The regeneration Christmas gift list

Struggling for ideas for regeneration-related Christmas presents as you write your list for Santa? Sarah Townsend gives you a few pointers:

1) TFL London Underground Lampshade

A Christmas gift idea for anyone who wants to be able to lie in bed and drift off having planned the following day’s commute in advance…Transport for London (TFL) has produced the ‘Cog Classic Lampshade’ , which features the full London Underground tube map….

2) City Rain video game, by Ovolo

Described by its producers as a cross between Tetris and original 1980s town planning game SimCity, City Rain is (surely?) a must-have for regeneration professionals. The player is presented with a grid surface on which is placed homes, schools, community services, factories, green spaces, landfills and indeed “all the elements of a contemporary built environment”, says the press release. The objective is to re-organise the city to maximise its environmental sustainability, economic opportunity and leisure facilities, for example, before it is blacklisted by the ‘World Environment Protection Agency’. It sounds tense. For details click here .

3) Regeneration-related books:

Home Grown: Art and the cultivation of a neighbourhood by Oliver Bennett - describes how place-making experts gave a Cambridgeshire housing development a new lease of life by introducing a series of public artworks into the estate. The book was commissioned by public art agency Commissions East. To purchase a copy click here

African igloos and public service heroes by Peter Latchford – claims that the UK public sector spends billions every year doing “the equivalent of building an igloo in Africa” and puts forward recommendations for how frontline services - including health, regeneration, housing, social services, education, and enterprise support – can be delivered more efficiently.

If you have any other recommendations, post a comment below.

Religious covenant causes NDC succession strategy confusion

Derby’s New Deal for Communities (NDC) partnership, Derwent Community Team, appears to have suffered a further blow to its legacy plans. It emerged earlier this month that its planned successor body, the Revive Healthy Living Centre – which is intended primarily to help reduce the local teenage pregnancy rate by providing advice on safe sex - will not be able to give out contraceptives because of a religious ruling.

The health centre, which provides space for a number of services run by the local primary care trust (PCT), was built on land formerly owned by St Alban’s Roman Catholic Church. But, according to local press reports, the NDC has revealed that, as part of the church’s agreement to sell the land, a covenant was imposed on its future use, preventing the centre from giving out contraceptives.

Peter Ballard, chair of Derwent Community Team, was quoted as saying he believed that the covenant meant that the PCT could not give out advice on contraception either. He said that he had not been involved in the NDC’s 2003 deal to buy the land and was therefore not aware of the covenants until several years later. The disclosure could potentially hinder the NDC’s efforts to generate income by hiring out Revive’s facilities to the PCT, he reportedly said.

Further confusion has now arisen as the PCT is claiming that, although it was aware of the restrictions on the centre’s use, it did not believe the covenant was a major obstacle because it still allowed repeat prescriptions for contraceptives to be issued from there and collected from the local pharmacy.

A statement from NHS Derby City, seen by Regeneration & Renewal, said: “The PCT was aware of the covenant when the land was purchased more than five years ago, but the site represented the best location, size and value for money at the time.

“Although the covenant meant that the PCT could not give out contraception on the actual premises, we could give advice, and “prescribe” contraception for patients to pick up from the local pharmacy. This was considered an acceptable compromise given the suitability of the site. The Revive Centre opened in April 2007.”

The NDC could not be contacted for comment, so it is unclear what decision it will make. Nonetheless, the incident is the latest in a string of setbacks for Derwent Community Team.

In June, the NDC was forced to close the Revive centre’s café for three months because of ongoing losses until it had worked up a more viable business plan for the enterprise. And, last year, it closed the Gateway gym pending a funding decision by the Government.

Then, in July, it was forced to transfer ownership of its buildings to the city council until it has established a financially viable successor body to hold assets bought using the NDC grant.

POSTED BY SARAH TOWNSEND @regentownsend

Live blog: The Localism Bill

Today sees the introduction in Parliament of the delayed Localism Bill and the unveiling of the local government finance settlement, which will outline how much town halls have to spend over the next few years.

Follow this blog for news on both as soon as we get it and reaction to the bill and finance settlement (expected at 3:30 pm).

If you are in the regeneration sector and have a comment on the bill you'd like me to include, please email me (david.hickey@haymarket.com) or add your thoughts in the comments below. You can also contact me via Twitter.

17:59 On the website: Sarah Townsend's report on the local government finance settlement, which finds that 38 councils face the maximum reduction of 8.9 per cent to their spending, including some of the most deprived - Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets in London. Other councils located in some of the most disadvantaged parts of the country to face the 8.9 per cent cut include: Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Great Yarmouth, Liverpool and Salford.

