA director of design and regeneration, £289,000
- Ralph Luck, ODA director of property, £288,000
- Hugh Sumner, ODA director of transport, £288,000
- Simon Wright, ODA, director of infrastructure and utilities, £288,000
- Joe Harley, Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), IT director general and chief information officer, £270,000
- Sir Gus O’Donnell, Cabinet secretary and head of the home civil service, £255,000
- Sir Andrew Cahn, Department for Business Enterprise and Skills (Bis) acting permanent secretary, £250,000
- John Armitt, ODA chair, £250,000
- Godric Smith, ODA director of communications, £247,000
- Peter Rogers, London Development Agency (LDA) chief executive, £230,000
- John Codling, DWP, £225,000
- Stephen Lovegrove, Bis shareholder executive chief executive, £220,000
- Geoffrey Russell, LSC chief executive, £220,000
- Leigh Lewis, DWP permanent secretary, £220,000
- Pam Alexander, South East of England Regional Development Agency (Seeda) chief executive, £218,433
- Vicky Pryce, Bis chief economic adviser and director general economics, £205,000
- David Bell, Department for Children Schools and Families, permanent secretary, £205,000
- Lena Wilson, Scottish Enterprise chief executive, £200,000
- Prime Minister Gordon Brown, £197,689 per year
- Alan Clarke, One North East chief executive, £197,404
- Steve Broomhead, North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA) chief executive, £196,942
- Sir Brian Bender, Bis permanent secretary, £195,000
- Andrew Altman, Olympic Park Legacy Company chief executive, £195,000
- Peter Housden Department for Communities and Local Government, permanent secretary, £195,000
- Richard McCarthy, DCLG director general, £195,000
- Jane Henderson, South West of England Regional Development Agency chief executive , £189,673
- Nicola Brewer, Equality and Human Rights Commission chief executive (resigned March 2009), £189,000
- Chris Last, DWP group human resources director general £185,000
- Ralph Tabberer, DCSF director general, £185,000
- Mick Laverty, Advantage West Midlands chief executive, £179,000
- Tom Riordan, Yorkshire Forward chief executive, £178,123
- Mike Falvey, DCLG director general, £175,000
- Terry Moran, DWP chief executive, The Pension, Disability and Carers Service, £175,000
- Jonathan Thompson, DCSF director general, £175,000
- Bob Kerslake, Homes & Communities Agency chief executive, £173,000
- Joe Montgomery, DCLG director general, £170,000
- Tom Russell, LDA Olympic Legacy group director (resigned May 2009), £170,000
- Sarah Ebania, LDA Jobs Skills Youth group director and deputy chief executive, £170,000
- Peter Bishop, LDA Design Development and Environment group director, £170,000
- Andrew Travers, LDA Strategy Resources and Performance group director, £170,000
- Jeff Moore, East Midlands Regional Development Agency chief executive, £165,170
- Hunada Nouss DCLG director general, £165,000
- Tom Jeffrey, DCSF director general, £160,000
- Peter Marsh, Tenant Services Authority chief executive, £160,939
- Ian Haythornthwaite, NWDA executive director of resources, £159,717
- Mark Hughes, NWDA executive director of economic development, £157,772
- Malcolm Page, One North-East deputy chief executive, £157,703

***FYI if you are wondering, these 50 salaries, minus the PMs add up to around £11 million

Residents of affordable housing scheme won’t get fooled again

It stood derelict for several years, but now not only has Harrow’s Railway Hotel been brought back into use, it even carries a plaque commemorating its enviable place in rock history. Last Friday, the London Borough of Harrow unveiled the sign on the side of the north-west London affordable housing development to mark the site where The Who’s Pete Townshend smashed his guitar live on stage for the first time in September 1964.

Housing provider A2Dominion has built more than 40 affordable homes split across two blocks, named – naturally enough - Daltrey House and Moon House, after The Who’s singer and drummer. (We wonder if the late bassist John Entwhistle once did something to upset Harrow Council.) A2Dominion said: "It was the first time we've developed new homes on a site where rock history was made."

Some other projects with musical heritage have acknowledged their place in popular culture. In demolishing Manchester nightclub the Hacienda and turning it into flats, at least Crosby Homes kept the iconic name and acknowledged the club's logo (they kept the cedilla on the "c").

But sadly these examples are few and far between. I'd happily stand on my desk right now and perform a Townshend-style windmill guitar swing if it meant other councils and developers acknowledged a little bit of local pop history. So how about a plaque on the housing development that was once the Wigan Casino northern soul venue? Or a sign for west London's Hammersmith Palais, which may be turned into restaurants?

ERDF fights mafia in southern Italy

We stumbled across interesting news recently that European Regional Development Fund cash is being used to help tackle organised crime in four regions of southern Italy. The country, which is the third largest beneficiary of EU cohesion funding after Poland and Spain, will invest €64 million on redeveloping property seized from the mafia between 2007 and 2013, according to the European Commission.

