We’re hearing that the cuts after the Comprehensive Spending Review could lead to up to 2,000 job losses over four years, as the council is required to save £50 million next year and £110 million over the following three years. And all that after making savings of £85 million over the last four years…
What does this mean for the city’s development, David? Can a city the size of Newcastle grow, renew and progress as well as manage and maintain on this level of resourcing?
Like everybody else, we are waiting for the results of the Comprehensive Spending Review. It has been a time when there has been uncertainty over public funding, and as news has emerged, it has been of reductions rather than maintaining what we have.
Nevertheless Newcastle has maintained momentum. We have secured great support from HCA for Scotswood since the election, and we are now on site, spending nearly £20m de-risking the area for 1800 new homes.
Our private sector partners, BarrattKeepmoatYuill, are progressing well in negotiations with us, and local residents have been positive about (at last) some real signs of progress. We have also secured increasing support for the community based proposals for the Byker Housing Trust. We hope we will get a formal agreement for this in the next few weeks.
Lastly, new funding through the Tax Incremental Financing route has been announced with Newcastle Science Central specifically mentioned as one of the potential first pilots. So, finishing what we started, and showing new ways of raising finance are important. But even more important is reputation: and being the greenest city in Britain for the second year running, courtesy of the Forum for the Future ranking this week, is beyond all price. Not everything is dependant on public funding!
We are still working through the implications of the £6.2bn announced by Government as savings in year – or at least our share of it. It is easy to get overly focussed on what we can’t do with the money. So it has been a particular pleasure to welcome delegates from Shunde province in China, and from Brazil (a briefing note is posted here), to look at what we have done in the city and what we plan to do.
The long term perspective, and the global perspective, both really help to focus minds on what we have achieved (often in periods of limited spending) and the great commercial and other opportunities which exist.
Our narrative of a city which has made a change from industrial strength and wealth into a more diverse economy, with real strengths in heritage, culture, and increasingly (and this is what our Brazilian visitors concentrated on) the sustainable industries of the future, grows stronger over time. If we have to take that story forward in different ways then we shall. But move it forward we will.
A beautiful sunny afternoon in the medieval Blackfriars in the heart of Newcastle (the area is captured at this blog, along with some great images of other parts of our city). And what nicer than to pick up on the energy and enthusiasm of the team at Northern Architecture, who have invited me to a picnic!
We have a good discussion about how to involve communities in significant changes. One of the really hard things to do is to give people real choices that are difficult to make. So much background information and history is needed. But that seems to me to be where real community engagement lies. We talk as well about transport, and why it is that people in provincial cities shun the bus. Rather than build huge tram or heavy rail schemes over the coming years, I think we are all going to have to come to love the bus. The team point out that it works in London and other European cities – so how can we make it work here?
Food for thought, as well as food for the body on a lovely sunny lunchtime.
I was fortunate enough a week or so ago to visit Walkergate Primary School with a Green Flag for the school’s work on the environment. (Walkergate’s latest Ofsted report is here)
We are developing a city-wide Climate Change strategy (the existing strategy formulated in 2008 is here). The biggest thing that will have to change is behaviour, so that everybody uses less power and heat. Whatever we do by way of bringing new homes up to environmental standards, retrofitting to older homes, and improving transmission of heat and power, this remains the case. The best hope of changing behaviour is to ensure that youngsters understand the issues, and support them with practical action.
So, whether it is learning about gardening, or saving energy and recycling, the young people at Walkergate Primary are making sure that we meet our Carbon Reduction targets for 2050. The fact this is happening in a brand new school, with enthusiastic and committed staff, shows what regeneration can achieve.
MIPIM Day Six: so, tired, hot, and waiting for my connecting flight late on a Friday evening, I ask was it worth taxpayers’ money being spent for two of us to go to MIPIM?
There is at least one deal worth $10 million to the city which I feel much more confident will go ahead as a direct result of conversations I have had. Nearly $500m of investment also looks a little nearer because relationships have clarified and strengthened with potential partners. We have met at least 20 experts and investors over three days, who would have been most unlikely visitors to Newcastle. We have picked up some really exciting ideas and seen how other places succeed. We have made some good informal links with some competitors. And the day job still gets done – even without clocking in, my flexitime is over 20 hours up, and the emails and calls got answered.
So, yes, it was worth it. And perhaps one day before long we will have a NewcastleGateshead Convention centre that can steal the show and save the journey!
Some real positives from yesterday: the offer of some free advice on a couple of heritage buildings we are determined to look after but cant find a use for in any, let alone this, climate; a team who have enthusiasm, a track record, and access to their own internal finance to take on refurbishing and improving district shopping centres; a new way of dealing with waste recycling on large multi-story estates; another link into the global climate change work of the C40 group of leading cities; also some great feedback about design work done by our technical services design team.
So some great leads for advice and investment, and a great warm feeling that isn’t just coming from being in the sunshine!
A meeting at MIPIM with a private investment broker who invests in property for very wealthy individuals. He says they visit and know London, and that is what they are comfortable with. In other words, Newcastle and Gateshead are off the map.
After 20 minutes, I have a contact to pass on to perhaps unlock one of our stalled student housing schemes, and I am asking him for ideas for the next stage of our Riverside Dene project: five tower blocks, currently poor quality council housing (but with five other blocks being fabulously transformed). I am trying the high risk strategy: to make a pitch memorable, make it difficult.
The first meeting of the day is breakfast with Robert Napier and Bob Kerslake of HCA. On the downside, developers, builders and social landlords say there is no easing of finance and mortgageability (ugh! Ugly word). On the upside, there is unanimity that Code 4 for sustainability is achievable and should be delivered. When? Now! I look forward to the imminent HCA guidance on standards to see if it reflects that level of ambition.
