Sir Bob's ideas can take us all forward
In his latest column (Inside Housing, 9 July) Sir Bob Kerslake talks about what he saw at Harrogate this year, including a greater willingness to collaborate between house builders, housing associations and local authorities. I chaired a debate, just after the emergency Budget announcements, of the North West Housing Forum.
There I heard strong evidence from political leaders of major councils explicitly stating their open door to sensible and mutually beneficial partnerships. The support they received from chief executives of north west housing associations was excellent.
The intelligent, forward-thinking house builders Sir Bob talked about added to the flavour of the new partnerships by starting to understand, and work towards, the values and expectations of all its partners in this new, challenging era.
In The Times on 14 July 2010 Geoffrey Piper writes about the north west economy being larger than those of 15 European Union states and having a scale of urban regeneration over the past 20 years that has been astonishing.
The trick has to be all of Sir Bob’s identified players, plus other private sector organisations that have contributed massively already to change, developing their partnerships to face the many challenges ahead.
Paul Johnson, managing director, 3Dk Solutions