The EC highlighted a number of projects already completed where ERDF has been used to turn property previously owned by the mafia over to community use. One such project - the "Giardino della Momoria" (Garden of Remembrance) saw €931,000 of ERDF invested in a scheme to develop a children's playground and place of remembrance for young victims of mafia crimes on land seized from the notorious Giovanni Brusca. He was jailed for life on more than 100 counts of murder, including the brutal killing of Giuseppe Di Matteo. The son of a police informant, 15-year-old Di Matteo was strangled after 779 days of captivity and his body dissolved in acid, on Brusca's orders.

The Terre di Corleone agricultural centre and tourism farm in Corleone, Palermo, meanwhile, received €606,292 of investment from the ERDF. The land once belonged to Salvatore Riina - known as the "boss of bosses". He was responsible for the murder of three judges, two local politicians and others engaged in the anti-mafia fight and is now serving multiple life sentences. The EC also highlighted the Centopassi winery, built on land seized from Giovanni Genovese using €426,000 of ERDF cash.

The EC says that these projects demonstrate to the local population that it is possible to develop legal and successful businesses. Regional policy commissioner Pawel Samecki said: "One of the major impediments to economic development in parts of the Mezzogiorno is the all-pervading shadow of organised crime. I am proud to show the other side of the story - that of how backing from EU funds is helping Italy to support initiatives to transform seized assets, creating new jobs, particularly for young people, and providing hope in areas long blighted by high unemployment and criminality."

PBR means tough times ahead for renewal

Public funding for regeneration looks set to get tighter over the next few years. Chancellor Alistair Darling's Pre-Budget Report, published on Wednesday, revealed that the Government plans to save £340 million by 2012/13 by better targeting funding for regeneration and housing growth. The PBR also says that £160 million will be saved by clamping down on fraudulent access to social housing and by "rationalising" smaller Department for Communities and Local Government-funded programmes as well as "ending time-limited schemes in DCLG".

These savings are probably not as alarming as they first look, particularly when set against DCLG's overall budget for housing and regeneration in 2010/11 of £6.97 billion. The PBR also says that the figure includes the New Deal for Communities scheme, which was coming to an end anyway - this means that the real savings are likely to be less than £340 million.

Nevertheless, there's no disguising the fact that there will be less funding around for regeneration work in the future. Regeneration funding is already set to take a hit in the end of this Comprehensive Spending Review period. According to the PBR, the DCLG's capital budget in 2010/11 will be £6.5 billion - down from £9.3 billion in 2009/10. And estimates in the DCLG's annual report, published in July, suggest that the DCLG's regeneration and housing budget in 2010/11 will be £6.97 billion - down from £11.6 billion in 2009/10 (see graph below - click on it to make it bigger). These big drops are largely the result of money being brought forward to stimulate housing and regeneration during the recession.


Alarmingly, experts are predicting that the chancellor's pledge on Wednesday to protect spending on health, education and police after 2011 means that the budgets of other departments will be hit hard. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that the likes of transport, housing and further education will face "severe real cuts" after 2011. The Institute of Public Policy Research, meanwhile, calculates that the PBR means that spending by other departments (not Home Office, DCSF and Department of Health) may have to fall by about 2.5 per cent a year, in real terms, between 2010/11 and 2014/15.

This means that new sources of finance are urgently needed to bolster regeneration. This is not going to come in the form of Tax Increment Financing - the PBR frustrating said that the Treasury would "continue to examine" the framework that would be needed to introduce the US-style funding tool. One chink of light is the news that the Homes & Communities Agency is to pilot a "Total Capital" scheme - a spin-off from the Total Place initiative that will aim to align capital spending in an area. Given that dedicated regeneration and housing funding is certain to drop over the short to medium term, this sort of work will be vital.

Monday's magazine will contain more reaction to and analysis of Wednesday's Pre-Budget Report. Click here to read how the Pre-Budget Report unfolded.

Our Pre-Budget Report coverage as a wordle

Click on the image above.
http://www.wordle.net/

Renewal body can't make a name for itself

For the second time in quick succession, regeneration professionals from six councils across East Lancashire have been left fumbling for a name for their new regeneration body.

First they wanted to call themselves the quaint-sounding Pennine Lancashire Development Company Limited, the Lancashire Telegraph reports. But when it came to registering the name with Companies House, the official UK government register of UK firms, that name had been nabbed, cruelly registered “at the last minute” by a Burnley resident.

Once they’d recovered from that disappointment, the group decided to plump for the more prosaic Pennine Lancashire Developments Limited.

But that name, too, was taken. By who? That man in Burnley again.

“It is mildly irritating,” Darwen Council leader Michael Lee told the Lancashire Telegraph. “I can only assume he thinks he will make money from it, but we are not that sort of company and we won’t be paying for it.”