The settlement frontloads the cuts, she reports, meaning councils will suffer bigger cuts in the first of the two-year period than in the second.

That's it on the blog for today. Thanks for tuning it. Much more analysis and reaction into the settlement and Localism Bill at regen.net tomorrow, no doubt.

17:23 More reaction on the Localism Bill: Social Investment Business chief executive Jonathan Lewis said: "This Bill will remove barriers and give local authorities greater opportunity to commission services from local voluntary groups, charities and social enterprises.

"We know there is great appetite in the sector to do more. But only if the right kind of support is available to civil society organisations – both investment and advice – will we really see a transformation in the way we ‘do’ public services in this country."

Sarah Whitney, managing director of CB Richard Ellis’ Government & Infrastructure team, welcomed the bill. She said: "We hope that the Government’s commitment to localism, as outlined in the Bill, translates to a system which delivers greater investment across the country.

"The Bill reinforces the importance of innovative new models of financing development, such as tax increment financing and fund structures like the North West Evergreen Fund. It is precisely these initiatives which will enable Local Authorities to use public sector funds to leverage private sector investment opportunities in pursuit of national growth objectives."

16:52 The DCLG has published details of the local government finance settlement for councils in England for 2011/12 and 2012/13. Three main points for now:

- limiting the average spending power reduction across all councils to 4.4% in 2011/12
- ensures no council faces a reduction of more than 8.9% in "spending power" (explained here) in 2011/12 and 2012/13
- established a transitional grant of £85 million for 2011/12 and £14 million in 2012/13 to help councils "manage issues related to the ending of the Working Neighbourhoods Fund", which was scheduled to end in March 2011.

Deputy editor Jamie Carpenter tweets variously on the local government finance settlement: "Richmond's budget - or 'spending power' - for 2011/12 cut by 0.6 per cent, but Newham's cut by 8.9 per cent. Also sees Hackney lose 8.9 per cent in 'spending power' in 2011/12, but Dorset only loses 0.25 per cent and Surrey loses 0.3 per cent. Fairness?"

16:37 National charity Action for Market Towns welcomes the bill: It said: "Community-led planning and solutions is something that AMT has long been championing following its work with small towns across the country. From South Somerset to Northumberland local people are planning future development and service delivery at a community level. AMT has hundreds of examples of how enterprising communities have worked with supportive local authorities to map local issues and develop tailored solutions."

16:18 News has reached us that community sector umbrella bodies incuding the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (Navca), Urban Forum, the Development Trusts Association (DTA), Community Matters and Bassac have launched a campaign to prevent a watering down of the proposals contained in the Localism Bill for handing down greater power to communities.

Chief executive of Navca Kevin Curley said: "We set up the Real Power for Communities campaign and website to ensure the Decentralisation and Localism Bill results in greater powers for community groups. The campaign, supported by a number of national charities, will inform people about the bill and help them lobby their politicians.

"For example, we want the community right to buy in the bill to make it easier for local community groups to take over local assets. This campaign will resist any attempt to water down this part of the bill. In doing so we will help communities develop their local assets and give local charities and community groups a base."

14:32 Missed this earlier? The Government has helpfully published a Decentralisation and Localism Bill: An essential guide, with a foreword by deputy PM Nick Clegg and decentralisation minister Greg Clark. Eight mentions of "top-down", nine of variations on "empower".

14:26 On our website: A summary of the measures in the Localism Bill

14:24 Simon Parker, director of think-tank the New Local Government Network, said: "This bill represents the most important piece of legislation for local government in a generation. New powers for communities to take the lead on planning and have a greater role in service provision, combined with a wave of directly-elected mayors, should be a powerful force for local renewal."

14:15 Bored waiting for communities secretary Eric Pickles to introduce the Localism Bill in Parliament? Then have a read of the Government's Decentralisation and the Localism Bill: an essential guide. It sets out six actions that Whitehall will need to take to achieve the "radical" shift in power to go alongside the changes in law proposed in the bill.

13:50 Centre for Cities chief executive Alexandra Jones: "The shift towards greater decentralization and an emphasis on devolution of funding [in the Localism Bill] are all positive and represent some of the most significant steps towards decentralization in decades.

The big challenge is inherent within any shift to decentralisation: Some places are already more able and willing to make the most of these powers than others, with this likely to result in a further widening of the differences between places’ economies.

The big test in the next few years will be whether all these local freedoms and flexibilities add up not just to greater local autonomy, but also to a more prosperous UK economy overall."

