COMMENT These are dark days indeed. But I have to say I was greatly cheered by the Knight Frank report, Assessing Covid-19’s impact on the UK housing market, which predicts “a sharp fall in activity … and an equally sharp uptick”. Greatly cheered, because it doesn’t take a genius to work out that if house sales are going to surge, then house building will need to follow suit.
In the same vein, we should all be encouraged by the indefatigable Nick Walkley of Homes England in his recent end of year statement saying: “Our ability to overcome difficulties as a sector has been hugely evident in the last few weeks. Thanks to the hard work, creativity and determination of our partners right across the industry, we have managed to do some significant business. Continuing to build a development pipeline becomes even more important at a time like this.” And so say all of us.
Post-crisis Marshall Plans
So, on the basis that I can emulate this energetic and positive approach – and that you’ve got to do whatever you can – I have spent much of the last two weeks writing what is nothing short of a Marshall Plan for Biggleswade, the market town in Bedfordshire where UK Regeneration owns our flagship site, at nearly 1,000 acres. It is a signal manifesto for total economic recovery. My central thesis being that turbo-charged growth measures will be needed to recover from a lost six months. We need to set a new tone. Coming out of lockdown will be the key moment to move forward and build what we need to secure the new green social contract.
My methodology borrows heavily from having been here before, having worked on most government regeneration programmes over the last four decades, right back to City Challenge and all six rounds of the Single Regeneration Budget. It leans hard on the 2015 growth deals, and also on the 2013 and 2019 Grimsey Reports on the future of the High Street. It unashamedly takes Lord Heseltine’s approach to private sector-public sector partnerships, with all partners having to demonstrate they’ve got skin in the game, whether contributing in cash or in kind.
We will forge Team Biggleswade, which will harness all the financial investment from UK Regeneration (with thanks again to Octopus Real Estate) as well as that from Homes England, and marry that to the relevant skills and experience, to work our way out of recessionary conditions. And we will start with our town centre, which will undoubtedly struggle to recover from this crisis without further support measures in place – UK Regeneration has already invested in Biggleswade town centre, purchasing two closed pubs, which we are repurposing; it will be one helluva party when we get to re-open the first.
And we think that this approach will reap rewards. All indications are that government will be more and more transactional coming out of the crisis, supporting those places that have stopped fighting among themselves and have moved decisively to steer their own economic development and community regeneration. Team Biggleswade will form a new place-based partnership with a single focus on economic growth, starting with much needed new power capacity and increased innovation and R&D capacity, all facilitated by the platform of a large-scale home building programme.
Setting the right tone
Homes England is already our best friend, having designated us a “Garden Community” and allocating Housing Infrastructure Funds of £69.6m into Biggleswade. We will set a tone of quality in the first phase of UK Regeneration new homes and we are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Stantec and Biggleswade Town Council on ideas for an innovative transport solution that will seek to get people out of their cars. We’ll offer solid expertise in working in partnership for support for the construction sector, local jobs and training programmes, supply chain initiatives and so forth. We will reach out to the Biggleswade schools. It will be an exciting programme. And it will include everyone.
It is a moment of reset. Our local authority, Central Bedfordshire, is headed by councillor James Jamieson, who is also, rather helpfully, the national chair of the Local Government Association, and so is brilliantly placed to spearhead this national exemplar. And, as well Central Bedfordshire, and central government, and Biggleswade Town Council, we will work closely with the Biggleswade businesses and the local community. Team Biggleswade will oversee a solid and demonstrable single plan for growth, as a central plank of the Oxford-Cambridge Arc and the UK’s Economic Recovery programme. Central Bedfordshire could lead the way in providing a national exemplar for other local authorities of just what can be achieved by working in partnership. Team Biggleswade will stand together in our shared endeavour of clean, green inclusive growth in a properly planned community.
Like the rest of us, I have been awed and humbled by the extraordinary work of our carers and of the amazing sense of community spirit that has been manifest over the last few weeks. To recover, we will have to keep that ethos alive for the longer term. If we can pull together as a society to get through this ghastly crisis, then frankly we can pull together – once we get to the other side – to rebuild each and every one of our local economies, from the bottom up. Government will help, I am sure. After all, we are all on the same side.
Jackie Sadek is chief operating officer at UK Regeneration