Pennine Lancashire wanted to form the group to grab some of Whitehall’s attention – and funding – from its bigger, noisier rivals, Liverpool and Manchester. The naming fiasco is the latest blow to the area, after earlier this month councillors decided to pull out of a bid to become the UK’s first city of culture in 2013. “People may not know where Pennine Lancashire is,” one councillor concluded.

We hope Pennine Lancashire decides on a name quickly and can get to work. In the meantime, government officers might want to think twice about writing any checks to anyone purporting to be from the Pennine Lancashire Development Company Limited or Pennine Lancashire Developments Limited. You have been warned.

Photo: Earnsdale Reservoir, near Darwen, Lancs., by David Pott

Live blog: Pre-Budget Report

CLICK REFRESH TO UPDATE

10.35, Thurs: Reaction from Alistair Parker, Cushman & Wakefield: Today's vague announcement (on Tax Increment Financing) might be contrasted with this Government's detailed Tif thinking set out in their Green Paper Modernising Local Government Finance (September 2000) and the subsequent November 2000 PBR which confirmed intention to consult on "tax increment financing, to allow local authorities to retain and invest some of the additional local tax revenue resulting from successful regeneration". After nine years of consideration and consultation, one wonders what aspects of Tif the Treasury has yet to explore.

"What is also particularly disappointing is the Treasury's apparent failure to understand the 'pay as you go' Tif variant which uses private capital to fund infrastructure without any reliance on public revenue guarentees. Even more importantly, it's a variant that doesn't require the new 'primary legislation' that would be needed for Tif formats that would essentially rely on the public purse. Given that Tif rests on the mantra 'no new tax, no lost tax', it seems an immediate and obvious solution in the present fiscal climate to the urgent urban regeneration problem facing our towns and cities. After a decade of thought, isn't time the Government did something that would make the difference on the required scale?"

17.22: Reaction from Bernie Morgan, Chief Executive of the Community Development Finance Association: “The Growth Capital Fund must tap into CDFIs if it is to get credit flowing to deprived neighbourhoods. CDFIs have the expertise to help businesses succeed in the most disadvantaged communities, and a pipeline ready to deliver finance where it is needed around the country. But they don’t currently have sufficient capital to meet the overwhelming demand they face. By supporting CDFIs, the Growth Capital Fund can ensure that underserved markets don’t miss out on the Chancellor’s cash injection."

17.10 Reaction from Dermot Finch, Chief Executive of the Centre for Cities: "Transport and housing budgets always get cut in a spending squeeze. Above-inflation increases for frontline school, hospital and police budgets will mean real and deep cuts for infrastructure.

“Looking forward, our cities will need other new sources of investment funding, through more flexible borrowing and other measures like Tax Increment Financing. The PBR said the Government will continue to look at these options. We support that, and want to see a real commitment to new sources of investment by the Budget."

16.28 Reaction from Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors: "Infrastructure UK will play a vital role over the coming years in ensuring that major infrastructure projects such as high speed rail are effectively coordinated. The organisation should ensure that the UK is effectively linked through transport infrastructure and ensure that other key projects take place in the most appropriate locations. It is vital that Infrastructure UK has the power and ability to coordinate different parts of government that are involved in infrastructure provision to ensure a joined up approach, and the new body's location in HM Treasury should facilitate this.

"RICS recognises the importance of finding workable funding models for the delivery of infrastructure, and will offer its expertise to Infrastructure UK's work in this and other areas. We have long argued for better nationwide co-ordination for significant infrastructure and believes Infrastructure UK has the potential to contribute to this."

15.59 Reaction from Darren Parker, BBP Regeneration: "Tif means different things to different people. It may offer a way to get development projects onsite during the downturn where there is a viability gap or where banks are seeking extra security in order to lend. "Tax Increment Financing is an innovative way of financing local infrastructure and should become a central part of regeneration schemes. The Government must take steps to show how they will approve monitor and ration Tifs to ensure their success. It is essential that the Government finds additional ways of funding local infrastructure. The Community Infrastructure Levy has the potential to provide local authorities with funding for a range of schemes from new leisure facilities to improved public transport.

"The real opportunity though is about using Tif to provide a sustainable way to fund regeneration projects that could never get off the ground because of the amount of infrastructure needed upfront. We shouldn't forfeit this opportunity for the sake of expediency.

"Where the money comes from to fund this infrastructure and against what revenue streams it could be borrowed still needs to be worked out.

"There are also some fundamental questions about how Tifs will sit with changes to the powers given to local government and the future of public spending generally. It is likely that Tif will alter the balance of risk in regeneration projects - if the public sector is to take on more risk, which many in the development industry think it should, it is important to get the framework right for the long term.

15.57 Reaction from Richard Ford, head of planning at international law firm Pinsent Masons: "Securing TiF debt against CiL income is clearly risky as development cycles are inherently more volatile than business rates cycles - it is worth exploring but it would only be a small part of any income stream jigsaw."