13:43: On our website: Coalition extends community planning powers; Residents granted right to buy community assets

13:24 Labour’s shadow communities secretary Caroline Flint said: "Labour is in favour of giving people a greater say in the way their local communities and services are run. Some aspects of the Localism Bill build on reforms we made to local government in recent years.

"[But] the most deprived communities look set to lose out most from the government’s decisions on grants and council tax, while councils in the most prosperous areas are favoured."

Read Flint's full statement here.

13:06 Executive chairman of the Home Builders Federation Stewart Baseley said: "The Localism proposals provide a real chance for people to develop their communities for the better and house builders will work with them to build the homes communities and families want. More homes will mean more money for local facilities and services and will enable young people to live in the communities where they grew up."

"The Government and Local Councils need to join us in educating communities of the severity of the housing crisis and the benefits of new homes."

12:51 Bob Robinson, a partner at independent planning consultancy DPP says: "The Government’s Localism Bill is great in principle, but is based on the assumption of commonality in purpose in communities which I am not sure exists.

"There is a danger that those more articulate and better educated interests within communities - for example, incomers to rural communities who perhaps want the village to stay the same as it is – will carry more weight in planning decisions. The losers are likely to be those less well educated and articulate communities that currently struggle to have their voice heard.

"There is a danger that the Localism Bill’s 'Big Society' agenda will continue to favour those with a big voice."

12:51 On our website: Residents granted right to buy assets

12:22 David Cowans, chief executive of property management and development group Places for People, which welcomed moves within the bill to give communities a greater say in shaping local community services, said: "We are facing the severest housing shortage since the 1920s. So if we are serious about housing the nation, then we need to move away from the current adversarial planning system, which in some areas has stymied development and disenfranchised local communities and individuals.

"It’s clear that developers alone cannot create great places – the people that live there do. By engaging the community adopting an approach based on mutual understanding we can help to address the current housing shortage and build more homes, empower local people, and deliver places where people are proud to live and work."

11:53 On our website: Councils handed new competence powers

11:52 On our website: Mayoral elections set for May 2013

11:37 Town and Country Planning Association chief executive Kate Henderson said: "The Localism Bill is set to contain the most far-reaching proposals to change the planning system since the 1947 Planning Act. The coalition Government has begun a radical reform of the planning system through the devolution of power to local communities. Neighbourhood plans are a core component of the Government’s ambition to connect people and planning."

"However, questions remain about matching the resources to the programme for transformation expected in the Bill. In order for a neighbourhood plan to be a meaningful choice, communities are going to need intellectual as well as financial support. The Association will seek to work closely with the parliamentary process for the passage of the Bill to deliver a planning system which is responsive to people’s needs and aspirations and promotes sustainable development. "

11:00 Today sees the introduction in Parliament of the delayed Localism Bill and the unveiling of the local authorities' finance settlement.

Some background: Ministers have said that the Localism Bill will contain the legislation required to implement key elements of the Government’s Big Society agenda. These include enabling directly elected mayors to be established in the ten largest cities outside London, giving communities the right to bid to take over public services and making it easier for local people to deliver affordable housing developments without requiring planning permission.

The Town and Country Planning Association said the measures in the Localism Bill, such as requiring local authorities to adopt new "neighbourhood plans" if residents vote in favour of them in local referendums, represent the most far-reaching reforms of the planning system in more than 50 years.

Click here to see communities secretary Eric Pickles (pictured) explain the bill on yesterday's Politics Show.

Top 10 blog posts in 2010

The Regeneration & Renewal blog went from strength to strength in 2010, with traffic steadily growing throughout the year and now more than 400 entries posted since it launched in February 2009.

Here are the ten most visited blog entries in 2010.

1. LEP Watch: Deadline day
The culmination of the Regeneration & Renewal blog’s popular series of “LEP watch” posts saw reporters Ben Cook and Ben Willis dispatched (well, sort of) to town hall car parks across the land to track down local enterprise bids as they were submitted to government.

2. Live blog: Sub-national economic growth white paper
This year’s second most popular blog entry charted events on the day of the launch of the Government’s sub-national economic growth white paper in October, which also saw details of the first wave of 24 local enterprise partnerships announced.

3. LEPs: the list of bids in full
A list of the 56 areas bidding for local enterprise partnership status, released by the Government at the beginning of September, was the third most popular blog entry in 2010.

4. Opinion: the unanswered questions on local enterprise partnerships
In June we blogged that details on the coalition’s crucial local enterprise partnership policy were thin on the ground. Have a look back at the post now, and judge for yourself as to many of the “unanswered questions” have been answered by ministers.

