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Northern Regeneration Summit

Day One | 22 October 2008

08.15 Registration And Morning Refreshments

09.00 Chair’s Opening Remarks
Gordon Carey, Chairman Gordon Carey Architects & Senior Vice Chair, BURA

09.10 Sponsor’s Welcome
Jennifer Welch, Operations Director, RICS North

09.25 The Effects Of The Credit Crunch On Northern Regeneration
• What does a global economic downturn mean for the North?
• In the current financial climate where are the opportunities for economic development and regeneration?
• How long is this period of uncertainty likely to last?
Michael Parkinson, Director, European Institute for Urban Affairs, Liverpool John Moores University

09.55 Panel Discussion: Sustaining Property-Led Regeneration In The Face Of The Credit Crunch

• What role should the public sector, regeneration agencies, developers and investors play in maintaining regeneration momentum in the North?
• What opportunities are there for developers to secure funding for development during the economic downturn?
• Preparing the ground for the future: how do regeneration professionals keep schemes viable and ensure that they are delivered?

Tom Bloxham, Chairman, Urban Splash
Hoong Wey Woon, Fund Manager, Morley Fund Management
Chris Farrow, Chief Executive, Salford Urban Regeneration Company
Councillor Warren Bradley, Leader, Liverpool City Council

11.00 Streamed Breakouts: Choose 1, 2 or 3
Social & Community Renewal Chair: Yvonne Hutchinson, Managing Director, Community Chameleon
Economic Development & Investment Chair: Chair To Be Announced, Yorkshire Forward
Physical Regeneration & Infrastructure Chair: Stephen Miles, Regeneration Director, RPS

1. Addressing Financial Exclusion And The Impact Of The Credit Crunch On Deprived Communities

• Explore the effects of a weakening credit climate on deprived communities
• How do you identify those most at risk from the effects of a weakened economy and promote their financial inclusion?

Damon Gibbons, Chair, Debt on Our Doorstep
Dr. Karl Dayson, Executive Director, Community Finance Solutions
Barry Lyon, Chief Executive, Bolton District CAB

2. How Can Local Authorities Best Use The Working Neighbourhoods Fund To Tackle Worklessness And Low Levels Of Enterprise In The North?

• Consider how the Working Neighbourhoods Fund is being implemented and managed in practice
• Explore how neighbourhood renewal initiatives can be sustained under the new funding regime

Neil McInroy, Director, Centre for Local Economic Strategies

3. Panel Discussion: Delivering Affordable Housing In A Declining Housing Market

• Continuing to deliver and fund affordable housing in conditions where developers and investors are hesitant
• How is shared ownership being affected by the credit crunch?
• What role should the private rented sector play in delivering affordable housing?

Mick Warner, Deputy Director for Regulation and Financial Appraisal, Housing Corporation
David Cowans, Chief Executive, Places for People
Gill Taylor, Chief Executive, Academy for Sustainable Communities
Colin Blakey, Director of Affordable Housing, Bellway PLC

11.40 Streamed Breakouts: Choose 4, 5 or 6

4. Implementing Early Intervention Strategies To Tackle Social Exclusion

• Explore how the Family Pathfinder programme sets out to improve outcomes for families caught in a cycle of deprivation
• Examine how Local Authorities and other agencies can successfully intervene early to secure positive futures for individuals and families vulnerable to social exclusion
Speaker to be announced, Department for Children, Schools and Families

5. Multi-Area Agreements Panel: Making Inter-Regional Connections Work In Practice

• Examine the progress MAAs have made and debate the pros and cons of outcomes so far
• Discuss the governance arrangements for MAAs and examine how robust regional leadership can be implemented in practice
• What are MAAs doing to ensure the development of complementary economic strategies in the North?

Jeff Goode, Director, Transform South Yorkshire
John Lowther, Director, Tees Valley Joint Strategy Unit
Mike Emmerich, Chief Executive, Manchester Enterprises

6. Engaging Private Sector Developers During Periods Of Economic Uncertainty

• What makes proposals attractive to developers and what turns them off?
• How can the public sector build private sector confidence and encourage investment during an economic downturn?