14.46 Reaction from Bura chair Jackie Sadek: "Naturally we are disappointed over Tifs but we’re not really surprised, as we have been predicting this for some time. Of course, hindsight is an exact science but there is a huge lesson in all of this for all of us practitioners: the next time we look to import a clever financing vehicle from elsewhere, let us please take time out to secure its long term future in a rising market."

14.34 Now this, buried in the small print... Manchester's city-region agreement has been agreed. More detail soon.

14.25 Just had this response from the Child Poverty Action Group: "The announcement of the extension of free school meals to a further half a million primary children with parents in work lifting another 50,000 children out of poverty is fantastic news and will help hard pressed family budgets stretch further. We are pleased the Chancellor has listened to campaigners’ calls on this issue."

13.47 More Tif news. The Government will continue to examine the framework that would be needed to implement Tax Increment Financing and consider the primary legislation that would be needed if schemes were to be introduced, the document says.

13.43 Have been having trouble downloading the full document. But, finally some TIF news - or something that sounds a bit like TIF. The Government will examine the scope for local authorities to "borrow against the revenues from new council homes to support the delivery of housing where this offers value for money".

13.22 Not sure whether Darling's comments on refocusing regeneration spending are a new announcement. Will look into it.

13.20 That's it. George Osborne up now. Let us know what you think. We'll bring you reaction next, and news of anything buried in the fine print of the PBR document.

13.19 Darling's final announcement is to extend free school meals to 500,000 more primary school-age children from low income families.

13.18 Darling says that he's determined to protect improvements to frontline services in schools, hospitals and policing. Spending will continue to rise after 2011. This will be paid for by a rise in National Insurance.

13.14 Chancellor says that he's announcing £5 billion of savings today, including plans to refocus regeneration spending to where it's most needed.

13.12 Chancellor says that growth in public spending will be lower between 2011/12 and 2014/15. He says that this will mean cuts to some budgets and that some programmes will have to stop altogether.

13.10 Government will stick to spending plans next year. Dangerous to reduce spending too soon, Darling says.

13.08 twitter.com/regenerationUK: "inheritance tax frozen at 325,000 till 2011 - a swipe at Tories"

13.05 Darling announces one-off levy of 50 per cent on bank bonuses over £25K. Cash will be used to pay for extra measures announced to help unemployed back into work.

13.01 Interesting. Government will offer financial support for up to 10,000 graduates to take internships in the professions.

13.00 Chancellor gives go-ahead for further rail electrification between Liverpool, Manchester and Preston. Says Government will respond to high-speed rail proposals early next year.

12.59 Car scrappage-style scheme to replace old boilers announced.

12.57 Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme to be extended for 12 months. This will mean another £500 million for small businesses. Darling also announces funding for renewable energy and carbon capture and storage projects.

12.53 twitter.com/regenerationUK: "TIF TIF TIF ??? nothing yet ...."

12.52 Government wll ensure that public sector borrowing will more than halve by 2013, Darling says. He adds that to consolidate too soon risks delaying recovery.

12.47 Chancellor promises guarantee that anyone in work will be better off than they would be on benefits.

12.45 "Unemployment can never be a price worth paying," says Darling. "We are making a difference." Chancellor says that a pledge to offer all 18-to 24-year-olds who have been unemployed for 12 months a job or training place will be extended to those out of work for six months.

12.41 Stamp duty holiday to end on 1 January 2010, Darling says.

12.40 Darling says the Time to Pay scheme for businesses will be extended for as long as it is needed.

12.39 VAT to return to 17.5 per cent on 1 Jan, Darling confirms.

12.37 Darling "confident" that UK economy will start growing by the turn of the year, but adds: "We can't be complacent."

12.35 PBR about creating a fairer society, chancellor says.

12.34 Darling says government's task is to promote recovery and long-term growth.

12.33 Alistair Darling stands up. He's going to speak for around 50 minutes.

12.32 Still no chancellor. Follow our PBR coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/regenerationUK

12.30 PMQs still going on. Darling must be up soon.

12.09 Rumours circulating in the Twittersphere - Sky's Glen Oglaza - that Darling is to announce a rise in National Insurance.

12.00 R&R senior reporter Sarah Townsend says: "Back in February, the Cabinet Office’s Real Help for Communities third sector action plan outlined £42.5 million in funding for the sector. Voluntary organisations will be hoping for a similar cash boost when today’s PBR is announced."

11.55 Regen.net will be sending out a special Pre-Budget Report bulletin this afternoon with dedicated regeneration coverage. To subscribe, click here.

11.53 The BBC's Robert Peston says that banks may face a one-off 50 per cent levy on bonuses above a level which could be as low as £10,000.

11.39 Regeneration practitioners will be hoping for news from the chancellor on tax increment financing, a US-style funding mechanism. Click here to see our exclusive full list of the projects bidding to pilot the tool.