5. Live blog: Comprehensive Spending Review
Our fifth most popular blog post of 2010 was a live blog including breaking news from chancellor George Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Review in October and reaction from the regeneration sector to his announcment.

6. LEPs: the emerging partnerships

7. Map: the first 24 local enterprise partnerships

8. LEPs: the story so far

9. Live blog: Osborne unveils £6 billion of savings

10. What they own: The RDAs’ land and property assets revealed

EC tells regional aid critics they are barking up wrong tree

It seems that news of a row over plans to redevelop an east London greyhound stadium is not the only canine-related tale to rock the regeneration world this week. Yesterday I received an email with the subject line: "Hungarian dog rehabilitation centre stripped of EU funding." I immediately opened the message and read it.

The email contained a statement from the European Commission, revealing that Hungarian authorities have decided to cancel the "Gyrotech project" for a "veterinary rehabilitation centre" in the city of Dregelypalank, northern Hungary. "All payment claims have been suspended since February 2010," the EC's statement said. "No EU funding has been paid out."

Brussels' decision to release a statement to the UK media to clarify that it is not funding a dog rehab centre in a far-flung corner of the EU is part of a what seems to be a strategy to proactively defend the record of the EC's cohesion policy (of which the two main funding instruments are the European Regional Development Fund and European Social Fund). The Hungarian dog rehab centre had received widespread media coverage last month. The Independent, for example, said that the EC had "splashed out £350,000 on a fitness centre for canines in the village of Dregelypalank, which included a hydrotherapy spa." The report continued: "It was built to 'improve the lifestyle and living standard of dogs' but it was never actually opened, so the mutts are still being bone idle." The fact that the EC had not actually paid out any money to the project was absent from the reports.

The EC's response to the media criticism of the Hungarian project follows a string of negative stories about structural funding over the last few weeks. At the end of last month, the EC requested the return of millions of euros of regional aid spent on putting on an Elton John concert in Naples. Italian authorities had used €720,000 of ERDF cash to part-fund a festival headlined by the pop legend in September last year.

And an investigation published at the end of last month by the Financial Times claimed that billions of euros of regional aid are lying idle because cash-strapped national governments cannot find the necessary matching funds to release the money. The newspaper said that internal EC documents showed that the EU has paid out only 10 per cent of €347bn allocated by its flagship fund up to 2013

The FT's investigation prompted regional policy commission Johannes Hahn to take the unusual step of issuing a statement to "clarify a number of issues". Two key points made by Hahn are that a slow take up of EC regional aid is nothing new and not surprising (member states could spend cash from the previous 2000-06 spending round up until the end of last year) and that the amount of EC regional aid affected by irregularities and fraud has been brought down.

The question is, with the UK press largely hostile to the EU, will Hahn's message get heard?

Is the Regional Growth Fund jam being spread too thinly? #2

The Regional Growth Fund road show today hit the North-East, after visiting Liverpool last week and Taunton last month. Interest in the £1.4 billion fund is extremely high, which is hardly surprising given that it is one of the few dedicated pots of regeneration funding left following the spending review in October. But concerns that money from the fund is being spread too thinly have resurfaced after the coalition's growth paper called on business angel groups and the Government's SME arm Capital for Enterprise to bid for money from the RGF to pay for a "Business Angel Co-Investment Fund" to support early stage SMEs with high growth potential.

This is by no means the first time that ministers have flagged up a particular activity as being eligible for RGF funding and invited bids. Following the spending review in October, I asked whether money from the fund was being spread to thinly. The fund was announced in June by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg "create the conditions for growth and enterprise in the regions by stimulating investment and create sustainable private sector jobs".

But the spending review revealed that the fund could also have to fund housing market renewal projects and transport schemes. A circular from housing minister Grant Shapps, said that the Department for Communities and Local Government - which is contributing £890 million towards the RGF's pot - will "provide access to [the] RGF to fund capital projects which could support housing growth and market renewal schemes". And the Department for Transport, which is providing around a third of the funding towards the RGF, said in October that "bids for local transport schemes that unlock sustainable economic growth will be eligible for submission to this fund".

On top of the concerns that the cash is being spread too thinly, by inviting bids for RGF cash from housing and transport schemes - and also from business angels for the very specific "Business Angel Co-Investment Fund" - ministers leave themselves open to accusations of having pre-determined where money from the pot is going to go. Will ministers be prepared to tell the groups they asked to submit bids that their projects don't fit with the objectives of the fund?

10 years of Diary

Today, the last ever issue of Regeneration & Renewal in its current format is published (you can read a statement on the future of our ongoing print coverage of regeneration here). From the launch of the first ever issue of Regeneration & Renewal in October 2000, to the final issue published more than ten years later, the Diary column has been an ever-present – and ever-popular – feature of the magazine.