John Holmes, Chief Executive, Hull Forward
David Roberts, Deputy Chief Executive, Igloo Regeneration

12.20 Civic Leadership: The Role of City Mayors in Northern Regeneration
• What powers and resources do city chiefs need in order to effectively lead regeneration?
• How could the creation of more mayors be encouraged?
• Should central government require some cities to introduce mayors?
The Rt Hon the Lord Heseltine CH

12.50 Lunch, Exhibition And Informal Networking

14.00 Welfare To Work: Collaborating To Reduce Worklessness And Increase Opportunity
• Examine the latest Government thinking on how practitioners should work together to help people escape the benefits trap
• Discuss how the new commissioning strategy will effect how practitioners tackle worklessness
• Explore how benefits are changing and discuss how changes will alter the mix of client groups that need to be helped into employment
• What are the implications of using social housing to incentivise employment?
David Freud, CEO, The Portland Trust & Advisor, Department for Work & Pensions

14.30 Streamed Breakouts: Choose 7, 8 or 9

7. Working With Local People To Develop Harmonious And Cohesive Communities
• What is Community Cohesion and how can regeneration strategies contribute to advancing this agenda?
• Identifying the affinities that hold communities together and ensuring local people capitalise on a sense of shared belonging to lead the development of their communities
• Managing cohesion in order to drive economic development
Dr Mohammed Ali, Founder and Chief Executive, QED-UK

8. Enterprise-Led Regeneration: Encouraging Indigenous Business And Engaging SMEs to Build An Entrepreneurial Spirit In Your Area
 • What is the future of enterprise-led regeneration: what schemes are in place and which will be scaled back?
• Explore the role of LEGI and LABGI in encouraging economic development during an economic downturn

Terry Owens, Founder, InBiz
Garry Haywood, Director, BETA Model

9. Using Local Asset-Backed Vehicles And Local Housing Companies To Deliver Major Regeneration Outcomes

• LABVs in practice: examine how to best use public sector assets to leverage equity investment from the private sector
• How can the Local Housing Company model work to deliver affordable housing?
Andrew Ludiman, Partner, King Sturge
Jonathan Bull-Diamond, King Sturge
Alan Sears, Project Director, King Sturge

15.10 Refreshment Break, Exhibition And Informal Networking

15.30 Streamed Breakouts: Choose 10, 11 or 12


10. Explore What The Community Empowerment White Paper Means For Practitioners
• How will the new duty for local authorities to ‘inform, consult, involve and devolve’ work in practice?
• Examine new thinking on participatory budgeting and discuss how it will work to ensure local communities are able to shape services around their needs

Stuart Hoggan, Acting Director of Empowerment, Communities and Local Government

11. The Impact Of The Skills Shake-Up: Using New Local Authority Responsibilities To Build A Sustainable Skills Base

• How will devolution from the LSC allow Local Authorities to boost skills and capacity in line with local needs?
• How will local authorities provide apprenticeships to meet the level required by government proposals?
• Explore the latest strategies for building a sustainable skills base that matches local capacity with demand from potential inward investors and local businesses
John Korzeniewski, Regional Director - North West, Learning & Skills Council

12. The Community Infrastructure Levy In Practice
• How can the CIL be used to effectively support the development of infrastructure for communities?
• How does the CIL fit in with new methods of forward funding infrastructure?
• Discuss how to ensure the CIL does not deter development
• How will the CIL operate alongside section 106?
Glenn McGill, Associate Director, White Young Green

16.10 Tackling Poverty Tackling Entrenched Poverty In The North: Investing In Positive Futures For The North’s Most Disadvantaged Communities
• What role should communities and neighbourhoods play in helping people out of poverty?
• What can practitioners do to break long-term cycles of deprivation and increase opportunity for people in deprived communities?
Julia Unwin, Chief Executive, Joseph Rowntree Foundation

16.40 Discuss The Economic Opportunities That The Climate Change Agenda Presents To The North
• How can a regional consciousness of climate change be exploited to benefit Northern economies?
• What opportunities does the transition to a low-carbon economy offer business in the North of England?