11.22 Just over an hour to go now. R&R economic development editor Allister Hayman says: "Darling is expected to announce and extension of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme for at least six months beyond its March end-date. The scheme aims to offer £1 billion in government guarantees to secure £1.3 billion in loans to firms with turnovers of up to £25 million. The chancellor is also expected to announce a new fund created by pooling cash from banks that will be dedicated to providing loans to small businesses."

11.11 R&R online editor David Hickey says: "It looks like 'fairness' is the watchword in today's PBR. Reports suggest a one-off bank bonus tax will be announced by the chancellor."

11.05 Business lobby group the CBI has a huge PBR wish list, including ideas for efficiency savings in the public sector. Read the CBI's letter to the chancellor here (PDF).

11.00 R&R economic development editor Allister Hayman says: "Expect more details on the four “guarantees” of jobs training or support for young people outlined by Gordon Brown last month, particularly details of the extra support to be offered to 18-24 year olds who have been unemployed for less than 12 months. In a highly political move, Darling is expected to link a new one of tax on banks bonus pool to the funding of these jobless programmes."

10.50 We're also covering the PBR on Twitter. Follow us at twitter.com/regenerationUK

10.45 R&R deputy editor Jamie Carpenter says: "Gordon Brown's Smarter Government paper, published on Monday, contained some key announcements for the sector, including promises to reduce funding streams and targets. Can Darling top this today?"

10.35 R&R economic development editor Allister Hayman says: "At the very least, Darling is expected to announce a commitment to “continue to look” at the possibility of piloting a handful of ADZs in the UK. The US-style funding tool is a kind of local authority bond that enables councils to borrow against the future business rates revenues of planned developments, in order to fund the infrastructure vital to kick starting those developments. Darling could announce that the Government will launch a pathfinder scheme to trial ADZs. At the very best he may announce that places like Leeds, Birmingham and perhaps London can get on with their plans for ADZs."

10.25 Send any Pre-Budget Report rumours to jamie.carpenter@haymarket.com, or comment below. We'd also like to hear what you'd like to see the chancellor announce.

10.20 Campaigners the Child Poverty Action Group have urged the chancellor to use the Pre-Budget Report to support struggling families. John Dickie, acting chief executive, said: "The chancellor must use this Pre-Budget Report to show us that he is committed to helping struggling families. Without decisive action the Government stands to miss its own 2010 target of halving child poverty by an unacceptable 500,000 children."

10.15 Chancellor Alistair Darling will deliver his Pre-Budget Report today at 12.30. We'll be blogging live throughout the day, reporting the key measures announced by the chancellor and reaction from the regeneration sector.

Poll: How do you rate the HCA's first year?

The last 12 months have been eventful for England's new regeneration super-quango, the Homes & Communities Agency.

The organisation had barely started work before shadow housing minister Grant Shapps warned in January that it had up to 18 months to prove its worth or face the axe by a Tory government. The year drew to an end with HCA chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake - perhaps with next spring's general election in mind - insisting that the agency will meet its housebuilding targets for 2009/10, despite its six-month figures falling short of the halfway mark towards that goal.

In between, a lot has happened. Ministers topped up the agency's coffers with £400 million in April and a further £660 million in June - the cash intended to restart mothballed housing projects.

The HCA has attempted to establish investment tools, including the Private Rented Sector Initiative to encourage large-scale investment in homes for private rent.

And it has so far initiated "Single Conversations" - a discussion intended to inform how HCA resources are deployed in local areas - with 67 per cent of councils.

But has the HCA proved its worth in its first year? Read what four key industry players think here. For those developers that the agency has helped to restart work on stalled housebuilding projects, it surely has. But with a potential Tory axe looming, the HCA's slow progress so far towards its 2009/10 housebuilding targets is worrying. Those who want the agency to avoid the Conservative chop must hope that Kerslake is right to be so confident that it will go on to meet those goals.

We want to know what you think. Vote in the poll at the top right of this blog.

By JAMIE CARPENTER

This post is an extract of the leader article in the current issue of Regeneration & Renewal magazine. Illustration by Jason Bennion

Stocking fillers for regenerators

It's December, so brace yourself for the usual avalanche of year-end lists. We thought we'd get in early(ish) by flagging up one that we found particularly interesting: US urban planning site Planetizen's ten best design and development books of the year.

Their top ten starts with ex-Talking Heads singer turned cycling advocate David Byrne - his book is "like haiku for urbanists," they muse - and ends with a natural history of New York.

And bubbling under just outside their top ten is a book by a Regeneration & Renewal columnist, a biography of garden-city pioneer Ebenezer Howard.

Any regeneration professionals looking for secret Santa gift ideas need look no further than this list.

Castro coffee

As you might expect, we get send a lot of CGIs of regeneration plans. In the carefully airbrushed world of these visualisations, it's almost always summertime and you'll never see any litter. Readers have previously commented to us on how CGIs seem to include the same human characters - rumour has it that there's a stock of images that designers are able to sign up to and use for their visualisations.

