Press Release

Accelerating delivery is key to future growth says English Partnerships

18 July 2005

English Partnerships, the national regeneration agency, has reported a year of significant progress with a 46 per cent increase in its programme receipts and an 18 per cent increase in its investment development programme over the year.

Reporting on the year’s success, Chairman Margaret Ford said, “This year has seen an acceleration in the pace and scale of regeneration and housing growth across England.  We are pleased with the significant progress our programmes have made to that accelerated delivery.

“Our results speak for themselves: all targets met or exceeded across our £483m  investment in the programme we delivered to meet the Government’s objectives, particularly the Sustainable Communities Plan.”

Pointing to the year ahead, Mrs Ford emphasised the need to maintain the momentum of delivery while embracing innovation and smarter ways of workings across the regeneration industry.

She said, “The Sustainable Communities Plan requires significant  investment in new infrastructure and the provision for these growing communities needs to be reflected in the priorities of the Utilities and across Government.

“The current review of Section 106 provides an opportunity for English Partnerships to structure new approaches to the provision of infrastructure that will mobilise private sector willingness to contribute towards high quality transport links and services and will tap the land values such infrastructure creates.”

She added, “Our success in accelerating the pace and scale of regeneration and housing growth has however created a new set of issues that we need to address to ensure that the quality of our developments keeps pace with the rapid increase in quantity that we have begun to establish. These issues relate to the increasing  demand  for new skills, new infrastructure and new investment.”

Chief Executive, David Higgins, said that in the forthcoming year the agency would concentrate on delivery of its projects coupled with a commitment to rising design and construction standards.

He said,  “Acceleration of our delivery will be a key theme for us going forward.  This is clearly demonstrated with our announcement today that we are now seeking developers for the first former hospital site since taking over the portfolio of 67 redundant NHS properties three months ago. We are planning more than 1000 new homes for the former  Park Prewett hospital site in Basingstoke.

“Another good example of our focus on effective delivery, was the appointment of developers following a two stage competition for the former RAF staff college in Bracknell in under twelve months.

“We have had a tremendous year in terms of what we have delivered, but we are now gearing up to achieve much more significant results, increasing the number and mix of new homes, reclaiming brownfield land and bringing forward the re-use of surplus public sector land.”

During the year, the agency has been at the forefront of a range of new initiatives in the last 12 months designed to speed up delivery

• using innovative methods and construction efficiencies to build new homes (Design for Manufacture competition and the Summit House );
• developing models to increase home ownership amongst first time buyers and key workers (First Time Buyers and London Wide Initiatives);
• working with local authorities to help streamline the processing of major planning applications, through its ATLAS service.

Over the four years to 2008/09, the agency‘s programme spend is expected to be some £2.7 billion.

During the financial year 2004/05 the agency increased its total investment programme by 18 per cent from £411m (03/04) to £483m, increased private sector investment by 25 per cent over the previous year from  £384m to £480m and increased its cash receipts by 46 per cent  from £147 m  to  £215m.

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