Here we take a look at five Regeneration & Renewal Diary highlights from the last ten years.

5. The first ever Diary column (almost)

The first ever issue of Regeneration & Renewal was published on 6 October 2000, but is now such a collector’s item that we don’t have any copies in our office (it would no doubt go for big bucks on eBay) meaning that unfortunately we can’t share with you the first ever Diary column. Here, however, is Diary’s second effort:

13 October 2000: Some thought had clearly gone into the choice of background music at last week’s BURA awards dinner.
Award-winners made their way to the stage accompanied by the theme tune from Mission Impossible, which presumably neatly summarised their feelings about their projects in earlier days.
Rather subtler was the choice of Music to Watch Girls By as a prelude to the ceremony. In the midst of hundreds of regeneration practitioners, the message that underlies Andy Williams’ easy listening masterpiece suddenly became unmistakably clear.
The song, with its famous refrain “the boys watch the girls watch the boys watch the girls…” is clearly a testament to the benefits of well-designed public space and good quality town centre management.
Also running up a champagne bill last week were Regeneration & Renewal’s contributors, staff and representatives from the magazine’s associated organisations, BURA, the RTPI and the Institution of Economic Development, at a party to celebrate the publication of the first issue.

4. The final Diary column is second to naan

With his efforts to get celebrity endorsement for his plans to fly county flags at Eland House (Russell Grant – why??!!) and his admission that he is moved to tears by chick flicks, communities secretary Eric Pickles has become a Diary regular in recent months. In the final Regeneration & Renewal Diary column, published today, Pickles takes the seemingly odd step – for a communities secretary – of backing the UK’s curry industry:

6 December 2010: It seems that communities secretary Eric Pickles is attempting to curry favour with a saucy new initiative. Last month, the minister addressed the 2010 British Curry Awards and promised to support the spice industry, a Department for Communities and Local Government missive reveals. "Curry has a huge place in our national affections," Pickles told the event. "The tikka masala is more British than fish and chips. And curry is big business as well as a great meal."
The event came just weeks after bookies Ladbrokes had to pay out to punters who backed Pickles to be spotted in a curry house during the Tory conference in Birmingham.

3. Diary wanders lonely as a cloud

Regular Diary readers will be aware that animal-related tales – often including stories related to great-crested newts and aggressive swans and seagulls – regularly feature in the column. But there is only one contender for the title of the best animal-related Diary story. Step forward giant rapping squirrel MC Nuts:

20 April 2007: First to Cumbria, where tourism bosses have launched an online video that aims to make the Lake District cool with a new, younger audience.
In the video, shot by Lake Ullswater, a giant squirrel - named MC Nuts - performs a rap version of William Wordsworth's poem 'I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud'.
A spokesman for Cumbria Tourism said: "We wanted to engage the Youtube generation, who want modern music and amusing video footage on the web."
Cumbria Tourism says the video features some "slight variation" in Wordsworth's prose. Certainly, having watched the video, Diary can't remember the phrases "check it", "rewind" and "lost the plot" appearing in the original poem.
The video can be watched below.

2. Diary gets juvenile

In the early days of Regeneration & Renewal – and I’d like to point out this was before I joined the magazine in 2004 – Diary did not always uphold the high standards of sophistication that it is now renowned for. The following piece – now the stuff of legend among Regeneration & Renewal hacks old and new – speaks for itself:

25 April 2003: With its connotations of privilege and foppishness, it's hard enough to be taken seriously when your first name is Rupert. Imagine then if you're a member of the People's Party - and on top of that your surname is Bear. That, according to the Guardian, is the reality for the chairman of Bingham Labour group in south Nottinghamshire.
Diary initially suspected that the same gremlins were at work that recently led the liberal daily to refer to immigration minister Beverley Hughes as soul singer Beverley Knight, but independent research reveals that the Guardian's sub-editors can hold their heads high. Then we discovered Staffordshire Tory councillor Ramon Mycock (pictured above, left) - proof that local politicians have a propensity for humorous names, and not necessarily ones suitable for comic strips.

NB: A follow-up piece was published later in 2003…

19 September 2003: Following Diary's juvenile giggling at the names of Staffordshire Tory councillor Ramon Mycock and the Nottinghamshire-based Labour politician and solicitor Rupert Bear (Regeneration & Renewal, 25 April, p36), we can reveal that Mr Mycock has taken to using his middle name - Barrie.
However, no such change for Mr Bear: Rupert is his middle name ...

