Fulfil the Social and Economic Needs of Local People

There are neighbourhoods where regeneration can only be achieved through comprehensive packages of measures to tackle not just the physical environment, but also the economic and social needs of local people. These areas include inner-urban ex-industrial districts with large amounts of derelict, vacant and under-used land and buildings; and more built-up areas, including many publicly owned housing estates, suffering from concentrated social deprivation.

Local authorities must have freedom to work with their local and regional partners to establish long-term regeneration strategies, confident that the necessary powers and resources will be available. Central government should combine existing spending powers across departments, make regeneration funds available on a longer timescale, and become joint signatories to local strategies where they accord with national and regional policy objectives.

Given that resources for tackling urban problems will always be limited, new mechanisms that will enable local partnerships to target their investment effectively is needed. A new package of powers and incentives for local authorities and their partners is needed, including:

	Streamlined planning consents.
	Speedier compulsory purchase orders.
	Tax incentives for developers, investors, owners and tenants.
	Access to targeted public: private investment funds.
	Awarded priority to particular public funding programmes.
	Retention of a higher proportion of local taxation for management and maintenance purposes.

Create designated urban priority areas, enabling local authorities and their partners in regeneration, including local people, to apply for special packages of powers and incentives to assist neighbourhood renewal.

Strengthen the commitment to regeneration between central and local government.

Enable urban regeneration companies and housing regeneration companies to co-ordinate or deliver area regeneration projects.