Regeneration & Renewal readers that regularly pour over CGIs will no doubt have noticed the fake shop names that occasionally crop up. Over the last few weeks, for example, we've noticed coffee shops with names that are unerringly close to real brands. Take the example below, from a CGI of Taunton's Firepool scheme, which includes a branch of "Costar" coffee. No prizes for guessing which coffee shop chain the scheme's developer St Modwen is hoping to attract.

The next image is a CGI of the Greengate public realm scheme, which has just been granted planning permission by Manchester and Salford city councils. Perhaps the scheme's developer is planning the north-west's first communism-themed coffee shop?

Please send any of your own examples to jamie.carpenter@haymarket.com and we'll feature them on the blog.

2012 legacy: Will gentrification drive out artists?

Last week I attended an interesting lecture on art and regeneration at Goldsmith’s college in south-east London. Art and Regeneration looked at how art was being incorporated into regeneration plans for the 2012 Olympics and argued that supporting and developing the (already thriving) art scene in Hackney could significantly boost the area’s social, cultural and economic value in the post-Olympic years.

Sarah Weir, head of the Olympic Development Authority’s arts and cultural strategy, spoke about the legacy projects that the organisation has commissioned for the Cultural Olympiad programme, which aims to attract visitors to the UK long after the athletes have emptied their lockers at the end of the Games.

Projects for the Hackney/Newham site include artwork for 12 bridges and underpasses by artists Martin Richman and Jason Bruges, snazzy light installation work by Danish artist Carsten Nicolai and Royal College of Arts (RCA) students’ designs for Angel Lane Wall. Images from Weir’s presentation can be downloaded here.

Unfortunately, not everyone in the audience thought highly about the projects. The hip and moody art students who were sitting behind me (and who made their opinions clear in an overblown stage whisper throughout the lecture - I was forced to act older than I am and "tut" at them in response!) didn’t think much of the quality of the art; others expressed concern that not enough local artists were being commissioned.

There were others who worried that the huge numbers of artists that originally flocked to Hackney because of the cheap rent would be priced out once regeneration pushes up the cost of living there. They stressed that not all local artists would welcome the opportunity to produce public art for 2012 and that their work might be overlooked.

Meanwhile, photographer Gesche Wurfel spoke about her new exhibition Transitory Spaces, which records the physical changes that have taken place at the site since regeneration work began. You can view her work here.

By SARAH TOWNSEND

Art and Regeneration was part of a series of three lectures organised by the Olympic Park Legacy Company. The podcast from the first event at the London School of Economics (by Professor Ricky Burdett from LSE Cities programme and London 2012 – Growing a New Piece of City: Designing an Olympic Legacy for 21st century London) can be found here. You will need to scroll back to Tuesday 17 November.

Cross-cutting on holistic governance. Or something.

The Government announced its “promise” to take a more devolved approach to local area agreements (Laas) last week, including a pledge to cut targets.

“Where the targets … still need to be set, we will ask local areas themselves to tell us what they can achieve instead of insisting on protracted negotiations over exact numbers,” explained local government minister Rosie Winterton earlier this week.

Fair enough. A good idea even, since targets should never become simply an end in themselves.

So why then does Winterton feel the need to couch this easy-to-grasp idea in terms that must make arch satirist Armando Iannucci rub his hands in glee and think: “Jeez, thanks Rosie, you’ve just scripted episode one of my next series for me.”

Try making sense of this: Explaining how she envisages the Government taking a step back from “detailed target negotiations”, Winterton said: “This will help Laas continue to improve the central-local partnership and devote our energies to delivery, as they should be.”

Hmm.

Then she really gets down to it: “The mutually reinforcing combination of Laas and Total Place is important. One focusing on priority outcomes agreed across each place and with central Government; the other driving delivery forward with a focus on efficiencies. Both about stronger partnership working, and reshaping services around users and citizens.”

Still following?

“Looking further forward, Laas need to be as effective and flexible as possible, reducing the associated bureaucracy and limiting the use of top-down targets, to harness their full potential.”

Wait! Come back! There's a really funny list of government jargon at the bottom of this story ...

There's a serious point here, too. A National Audit Office investigation found that excessive jargon is harmful because it is causing people to miss out on government services and benefits.

In Winterton's defence, she was addressing an audience at a Laa conference, but how about a little bit of straight talk? If the Total Place scheme was all about ensuring “local people” get better value for money on regeneration projects, why not talk in a language we can all understand?

Now there's a seedbed. Sorry, idea.

