Reclamation of derelict land

by Duncan Crawford Grants for the reclamation of derelict land can be paid to any person under section 1 of the Derelict Land Act 1982. In this context “derelict land” is defined as land so damaged by industrial or other development that it is incapable of beneficial use without treatment. This article deals with: the background the initiatives the problem current criticisms and the way forward The background Derelict land is the country’s obvious legacy left by allowing the rapid expansion of industries without adequate controls or safeguards for the future. As the major traditional industries have declined so large areas of wasteland have been emerging. Between 1974 and 1982 some 42,000 acres of derelict land were reclaimed, but in spite of this the amount of dereliction recorded in 1982 was greater than that in 1974. The introduction of the Derelict Land Act of 1982 was, however, a significant step towards checking the acceleration of dereliction. Until 1981 most land reclamation was carried out outside urban areas and was aimed at the removal of environmental eyesores, but with the introduction of the Derelict Land Act 1982 and DOE circulars 14/84 and 15/85 it became clear that the Government’s priorities were switching to urban renewal and the provision of development land. The initiatives To assist the process of reclamation of derelict land and urban regeneration generally, a number of initiatives from both the public and the private sectors have been put forward with varying degrees of success. The Government has a group of programmes directed to reclaiming derelict sites, encouraging development and improving buildings, and has allocated £593.3m for this purpose in the current financial year. Urban Development Grant (UDG) The aim of the UDG is to promote the economic and physical regeneration of rundown urban areas by encouraging private investment, which would not otherwise take place in such areas, thus strengthening the local economy and bringing land and buildings back into use. Urban Development Grant was introduced in the spring of 1982 and by 1987 238 projects had been approved, with grants ranging from £13,000 to £6m. The funds may be in the form of a grant or a loan, or a combination of both. If the circumstances warrant it loan interest may be waived or grant may be conditionally repayable. UDG is normally paid to the developer as expenditure on the project is incurred. Applications for UDGs come through local authorities which have to contribute 25% of the grant, and the money from the DOE comes back to the developer via that local authority. This has proved to be a slow process, and many developers became frustrated. It has had a measure of success, however, but this varied on a regional basis: the trend has been that local authorities who experienced successful bids concentrated on subsequent bids, while those who were unsuccessful became disenchanted and put less effort into future bids. If the scheme had continued without change there would have been a danger that more and more of the grant would be allocated to the same regions. At the beginning of 1987 over 50% of the project applications and approvals were associated with only 10% of all eligible authorities. Many applications were poorly prepared and of projects submitted by June 1986 60% were either rejected or withdrawn. The length of time taken to determine grant applications and the low success rate in gaining approval have proved to be the two major weaknesses in the scheme. On the other hand, its modest contribution has helped to attract investment to inner-city areas which would not otherwise have occurred. Urban Regeneration Grant (URG) The purpose of URG is to promote the economic and physical regeneration of older urban areas affected by industrial change by enabling the private sector to redevelop large sites and refurbish large groups of buildings, and by encouraging private investment in such areas. URG, which was introduced in April 1987, differs from UDG because it is specifically directed at large-scale schemes (over 20 acres) and can bridge the gap between the cost of the development and its value on completion: alternatively it can provide temporary finance before any income has been received from the development. Priority is given to schemes within urban areas which have suffered severe losses in employment as a result of the decline of traditional industries, and where there are large areas of derelict or disused industrial or commercial properties. City Grant (CG) City Grant was introduced in May as part of the “Action for Cities” campaign initiated by the Government: it now replaces UDG and URG and also includes inner-city private-sector derelict land grants. The intention is to simplify the procedures by allowing applicants to deal directly with DOE regional offices instead of through the local authority. Thus, CG is paid directly to the developer without local authority involvement, and the authority does not now have to make the 25% contribution that it previously had to make to the Urban Development Grant. The new grant marks an important improvement to the procedures by introducing an initial appraisal system, which avoids unnecessary work and unnecessary delays. It means that a poorly prepared application would be weeded out within four weeks and only suitable schemes would go into the main system for a decision within a further 10 weeks. Priority for City Grant will be given to the Urban Programme areas: there are 57 of these, which are listed below. Within these areas, approved schemes will generally be located in the most rundown