Urban renewal

News

30 May 1987

The RIBA report is the work of a committee set up last year at the invitation of the Prince of Wales under the chairmanship of Fred Roche, deputy chairman and managing director of Conran Roche. The membership of the committee was drawn from a wide range of expertise and interests.

Decaying housing, industrial dereliction, high unemployment, poverty, social deprivation and declining investment all bear testimony to the severity of the urban crisis and the necessity of direct and urgent action, the report says. The cumulative effects of this array of economic, social and environmental problems present a threat to the quality of urban life and civil peace.

There is a need to form a powerful financial and institutional infrastructure to fund and administer long-term support for urban economic growth and physical redevelopment — hence the suggestion for a national urban renewal agency responsible to the Secretary of State for the Environment.

Mr Roche explains that the primary role of the agency would be to act as a unified source of funding for inner-city development, able to ensure continuity and co-ordination of funding over the many years that renewal efforts will be required, enabling national urban policy objectives to be achieved. It would also provide expertise to assist participants in the development process.

It is proposed that the agency would be funded with £1bn a year of public investment to support a borrowing programme to attract a further £4bn in private investment. A total of £25bn could thus be available for urban renewal investment in the agency’s first five years.

The concerns and aspirations of local residents, businesses, organisations and authorities must be transformed into positive and effective action, Mr Roche says. In addition, diverse local activities must come together in coherent long-term development programmes. The national urban remewal agency would assist this process through participation at the local level in partnership teams to prepare and implement both small- and large-scale investment programmes.

(*) A national urban renewal agency. The report is to be published in July.

A national urban renewal agency to tackle urban renewal on a major scale is proposed in a report from the RIBA.(*) The agency would be the vehicle for innovative financing mechanisms enabling, through the issue of tax-exempt revenue bonds, the leverage of commercial private finance in a total potential investment of £25bn over a period of five years. The RIBA report is the work of a committee set up last year at the invitation of the Prince of Wales under the chairmanship of Fred Roche, deputy chairman and managing director of Conran Roche. The membership of the committee was drawn from a wide range of expertise and interests. Decaying housing, industrial dereliction, high unemployment, poverty, social deprivation and declining investment all bear testimony to the severity of the urban crisis and the necessity of direct and urgent action, the report says. The cumulative effects of this array of economic, social and environmental problems present a threat to the quality of urban life and civil peace. There is a need to form a powerful financial and institutional infrastructure to fund and administer long-term support for urban economic growth and physical redevelopment — hence the suggestion for a national urban renewal agency responsible to the Secretary of State for the Environment. Mr Roche explains that the primary role of the agency would be to act as a unified source of funding for inner-city development, able to ensure continuity and co-ordination of funding over the many years that renewal efforts will be required, enabling national urban policy objectives to be achieved. It would also provide expertise to assist participants in the development process. It is proposed that the agency would be funded with £1bn a year of public investment to support a borrowing programme to attract a further £4bn in private investment. A total of £25bn could thus be available for urban renewal investment in the agency’s first five years. The concerns and aspirations of local residents, businesses, organisations and authorities must be transformed into positive and effective action, Mr Roche says. In addition, diverse local activities must come together in coherent long-term development programmes. The national urban remewal agency would assist this process through participation at the local level in partnership teams to prepare and implement both small- and large-scale investment programmes. (*) A national urban renewal agency. The report is to be published in July.