Top 10 gobbledegook words, from the Daily Telegraph:

1. Coterminosity - all singing from the same hymn sheet

2. Holistic governance - overall management

3. Predictors of Beaconicity - saying which councils will do best

4. Subsidiarity - federal

5. Step Change - improve

6. Bottom-Up - listening to people

7. Improvement levers - using the tools to get the job done

8. Seedbed - idea

9. Cross-cutting - everyone working together

10. Symposium - meeting

Photo by Subsetsum

Interactive 2018 World Cup bid map

Yesterday saw representatives of 15 English cities hoping to be part of England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup finals travel to Wembley stadium to submit their proposals. Around 10 cities are expected to be chosen from the list of 15. The successful cities will be announced by the 2018 bid team on 16 December.

Use the interactive Google map below to view details of all the stadia (existing or planned) put forward as potential World Cup venues, plus figures showing levels of deprivation in their areas. Click on the map and drag to scroll around.

View World Cup 2018 bid in a larger map

While every effort has been made to accurately place the stadia on the map, placemarks may only be indicative and should not be used as proof of exact location.

Full list of ADZ bids

London mayor Boris Johnson has bid to pilot the infrastructure funding mechanism to extend the Northern line from Kennington to Battersea Power Station (left).

The full list of the bids for Accelerated Development Zone powers, compiled by Regeneration & Renewal following a Freedom of Information request, appears below. To read related stories from this week's magazine, click here and here.

Council/partnership ... Scheme

Adur ... Shoreham Harbour Growth Point
Allerdale ... Derwent Forest
Allerdale ... Workington Hall
Allerdale ... Former Corus Site, Workington
Allerdale ... Mayport Harbour
Aylesbury Vale ... Aylesbury Waterside
Barbergh ... Brantham Industrial Area
Barnsley ... Barnsley Markets
Basingstoke & Deane ... Basing View
Bournemouth ... Wessex Fields A338/Riverside Avenue and Park & Ride
Bournemouth ... Bournemouth Town Centre
Bracknell Forest ... Bracknell Town Centre
Bristol City
& South Gloucestershire ... Severnside/Avonmouth Environmental Enterprises
Cambridgeshire ... Cambridge Station Area
Charnwood ... Loughborough Eastern Gateway
Chelmsford ... Chelmsford Flood Alleviation Scheme
Coventry ... Friargate
Coventry ... City Centre Precinct
Coventry ... Stoneleigh Park
Crawley ... Town Centre North
Derbyshire ... Markham Vale Regeneration Scheme, Seymour Development Area
Dorset ... Detail not available
Elevate East Lancashire ... Blackburn Cathedral Quarter
Gloucestershire ... Cotswold Canals Regeneration
Gloucestershire ... Cinderford Town Centre
Gloucestershire ... Newent Town Centre Regeneration
Gloucestershire ... Cirencester Town Centre
Gravesham ... Gravesend Heritage Quarter
Great Yarmouth ... Beacon Park
Greater Birmingham ... Wednesbury-Brierly Hill-Stourbridge Rapid Transit
Greater Birmingham ... Wolverhamption Public Transport Interchange
Greater Birmingham ... Longbridge Strategic Investment Site
Guildford ... Dominic Square City Centre Redevelopment
Harlow ... Harlow Town Centre
Haven Gateway Partnership ... A12/14 And Felixstowe Dockspur Roundabout
Herefordshire ... Edgar Street Grid City Centre Redevelopment
Herefordshire ... Model Farm Employment Development In Ross-On-Wye
High Peak ... Bingswood Estate
Hull ... Fruit Market
Hull ... Hedon Road
Kent ... Ebbsfleet Valley
Kent ... Eureka Business Park
King's Lynn and West Norfolk ... Southern King's Lynn
Kirklees ... Batley Gateway
Kirklees ... Mirfield 25 Huddersfield
Leeds ...Aire Valley Leeds Regeneration
Leicester ... Leicester Waterside Regeneration
Leicestershire ... Detail not available
Liverpool ... Detail not available
London Mayor of London ... Northern Line Extension
London Borough of Barnet ... Colindale Growth And Regeneration Project
London Borough of Croydon ... A23/A235 Growth Related Infrastructure
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham ... West Kensington, Earls Court, North Fulham Regeneration Area
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham ... Fulham Riverside Regeneration Area
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham ... White City Opportunity Area
London Borough of Haringey ... Tottenham Gyratory
London Borough of Lambeth ... Brixton Town Centre
London Borough of Merton ... More Morden Town Centre Development
London Borough of Redbridge ... Ilford Town Centre - Britannia Music Site And 40 Ilford Hill
London Borough of Southwark ... Elephant And Castle
London Borough of Sutton ... Hackbridge Project
Luton and Central Bedfordshire ... East Luton Strategic Employment Corridor
Luton and Central Bedfordshire ... North Houghton Regis And Luton Strategic Employment Site
Manchester ... Northern Gateway Cooperative Complex
Manchester ... Sportcity East Manchester
Manchester ... West Wythenshawe Economic Development Corridor
Mid Sussex ... Burgess Hill Town Centre
Mid Sussex ... Haywards Heath Quarter
Mid Sussex ... East Grinstead Town Centre
Middlesbrough ... Hemlington Grange "Raising Hope"
Newcastle ... Science Central
Newcastle ... Discovery Quarter
North Devon ... Bideford- Five Sites
North Devon ... Ilfracombe - Five Sites
North Staffordshire Regeneration P'ship ... Urban Core A - Transport Interchange And East West Precinct North Staffordshire Regeneration P'ship ... Urban Core B - Railway Station And Central Business District
North Staffordshire Regeneration Partnership ... Priority Employment Generators, Etruria Valley
Norwich ... St Stephen's Street
Nottingham ... Nottingham Medipark
Plymouth ... North Cross And Plymouth Railway Station Development
Plymouth ... Language Business Park Extension Into Language Energy Park
Plymouth ... Millbay
Portsmouth ... City Centre North
Preston ... Preston Tithebarne Retail
Purbeck ... Wareham Former Council Depot
Push ... Eastleigh Riverside
Push ... Dunsbury Hill Farm
Rochdale ... South Heywood Development Area
Rotherham ... Rotherham Renaissance Flood Alleviation Scheme
Sedgemoor ... North East Bridgwater
Sheffield ... Sevenstone
Sheffield City Region ... Dearne Valley Eco-Vision
South Hams ... Ermington Workshops Redevelopment
South Norfolk ... Detail not available
St Albans ... City Vision Regeneration
St Edmundsbury ... Suffolk Business Park Extension
Staffordshire Moorlands and High Peak ... Detail not available
Stroud ... Youth Centre
Stroud ... Cam Town Centre
Sunderland ... Vaux Project
Sutton ... Detail not available
Swale Borough Council ... Sittingbourne Town Centre Regeneration
Swindon ... Union Square; Swindon Central; North Star
Thurrock ... DP World London Gateway
Torbay ... Torbay Town Centre
Tunbridge Wells ... Charles The Martyr/Pantiles Crossing
Tunbridge Wells ... North Farm Industrial Estate Access
Wakefield ... Wakefield City Renaissance
Warrington Borough Council ... Bridge Street Quarter
Warrington Borough Council ... Garven Place / Bank Park
Warrington Borough Council ... The Wire Works
Wellingborough ... North Of Park Farm Industrial Estate
West Bromwich ... Town Centre Retail
West Lancashire Borough Council ... Skelmersdale, Industrial Park
Wigan ... Wigan Arc Pemberton
Wigan ... South Lancashire Industrial Estate Extension
Wigan ... Former Parsonage Colliery Site - Leigh
Woking ... Woking Town Centre Infrastructure Improvements
Wolverhampton ... Summer Row
Worcestershire ... British Sugar Factory Site
Wycombe ... Hughenden Quarter
Wycombe ... Handy Cross Gateway
Wycombe ... Swan Theatre
York City Council ... Castle Piccadilly
York City Council ...York Central