1. Diary is rude to Wigan Pier and sparks media circus

In terms of sheer impact, only one Diary story can be the winner. As a rookie journalist I reported some comments made by Sue Nelson of Encams in 2004 about Wigan – the town where the charity is based – and all hell broke loose.

1 October 2004: Diary heard gags aplenty this week from the irrepressible Sue Nelson of environmental lobby group Encams, the gang behind the Keep Britain Today campaign.
The outspoken Nelson began by using the Safe Neighbourhoods conference to describe Wigan, where Encams is based, as "the arse end of the world".
She went on: "London is the financial capital - Wigan is the pie capital.
The two hubs of employment in Wigan are JJB Sports and the Heinz Alphabetti factory."
Later, she amused delegates with tales of her early career - which, unsurprisingly, didn't include a post on the Wigan Marketing Board. "I looked at other charities," she said, "including Incontinence R Us. You can find them on the web at www.slash-slash-slash."

More than six years on, the diary piece remains the story that has generated the most national media coverage in my career as a journalist – you can read some of the many stories here and here, and even watch a Youtube video entitled “Fury as Wigan branded arse end of World” below.

As for the unfortunate Sue Nelson, she was suspended pending a disciplinary inquiry.

Outsourcing regeneration

One of the current issue's most popular stories online has been Ben Cook's Done Deal feature, which looked into how - and why - North-East Lincolnshire Council outsourced its regeneration department to a private firm, Balfour Beatty Workplace, for the next ten years.

The deal can be summed up thus: BBW will be hit by financial penalties if it fails to reach any of more than 100 performance indicators, but if all targets are met the council will pay the firm £250 million. Linking rewards to outcomes means the council can be sure it is getting value for money, says Stuart Howie, a director at consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers that advised the council on the deal.

With Government funding for local authorities to fall by more than a quarter over the next four years, is this the shape of regeneration to come?

We'd like to hear from public sector workers and private sector professionals to find out what you make of North-East Lincolnshire Council's plan, and if you think it could be model you are pursuing - please add your comments below.

Winning World Cup bid may ease economic woes

So, today is the day. After all the sniping, scandal and alleged subterfuge, the decision on which nation, or nations, will stage the 2018 World Cup will be announced at 3pm today.

In addition to the honour of staging the greatest sporting spectacle on Earth, the hosts of the 2018 tournament will also enjoy a massive economic boost.

A winning bid could lessen the pain of the downturn in our regional cities

According to the England World Cup bid team, if FIFA gives England the nod, the economy will benefit to the tune of £3.2 billion.

Consequently, a successful English bid would not only see money pouring into London’s coffers, but would also result in regional cities such as Bristol and Sheffield receiving a cash injection of anything between £150 million to £300 million. For a list of the host cities, click here.

Indeed, research by Leeds Metropolitan University concluded that revenue generated by sporting events could be key in helping regional cities out of recession.

Let’s hope that England’s delegation out in Switzerland has swung it our way. A winning bid could mean the pain of the economic downturn is felt less keenly in our regional cities.

UPDATE 15.38: FIFA has announced that the 2018 World Cup finals will be held in Russia. @mayoroflondon tweets: "Extremely disappointing. We had an awesome bid and knockout presentation. Can’t quite believe it."

- Interactive 2018 World Cup bid map by level of deprivation

By Ben Cook

The UK's most walkable cities

Ah, Florence.

Its cobblestone streets "may not be ideal for breaking in that new pair of Gucci stilettos", but then only by foot can its soul truly be discovered.

That's the view of travel guide Frommer's, who on the Huffington Post site last week listed what in their view is the world's ten most walkable cities.

They don't say how they devised the list, but Florence tops it, followed by the likes of Paris, Sydney and Edinburgh, which they say is "steeped in history" but still possesses "a cutting-edge contemporary feel".

Edinburgh is the only UK town to make the cut. But do you think others deserve a place on the list? Let us know which town or city you think is the most (and least) pedestrian-friendly and why by adding your comments below.

'Big Society bill' boosted by Commons backing

Earlier this month, MPs voted for a bill that would require all public sector contracts to demonstrate how they would deliver positive social, economic and environmental benefits to communities to be sent to a Public Bill Committee for scrutiny.

Organisations such as the Social Enterprise Coalition (SEC), which represents social enterprises across England, have campaigned to rally support for Chris White MP’s private members bill – the so-called Public Services (Social Enterprise and Social Value) Bill - for some time, and the fact that it will now go through to committee stage, awaiting a reading and debate in the House of Lords, marks a significant step forward for them.