areas. It follows from this that schemes on the outskirts, outside the urban fringe or in more prosperous areas will not be given high priority. Derelict Land Grant (DLG) The aim of DLG is to reclaim land which is derelict through being so damaged by industrial or other uses that it cannot be used without being treated. DLG still covers local authority schemes and non-inner-city private-sector schemes and also covers small clearance schemes by local authorities for neglected or unsightly land. It varies from UDG, URG and CG in that it is countrywide, while they are directed to the 57 named “inner-city” authorities. The broad aim is to support urban renewal and contribute to the supply of building land in urban or despoiled areas throughout England, thus helping to preserve the countryside: the Government has set aside £76.2m specifically for this purpose in the current year. Major projects supported by DLG have included the reclamation of former steelworks — Consett, Corby, Workington, Normanby Park and Barrow, for example — and the preparation of National Garden Festival sites. They have also included Salford Quays, Wigan and Preston Docks, and the reclamation of the Woolwich Arsenal site to form part of Thamesmead in London. The Government has recognised that in areas of extensive dereliction there is a need to take a long-term view by allowing the planning of groups of reclamation schemes up to three years ahead in a rolling programme. The Urban Programme The Urban Programme was set up to help tackle the economic, environmental and social problems of the inner cities. It provides support for a wide range of projects submitted by local authorities as part of the Inner Area Programme for their district. The DOE pays 75% and the local authority 25% of the costs of any approved project. The 57 areas Barnsley Birmingham Blackburn Bolton Bradford Brent Bristol Burnley Coventry Derby Doncaster Dudley Gateshead Greenwich Hackney Halton Hammersmith & Fulham Haringey Hartlepool Islington Kensington & Chelsea Kingston upon Hull Kirklees Knowsley Lambeth Langbaurgh Leeds Leicester Lewisham Liverpool Manchester Middlesbrough Newcastle Newham North Tyneside Nottingham Oldham Plymouth Preston Rochdale Rotherham St Helens Salford Sandwell Sefton Sheffield South Tyneside Southwark Stockton on Tees Sunderland Tower Hamlets Walsall Wandsworth Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton The Wrekin The overall guidelines for the programme lay down three aims: securing economic regeneration improving the physical environment gearing local services to the needs of the community. The Urban Programme is very wide ranging, supporting some 10,000 economic, environmental and social projects, and is also an important source of support for the voluntary sector. Land registers The supply of suitable land for housing, industry and other necessary developments is an important element of the national economy. The Local Government Planning and Land Act 1980 empowers the Secretary of State for the Environment to compile and maintain a register of land owned by certain public bodies (including local authorities) that is not being fully used. The Act further empowers the Secretary of State to direct an owning body to dispose of any land that is entered on the register. The purpose of such a register is to bring to the attention of prospective developers details of unused and underused land owned by public authorities and to assist developers or other members of the public to obtain the release of particular plots of land of which they are aware. Enterprise zones These were set up by section 179 of the Local Government Planning and Land Act 1980 to restore private-sector activity to a designated area by lifting certain financial burdens and relaxing some administrative controls. A scheme is prepared for each zone setting out the types of development for which planning permission will be automatic, and which can therefore proceed without the need for a specific application. There are also certain tax benefits and rate exemptions. Experience of enterprise zones has been mixed: some smaller ones had been unsuccessful, and it is generally felt that no more are likely to be designated. Urban development corporations (UDCs) These have been set up and financed by the Government to assemble sites and reclaim and service large areas of derelict land provide land for housing, industry, commerce and leisure build roads, improve the environment, raise confidence encourage private investment and jobs ensure quick planning decisions give financial assistance to developers where necessary. The London Docklands Development Corporation and Merseyside Development Corporation were set up in 1981, while in the spring of 1987 the Government launched four new English UDCs in the Black Country, Teesside, Trafford Park and Tyne & Wear. Another three were announced in December 1987 in Bristol, Leeds and Manchester. They have been successful and have made a major contribution towards reducing dereliction and encouraging revival. The Government has allocated some £200m to UDCs for the current financial year. City Action Teams City Action Teams were set up in 1985 and their task is to co-ordinate the programmes as closely as possible so that their output is coherent and cost-effective. The private-sector initiatives include the following: Phoenix Initiative This was created by the British Property Federation, building societies, the DOE and the trade unions to co-operate with local authorities in defining, locating and financing suitable projects to use derelict land and refurbish abandoned buildings, to create new life