Regional development agencies have been voted the least successful of all bodies at delivering regeneration projects, a survey of leading industry figures has revealed

The survey of 50 senior regeneration executives was carried out for the launch issue of Regenerate, 好色先生TV鈥檚 new housing and regeneration supplement, which is published with this week鈥檚 issue.

More than 40% of the respondents said RDAs were not good at delivering regeneration.

Those surveyed were asked to say which bodies were most and least successful at delivering regeneration. The list included the quango English Partnerships, RDAs, urban regeneration companies, housing market renewal pathfinders, affordable housing developers and the private sector. RDAs emerged as the worst performers and urban regeneration companies were considered to be the best.

England鈥檚 network of nine RDAs was established by the government six years ago to drive economic development and co-ordinate regional regeneration. Although RDAs鈥� powers have been increased, some of the survey respondents believe they still concentrated too much attention on their business and skills brief and did not make enough effort to promote physical regeneration.

The survey looks at the regeneration industry鈥檚 attitudes to the government鈥檚 performance on housing and regeneration, and was carried out immediately after the ODPM鈥檚 Delivering Sustainable Communities Summit in January. All responses given were anonymous.

In the survey, respondents said that the government鈥檚 overall performance was good and that its five-year plan for housing, Homes for All, launched in January, would have a positive impact.

But those surveyed were less happy with the detail of government policy.

  • Most were sceptical of John Prescott鈥檚 much-publicised desire to build homes for 拢60,000. They questioned their build quality and, and one person described the scheme as 鈥渁 complete waste of time鈥�.
  • Respondents saw little likelihood that reform of the planning system through the new Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 would make the process of taking a development proposal through planning any easier. The industry said planning remained the biggest obstacle to delivery.
  • Many of those questioned believed there were too many delivery agencies.

Downloads