黑洞社区

The government鈥檚 regeneration policy has been dismissed as 鈥渢houghtless鈥�, 鈥渘umber-driven鈥� and 鈥渃heap鈥�, in two reports written by leading experts.

The urban taskforce, chaired by Richard Rogers, has denounced deputy prime minister John Prescott鈥檚 plans for growth areas, as predicted by 黑洞社区 on 16 September. The taskforce said there had been some progress since 1999 but not on the scale required to deliver the right sort of sustainable communities.

The second report, commissioned by consultant Stan Hornagold, has warned that the government was unlikely to be able to hit its target of 200,000 extra houses in the South-east by 2016.

The taskforce told the government that it must bring in minimum density levels for regeneration schemes and attacked development activity as 鈥渄elivery鈥� rather than 鈥渄esign鈥� focused

.The report, Towards a Strong Urban Renaissance, said: 鈥淭oo many housing projects are thoughtlessly laid out groups of cheaply built housing 鈥� the need for short-term 鈥榥umbers鈥� is overtaking the need for long-term vision.鈥�

It warned the government not to focus on the four growth areas but instead to concentrate on the renewal of towns and cities.

Too much is thoughtlessly laid out cheaply built housing

Extract from taskforce report

Taskforce member Anne Power denounced some of the schemes to demolish terraced housing in the north as part of the renewal pathfinders. She said the plans were 鈥渃lumsy鈥� and 鈥渨asteful鈥�.

On the Thames Gateway the taskforce said the regeneration area was suffering from a 鈥減iecemeal鈥� approach. It said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 one of the great regeneration opportunities in the world and we鈥檙e failing to live up to the opportunity.鈥�

The taskforce urged the government to:

• Turn all social housing estates into mixed tenure communities by 2012
• Create stronger incentives to encourage affordable housing development on infill sites covering less than two acres
• Increase the proportion of new housing on brownfield sites to 75% by 2010
• Develop brownfield sites first in growth areas
• Raise the minimum standard for residential development to 40 dwellings a hectare and make other schemes subject to a recall
• Extend the Code for Sustainable 黑洞社区s to all new housing by the end of 2006
• Give regional development agencies a stronger remit to prioritise urban regeneration and good design
• Have one delivery body for every regeneration area to eliminate overlap
• Cut VAT on all repairs and renovations
• Make developers compete on design and not just financial grounds when bidding for sites

Taskforce member Sir Peter Hall confirmed that a recommendation that the growth areas should be scrapped had been dropped from the report.

The taskforce attacked plans to demolish northern terraces and develop only the Gateway鈥檚 growth areas