'A lot done, a lot still to do'

They might be celebrating their first anniversary on 1 December, but the mood at regeneration quango the Homes & Communities Agency’s inaugural open meeting was not exactly celebratory, as hard as chairman Robert Napier (pictured left) and chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake tried to put an upbeat spin on the regeneration quango’s initial 12 months.

Napier described the meeting as “effectively our AGM,” so accordingly we got a run-down of the agency’s record over the last year: 53,000 new and affordable homes completed; 327ha of brownfield land reclaimed; 450,000sq metres of floor space created; 200,000 helped into new homes – in short, its targets were nearly all met. And all this amidst the worst economic climate since the Great Depression.

Ah yes, the economic climate. Napier said the recession was “no reason to renege on quality.” But panellist Elaine Elkington, the strategic director of housing and constituencies at Birmingham City Council, expressed her concern about funding streams for large-scale regeneration projects in Birmingham. “What delivery models will work if the funding dries up?” she asked. How can councils “make efficiencies” when facing a 30 per cent cut in their budgets? Elkington, an “avid reader” of Regeneration & Renewal, cited our recent coverage of three London boroughs that won housing funding freedoms from the HCA on affordable housing. She politely suggested that outside of the capital, local authorities might have one or two innovate funding ideas of their own that the HCA might do well to listen to.

Another who suggested the HCA needs to listen more was Bob Walder, a one-time Moss Side rent collector and now group chief executive of regional housing association Longhurst Group, which has partnered with the HCA. Analysing the HCA’s Single Conversation – the agency’s dialogue with local authorities and partners from the private, housing association and voluntary sectors – Walder said the agency needed to put more time and effort into making the conversation inclusive and collaborative. “Is it a conversation?” he asked, adding the process has “troubled people over the last few months.”

Others thought swift building in order to meet targets was taking precedence over creating jobs for communities. HCA? "Very big H, very small C," said one audience member who works in local goverment.

So happy birthday, HCA. But, to quote Napier on the day (himself quoting former PM Tony Blair): “A lot done, a lot still to do.”