ROOF Blog

The north Yorkshire town of Scarborough has beaten Valencia in Spain, Helsinki, Finland’s capital and 350 other towns to be named the most enterprising place in Europe. Scarborough’s work to encourage people to start up and grow businesses and create jobs, including stamping out seasonal unemployment, diversifying to new industry sectors and attracting more than £200 million in private investment was recognised in a ceremony in Prague on Wednesday.

Communities secretary Hazel Blears launched a strategy to improve design standards in new public buildings. She said that badly designed estates and low quality neighbourhoods ‘encourage crime, undermine communities, deter investment, spoil the environment and cost a fortune in the long term’. She added that good design was not a luxury that can be dropped during economic difficulties, and the government urged councils, social housing providers and developers to put good planning, local character and high quality design at the heart of development.

The government has reaffirmed its commitment to regeneration by announcing a new framework that will focus on ‘people as well as places’, and be driven by local needs and opportunities. In her speech yesterday to the British Urban Regeneration Association, Hazel Blears announced the aim of regeneration was to reverse economic, social and physical decline where market forces will not do this without support from the government. Regeneration must be focused on improving economic outcomes and tackling worklessness, she added.

The planning system must not become a ‘tool for promoting economic development’, the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) said, setting out its vision for the future of the English countryside. The CPRE describes the countryside it wants to see by 2026, its centenary year, as where urban regeneration contributes to green space, affordable housing, vibrant neighbourhoods and people-friendly transport. It expects more than two million ‘high quality homes’ will have been built and energy efficient buildings and low carbon communities would be commonplace. It also wants more planning decisions to be taken locally.

Meanwhile the House of Commons has backed a second reading of the Green Energy Bill, which will allow people to provide their own sustainable heat and power. The Bill requires the government to produce further strategy on the growth of the microregeneration sector and to get rid of red tape surrounding planning permissions for things like heat pumps and wind turbines.

The South East plan was revealed yesterday. The government cut the housing target by 1 per cent until 2026, setting a final figure of 654,000 new homes in the region, or 32,700 homes a year. At least 60 per cent of all the houses will be built on brownfield land and 35 per cent will be affordable.

The government has launched a consultation on a single planning document that will replace four existing policies for sustainable economic growth in urban and rural areas. The aim is to provide greater certainty for businesses and assist local authorities take quicker decisions on planning applications.

Meanwhile, Hazel Blears has announced plans to establish a community-style reinvestment programme that would compel banks to invest some of their profits in to community activities. She said the department for Communities and Local Government would work closely with community investment experts to develop the proposals which would give them a sustainable source of income.

Communities secretary Hazel Blears has unveiled plans to support communities during the recession and recycle public buildings. There will be a range of options for local councils to give buildings to the community, including handing them over as a gift or selling at below market price.

The government has released the latest statistics on green belt land. Green belt land makes up 13 per cent of the land area of England by 31 March 2009, an increase of more than 3,100 hectares in annual figures – with the North West showing the largest increase and the East Midlands the largest decrease.