Urcs are too detached to help communities, Scots practitioners told

Urcs are too detached to help communities, Scots practitioners told

Barry McCarthy

New Start Magazine

02.03.06

Urban regeneration companies in Scotland are costly, politically complex and too detached from communities to be effective delivery vehicles in some parts of the country, according to an expert.

Scotland’s five urcs have been allocated £44m since the programme began in 2004 to attract private sector investment in physical and economic development.

Leslie Huckfield, a former MP for Nuneaton and MEP for east Merseyside and now a regeneration consultant, said the delivery vehicles were costly, with running costs of up to £500,000 a year in some cases.

Because urcs include involvement from various stakeholders like local authorities and housing associations they can be too confusing to be successful, Mr Huckfield told delegates at a Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum conference in Edinburgh.

He claimed their focus on improving the economy made them ineffective in tackling social problems.

Mr Huckfield argued alternative models should be tried such as a combination of a housing association, community development trust and a developer.

Housing associations have a proven track record in delivering affordable housing and, because they are community based organisations, resident involvement is at the heart of their work, he said.

‘Housing associations and community development trusts are a better way of involving the community because it gives them more power and ownership,’ Mr Huckfield told New Start.

‘Without that involvement developments get vandalised.

‘I am not sure you can graft community involvement onto a urc, you need something that’s community based from the beginning like a housing association.’

Mr Huckfield said urcs were needed for big regeneration projects but argued the Raploch model in Stirling was an ‘over-burdened apparatus’ for a relatively small scheme of 900 homes and public realm development.

He claimed Scottish developers were less likely to work with urcs because strict bidding criteria had made the application process expensive.

A firm could lose £500,000 if its bid failed and big companies in England have emerged as the most likely candidates willing to take a risk in applying.

Mr Huckfield said housing associations and community development trusts should be more proactive in persuading ministers to consider them as delivery vehicles.

A Scottish Executive spokesperson said ministers were willing to consider alternative delivery vehicles to urcs.