If passed, the bill would make social impact a statutory consideration in public services procurement, meaning that contracts would have to deliver added benefits such as the creation of local jobs or the reduction of carbon emissions. The implications for the social enterprise sector could potentially be huge – as the requirements contained in the bill would be an added incentive for commissioners to appoint social enterprises as public service providers.

'It could become one of the most important pieces of legislation for our sector in a generation' Peter Holbrook, Social Enterprise Coalition

What’s more, the legislation would encourage public bodies to ensure that public services have clear social benefits. Many would see this as particularly important given the coalition’s recent decision to scrap the social-economic duty contained in Labour’s Equality Act, which would have forced public bodies to consider how any strategic decisions would impact on the poorest groups of people.

Civil society minister Nick Hurd was one of the members who voted in favour of the bill. Former communities minister Hazel Blears did the same.

SEC chief executive Peter Holbrook (pictured above with Prime Minister David Cameron) said: "We cannot be anything other than delighted with the result of the vote. It was a major hurdle to overcome. As a result of this bill we have increased awareness of the importance of social enterprise and social value among MPs.

"If the bill proceeds, it could become one of the most important pieces of legislation for our sector in a generation. The fact that it has support from the three main parties makes the turning of this bill into law next year a very real possibility."

And a statement from Senscot, which represents Scottish social enterprises, said: "In England, the private members bill to make social impact a consideration in public sector procurement, now has government backing and stands an excellent chance of getting through. This would be a significant advance for our movement."

Now that the proposed legislation has passed second reading it will go the Public Bill Committee in early 2011 to be debated further, so watch this space.

By Sarah Townsend

Social enterprise in pictures

It was national Social Enterprise Day yesterday and, in case it passed you by, we’ve put together a slideshow of eleven photographs that are going head-to-head in a competition "to find the image that best shows the unique and transformative work of social enterprise" – so say its organisers.

The Social Vision: Business at its Best competition, which is now in its third year, is run by umbrella body the Social Enterprise Coalition and social lender Triodos Bank. The organisations are asking members of the public to take part in an online vote to decide which image should win.

So, have a browse through the images – which depict various social enterprises in action, such as homeless people learning cooking skills, children participating in a walk-to-school scheme and an engineer restoring an old washing machine to save it from landfill – and visit http://www.socialenterpriselive.com/competition if you’d like to vote. The deadline is 30 November.

UPDATE 1 December: Fordhall Community Land Initiative, a community-owned farm in Shropshire, was named winner of the photo prize last night. The winning photo will be on display alongside the other finalists as part of a free exhibition at Lumen gallery space in Tavistock Square, London, until 7 January 2011.

By Sarah Townsend

Pathfinders: Where do we go from here?

This Channel 4 expose on the 'shelving' of Labour's Housing Market Renewal pathfinder programme is well worth watching.

Richard Blakeway, Boris Johnson's housing adviser

1st collector for Richard Blakeway, Boris Johnson's housing adviser
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Street spirit: a community veteran's guide to the Big Society

Sarah Townsend reviews a book that aims to set out the secrets of successful community regeneration

David Robinson is chief executive of east London charity Community Links, which works to support social regeneration initiatives in the deprived London boroughs of Newham and Tower Hamlets.

He recently published a short book, Out of the ordinary: learning from the Community Links’ approach to social regeneration, which claims to uncover the secrets of social regeneration and what makes a great community worker. Having co-founded Community Links 33 years ago and headed up the charity ever since, Robinson is probably more in-the-know than many.

'A fence at the top of a cliff is always better than an ambulance at the bottom' David Robinson

In the book he claims that a successful Big Society organisation does not arrive by accident, or good luck, but is carefully created and can be replicated.

He draws on lessons learned from the experience of Rokeby Hub in Stratford, one of the 21 east London-based neighbourhood centres that Community Links manages, and suggests reasons for its success. The centre, which attracts around 200 people each week, offers a range of community activities, from mother and toddler groups to pensioners’ bingo sessions, youth clubs and after-school children’s projects.

The book claims that, since opening in 2009, there has been a 49 per cent drop in reported incidents of antisocial behaviour on the local housing estate and a 56 per cent drop in reported crime – attributed both to the police and the work of the hub, Robinson says.

It suggests that "housing a range of disparate and unconnected activities under one roof is not in itself a sufficiently helpful service for anyone – particularly for [disadvantaged] people whose lives are often complicated, troubled and chaotic". Instead, the programme of activities, the services provided, the staff – both paid and voluntary – and the links between them are crucial, so that service users feel connected with other people and activities in the local area, the book says.

