The Assembly Government is trying to coordinate economic development with Strategic Regeneration Areas, so is it working, asks John Sanders.
Drive down the hill into Aberystwyth or over Llangynidr Moors into Ebbw Vale, and there are no big signs to say that you are entering a Strategic Regeneration Area (SRA). But if the Assembly Government is right, these zones are already transforming parts ofWales that had struggled with piecemeal improvements for decades.
The idea is that Assembly Government departments, councils and the private sector will work together more closely on plans, bringing together the building, economic and social aspects of regeneration. The Heads of the Valleys SRA, for instance, covers five local councils that would have struggled to implement big projects alone.
That’s the theory. But the concept attracts criticism from people who think the money could be spent more productively, or believe they have missed out, or are uncertain about where it is all going. Some argue that projects in Swansea, for example, would have gone ahead anyway and do not need the additional funds that SRA status brings.
On the other hand, for areas such as Swansea’s long neglected High Street, some say the SRA programme is a chance for investment and rebirth. Supporters argue that the Swansea SRA will help to build essential links between the city’s existing patchwork of regeneration projects. SRA money will also cover some of the inevitably higher costs of inner city development.
Debbie Green, finance director at Coastal Housing Group, the Swansea housing association, says SRA money increases the viability of certain projects and increases their regeneration potential. “We can look at putting other elements into a scheme that we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise – the wider outputs and more concentration on job creation around these schemes.”
One example is Coastal’s High Street Urban Village proposal – a mixed development providing retail, office space, residential and a cluster of small units for arts and crafts. The office element will help to redress Swansea’s lack of office space. That should have a knock-on effect for retailers, because more offices equals more office workers who will spend money in local shops.
Her colleague, project manager Steve Griffiths, is confident that Coastal’s plans will breathe life back into High Street as long they get funding before the longawaited public sector spending cuts kick in. “This is one of the last chances we’ll have to try and create some much-needed vibrancy in High Street,” he says.
Terry Morley, partner at architecture practice Holder Mathias, is working on several projects in Swansea, including the Urban Village. He says SRA funding will have positive impact on the city centre. As well as enabling more projects to go ahead, the SRA programme should help to link separate phases together to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
But uncertainty about the size of the SRA pot is a challenge because the scheme is new and the Assembly Government is still refining the application and distribution processes. Green says Coastal does not yet know which schemes will be viable. Further doubt was cast in December when responsibility for regeneration moved from Leighton Andrews, who had been in the economy department, to Jocelyn Davies, in housing and sustainability. But the Assembly Government insists the housing and economy departments will keep working together towards the same goals.
Projects are still going ahead. In North Wales, the coastal SRA covering the area from Colwyn Bay to Prestatyn has overseen the completion of a pedestrian and cycle bridge over the Foryd Harbour, coastal protection work and small improvements in Rhyl harbour. Ray Large, projects officer at the Rhyl Going Forward scheme, reports no major problems with the North Wales coast SRA, which is oversubscribed. He says: “If all the projects come to fruition, it will make a big difference. It is making Rhyl more of a place to live, to shop and to be proud of.”
He believes these improvements will lure private sector money back into Rhyl, and is hopeful of at least one new hotel and improvements to the local housing stock.
Most SRA projects are led by the public sector, but result in contracts for the private sector. Coastal in Swansea has a large team of consultants preparing its planning applications and will use local contractors for the construction phase. “We expect them to take on local apprentices as part of that contract as well,” says Green.
Property specialist King Sturge has helped the Assembly Government with due diligence and other work. But partner Chris Sutton is concerned at the lack of private sector initiatives. The regeneration of Ebbw Vale steel works, for example, is dominated by public sector projects. Although attracting the Gwent Records Office, a hospital and maybe other public sector projects to this Heads of the Valleys town is a coup, he argues that Ebbw Vale would benefit from an injection of private sector money as well.
He would like to see more strategic industrial and economic regeneration alongside the planned public sector improvements. He says that manufacturing remains a solid economic thread in Wales, and wants to see more detail on SRA funding levels.
Neil Brierley, a partner at construction consultancy Davis Langdon, raises another political concern – the impact of a possible change in the Westminster government later this year, given that funding is already tight.
Brierley says that trying to please all the people with a finite budget will be hard for the Assembly Government because of differing views on what to focus on. “Along the North Wales Coast and in Aberystwyth, for example, it might be tourism. Or do we look at the quality of housing, or create jobs? It will be interesting to see how they go about balancing the various schemes.”
Also in: February 2010
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