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Let’s start talking properly about regeneration again

Sinead Butters is frustrated by a lack of action on housing and believes regeneration could make an impact

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Boarded-up homes in Stoke-on-Trent (picture: Getty)
Boarded-up homes in Stoke-on-Trent (picture: Getty)
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We need to focus on regeneration again – @SineadBAspire #ukhousing

In today’s #IH50, @SineadBAspire is frustrated by a lack of action on housing #ukhousing

Another housing minister. A newly named Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. A Social Housing Green Paper. Tenant roadshows.

A Housing White Paper. Rent certainty. Removal of the Local Housing Allowance cap. Office for National Statistics reclassification. Grant for social housing.

Number 10 housing summit. Anything else? Oh yes. A housing crisis.

So, as we know, plus ça change. That makes it exciting, interesting and perpetually challenging, but also a bit like groundhog day.

But I am not complaining – it’s the best job in the world, and I’m a lucky person to work in it.


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However, there are frustrations, and my main one is a lack of action and impact despite the sense that things are moving, which in itself seems strange.

I have always tried to ensure that I am not a time-waster, that I don’t contribute to endless meetings where we discuss everything and achieve nothing.

“Why do I feel that, despite our best endeavours, we aren’t even touching the sides of the problem?”

But why do I feel that, despite our best endeavours, we aren’t even touching the sides of the problem?

I viewed a clip from The Guardian about the initiative to sell homes for £1 in Stoke-on-Trent.

Obviously it is something I am aware of, being based here in North Staffordshire, but it was an eye-opener. The communities have been let down by the withdrawal of Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders.

A programme that was intended to tackle dysfunctional housing markets, and take bold action, was stalled before it got to the good bit.

The problem is, the bold action initially was master planning and clearance, and pulled halfway through, leaving a barren landscape of half-cleared boarded-up homes.

Local authorities across the country find themselves in the same position, creating new ways to tackle these old problems.

Having been decimated by cuts, so many are now striving to find a solution to the problem of blighted communities which desperately need investment.

“Our communities across the country need more than a valiant initiative to sell homes for £1.”

So where is the recognition that this is a UK problem? That our areas, our cities, our communities across the country need more than a valiant initiative to sell homes for £1?

Why can’t we start talking about regeneration again?

Yes, I know it’s a dirty word in some places and perhaps that’s our fault, because regeneration – thoughtfully effected, carefully delivered, in partnership with the people who live there – can only be a good thing. I have seen it for myself; indeed we have done it.

There are lots of initiatives and stuff to keep us busy.

Stepping up on delivery, building more, sweating our capacity is our number-one priority, and rightly so.

Driving efficiency, understanding where our costs lie, what we get for what we pay, and pushing as hard as we can to do better constantly.

“Stepping up on delivery, building more, sweating our capacity is our number-one priority, and rightly so.”

Innovating digitally, investing in slick and seamless service for our customers and tackling the ‘bums on seats’ mentality with agile staff, deep in our communities.

And then, there’s still more to do.

Listening to our customers, offering routes to proper influence and redress, and tackling stigma, embracing diversity, encouraging our young leaders and managers, and creating and maintaining energetic vibrant and exciting social businesses.

But if asked what I want, what I believe will truly make a difference is an offer for every community, whether it’s a high-value haven or a low-value challenged community struggling to sustain itself with a small number of goodwill initiatives.

I want the sense of movement and change to start looking more like actual impact – and I want us to start talking about regeneration again.

Sinead Butters, chief executive, Aspire Group; and chair, Placeshapers

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