and employment in the inner cities. The Phoenix Initiative developed directly out of research in the mid-1980s into the worsening spread of urban decay in Britain. Of particular importance was a report which examined how the United States tackled its own inner-city problems. The report was called The Phoenix Partnership. The British Phoenix was modelled on the US version and is a non-political organisation which acts as an “enabler” for the inner cities, bringing interested parties together to get on with the business of attracting industry and vitality back into rundown areas. The initiatives have operated successfully in Manchester, Salford, Bristol, the Wirral and numerous other locations and have demonstrated the effectiveness of partnership between the private sector and local and central government when urban regeneration is being carried out. Probe (Partnership Renewal of the Built Environment) This is a consortium formed by the Halifax and Nationwide Building Societies and the Lovell Group. It also an “enabler”, working with the public sector with DOE support, seeking out and implementing urban regeneration for the maximum social and financial benefit of its client and the community. Groundwork Trusts Groundwork Trusts were established to create local partnerships between the private, public and voluntary sectors to clear up environmental problems created by the decline of traditional industries on the urban fringes of our cities. The trusts secure their public sector investment through Derelict Land Grants. The first trust was established in St Helens and Knowsley in 1980, and others were set up in Merthyr Tydfil, East Durham, South Leeds, the Colne Valley and Hertfordshire. Private consortia Various groupings of major national contractors have been formed to apply themselves to the problems and opportunities of urban regeneration. Probably the most important of these is British Urban Development (BUD) launched earlier this year. Eleven of the major British civil engineering construction companies formed this joint initiative to develop projects in the country’s inner cities. Its first initiative is a proposal to develop and construct more than 6,000 acres of land for Teesside Development Corporation. Any initiative which aims to bring vacant or derelict land back into beneficial use should be encouraged. When an area starts to regenerate the atmosphere of decay and despair changes to one of hope. Such improvements in the social climate of an area are difficult to quantify but should not be ignored by policy makers and those implementing the policies. The problem Despite these public and private sector initiatives there are still some 111,000 acres of officially derelict land in England, and this is not being reclaimed at the rate it should be. Each year a lack of application for grants has resulted in substantial sums of various inner-city budgets remaining unspent. Why should this be? Is it because potential applicants are not aware of what is available? Is it because the DOE’s forms and procedures are considered to be too complex? Or are the incentives just not great enough? Current criticisms There have been frequent criticisms voiced in the House of Commons concerning the effectiveness of land registers in making land available for reclamation, and it has been suggested that pressure should be put on local authorities and other public authorities to transfer vacant land to special regional companies set up to ensure public land utilisation, in return for shares in the companies. The Report on Urban Regeneration in June by the Institution of Civil Engineers shows that, in their view: “There have been too many grants on offer and the application rules are too complex and difficult to understand. The whole system needs to be simplified and promoted more intensively, preferably on a regional basis.” They also recommended that: “Government should give greater consideration to wider deployment of tax incentives.” There is clearly a need to promote awareness, to simplify the forms and procedures, to reduce the number of grants and for the Department to deal quickly with applications. A report produced in 1987 for the Department under the Inner Cities Research Programme (Evaluation of Derelict Land Grant Schemes) made it clear that “Four sponsoring authorities considered complexity, inflexibility or inconsistency in DLG rules to be major hindrances, whilst three authorities made criticisms of staff at the DOE regional offices.” The way forward It is of vital importance to ensure that the enthusiasm and drive of high-level initiatives by Government is reflected in the attitudes displayed by regional representatives, and that there is adequate delegation of authority to the regions. There should be an effective promotional programme to increase awareness. This could include the creation of a new publication to publicise achievements in the reclamation of derelict land, to encourage developers, consulting engineers and local authorities to apply themselves to this problem by reminding them of what help is available and how it can be obtained, and by keeping them up to date. The formation of special regional companies to ensure effective public land utilisation. The formation of a group to look specifically at how the existing DOE Derelict Land forms and procedures could be simplified. With the modest improvements mentioned above, the rate of reclamation of derelict land could be significantly increased. With the public and private-sector initiatives available to us, we have a better opportunity to improve our environment than at any time in the past. We should take it.