It includes a list of 15 attributes of a successful community worker, among them: always seeing the person, not the problem; being able to exert influence, not control, and being an active and passionate collaborator.

The book also stresses the importance of early intervention, or "early action", as Robinson describes it, in disadvantaged communities. At one point he writes: “A fence at the top of a cliff is always better than an ambulance at the bottom.”

This is something Robinson reiterates in an interview with Society Guardian published yesterday, where he says: "We need to become an 'early action' economy," – for example focussing available resources on youth clubs and community groups that can work with people at a very local level and prevent problems spiralling out of control at a later date.

Out of the ordinary: learning from the Community Links' approach to social regeneration has been self-published by Community Links and is being sold without a cover price. The charity asks that readers donate what they think it is worth having read it, which we reckon makes Robinson the Thom Yorke of the community sector - in 2007, Yorke’s band Radiohead asked their fans to donate to the band whatever they thought their In Rainbows album was worth.

It worked for Radiohead. Let’s hope it works for Community Links. Email Richard McKeever at the address here to request a copy.

Heseltine on growth fund and Thames Gateway

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The former deputy prime minister on why London should not get its hopes up too high for the Regional Growth Fund and the need for a public-private sector body to lead the Thames Gateway regeneration scheme

Lord Heseltine is the Government's chief adviser on the new £1.4 billion Regional Growth Fund, set up by the coalition Government to encourage private sector job growth in parts of the country especially dependent on public sector employment. He talks to Regeneration & Renewal about the kind of projects that he envisages the money being spent on, and where.

Talking on the sidelines of the recent Future of London summit, Heseltine also discusses the future for the Thames Gateway in the wake of the decision by the Government to withdraw all dedicated funding for the scheme, the urban development corporation model for regeneration, and why he thinks a mix of public and private sector bodies is best placed to complete arguably Europe's biggest regeneration project.

Watch more Regeneration & Renewal videos at youtube.com/regenandrenewal. For more news from the Future of London conference, click here.

Heseltine is the chairman of Haymarket Group, which publishes Regeneration & Renewal.

England's most beautiful car park

A photograph of a car park in Bristol has won a competition organised by the Government's design watchdog to find areas of outstanding urban beauty in England.

"There are 35 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty in England. But 90 per cent of us live in towns and cities and most people rarely get out and visit them," the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment said in launching the competition.

Commenting on a photo by competition winner Christopher Hoare of the Galleries car park in Bristol (right) yesterday, the judges said: "You have that wonderful blast of colour from the ethereal Ferris wheel, contrasted with the cheap metal of the door panel and the surprise of the church tower. Just like urban beauty itself, this is about strong juxtapositions, and you can read it on many levels." Whatever that means.

There were more than 750 entries - evidence, perhaps, that the topic of beauty, which Cabe chief executive Richard Simmons has said is a taboo subject, is becoming less so. To see a slideshow of the impressive shortlisted photographs, click here.

Mori have also made a ten-minute film, Beautiful Sheffield?, which explores questions of beauty with local residents, commissioned by Cabe in collaboration with the Arts & Humanities Research Council. Watch it here.

We'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the topic - do you think urban beauty matters? Is it still taboo?

Poll: Is London a special case?

Should London be treated as a special case for public investment?

Certainly that’s the view of London mayor Boris Johnson, who, in the run-up to last month’s Comprehensive Spending Review, lobbied the Treasury in an attempt to ensure that the capital was not clobbered too hard when it came to spending cuts. His basic argument is that London is the engine for the UK economy as a whole, and as a result should be spared the worst of the cuts, lest this engine start to splutter.

Johnson has also warned that more than 80,000 London families could be forced from their homes by the Government’s reforms to housing benefit, unless the plans are softened. The mayor has reportedly lobbied for an existing hardship fund to be allocated 90 per cent towards London.

The spending review settlement was kind to Johnson on Crossrail - London’s new east-west rail line was one of a number of transport infrastructure schemes to escape the cuts.

The Government has also confirmed that the mayor will be able to coordinate bids from London to the £1.4 billion Regional Growth Fund, which is curious given that one of the main objectives of the pot, according to ministers, is for it to boost the private sector in areas currently over reliant on the public sector. The public sector contributes 22.2 per cent of employment in London – well below the national average, according to a report published last year by urban policy think-tank Centre for Cities.

There’s also the none-too-small matter of the £9.3 billion being spent on the Olympics in east London, up from the original budget of £2.4 billion.

So in our latest poll, we want to know if you think London deserves to be considered a special case by Whitehall or if you think a greater proportion of resources should be directed north of the Watford Gap. Vote in the poll at the top of this blog and comment below.