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Use regeneration to enable growth, BPF tells government

The UK’s current regeneration model is defunct, too reliant on very large amounts of public finance and needs to be replaced with a system that has economic growth and job creation at its heart, the British Property Federation (BPF) told government today.

On deadline day for responses to a government inquiry into regeneration the property industry has highlighted the regeneration template of the last fifteen years is no longer viable with little activity outside prime central London.

Yet if the economy is going to be rebalanced away from dependency on the public sector an active regeneration agenda is more important than ever to rekindle economic growth.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: “Regeneration in most of the country ground to a shuddering halt during the economic crisis. The government must use this opportunity to ensure regeneration is kick-started and driven by a clear economic agenda that moves away from reliance on public sector finance.

“Cutbacks in public spending mean that the days of large injections of public money to get regeneration projects off the ground are over. A new model is needed that rewards both local authorities and developers who opt for regeneration and growth.

“The government has announced a number of new initiatives intended to foster growth and regeneration such as enterprise zones, tax increment financing, the new homes bonus and local retention of business rate revenue.

“We are generally supportive of these initiatives, but a great deal more work is needed to ensure that they operate effectively in practice.”

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For further information or to organise an interview please contact:

Patrick Clift, Media and Public Affairs Manager, British Property Federation, on 07834 439 505, or pclift@bpf.org.uk

Paul Sweeney, Media Assistant, British Property Federation, psweeney@bpf.org.uk  – 020 7802 0113 / 07841 732 194

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