Regeneration & Renewal Guest Speaker To Be Confirmed

17.10 Chair’s Closing Remarks And Close Of Day One

Day Two | 23 October 2008

08.15 Registration And Morning Refreshments

9.00 Chair’s Opening Remarks, Sue Stirling, Director, ippr North

9.15 Assess The New Regeneration Framework’s Implications For Regeneration And Economic Development
• Discuss how CLG’s new Regeneration Framework will implement the conclusions of the Treasury’s sub-national review of regeneration
• Examine what the Regeneration Framework means in terms of devolution on both regional and sub-regional levels
Roger Wilshaw, Deputy Director in the Local Economic Delivery and Renewal Directorate, Communities and Local Government

09.50 Panel Discussion: Explore How The Regeneration Framework Will Be Implemented In Practice

• What does devolution of power mean for Local Authorities and RDAs?
• Explore how local authorities can integrate policy and strategy to secure delivery in-line with local priorities
• Assess what influence the increased planning role of the RDAs will have
• How will regional strategies, MAAs and city regions function coherently within the new framework?

Councillor Andrew Carter, Deputy Leader of Council and Executive Board Member for Development, Leeds City Council
Andrew Lewis, Chief Executive, The Northern Way
Tom Warburton, Head of Regional Strategy, One NorthEast
Sir Richard Leese, Leader, Manchester City Council

10.30 Refreshment Break, Exhibition And Informal Networking

11.00 Housing Growth? In A Challenging Economy Assess The North’s Role In Meeting Housing Growth Target
• What effect will the economic downturn have on the North’s ability to deliver growth targets, particularly in areas suffering from continued low demand for housing?
• How are agencies going to deliver on their outputs that were set prior to the credit crunch?
• Discuss the relationship between housing and economic growth

Iain Wright MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Communities and Local Government

11.20 Response Discussion
Bob Lane, Board Member, National Housing and Planning Advice Unit
Kevan Carrick, Partner, JK Property Consultants LLP

Day Two Streamed Breakout Session Chairs

Social & Community Renewal Session - 13, 16, 19 & 22
Chair: Steve Hartley, Assistant Director Neighbourhood Services, City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council
Economic Development & Investment - Session 14, 17, 20 & 23
Chair: Daniel Mouawad, Chief Executive, pro-manchester
Physical Regeneration & Infrastructure - Session 15, 18, 21 & 24
Chair: Peter White, Executive Director of Development, Northwest Regional Development Agency

11.40 Streamed Breakouts: Choose 13, 14 or 15

13. Exploring What Single Group Funding Means For Your Organisation

• Responding effectively to the Cohesion Guidance for Funders
• How will Single Group Funding Work In Practice?
• Discuss how to provide clear evidence to funders that your activities are making a tangible contribution to the section of community they target

Isabel Hudson, Head of National Equality Partnership, Women’s Resource Centre
Rushi Munshi, Regional Director, Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Organisations
Vandna Gohil, Director, Voice4Change England

14. Making The North Attractive To Inward Investment From High Productivity Business

• Creating conditions for investment: what makes a fertile environment for potential business investors?
• What differentiates the North on both a national and international scale?
• Identify where the weaknesses are and what needs to be done to close the gaps

Clive Drinkwater, Director North West, UK Trade & Investment
Tom Hurst, Principal Economic Development Officer, Sunderland City Council
Danny Griffiths, Personell Director, Nissan Sunderland Plant

15. The Tenant Services Authority: The Future Of Housing Regulation

• What progress has been made in the set-up of the new regulator?
• Explore what a ‘new tenant-centred’ regulatory approach will mean for practitioners
• How will regulation change for housing associations and who else could be regulated in future?

Regeneration & Renewal Guest Speaker To Be Confirmed

12.20 Streamed Breakouts: Choose 16, 17 or 18

16. Evaluating And Demonstrating ‘Soft Outcomes’ In Voluntary And Community Work

• How do you measure the ‘soft outcomes’ and demonstrate to funders that a tangible difference is being made?
• Consider how you can demonstrate that your work is delivering positive outcomes for the communities you are working with

Kate Graham, Partner, Triangle Consulting
To Be Delivered Alongside Public Sector Partners

 17. Capitalising On The Contribution Rural Economies Make To The Northern Economy As A Whole

• Discuss how to work within sub-regional frameworks to successfully take advantage of the contribution rural economies make to the North
• Examine the initiatives that can be implemented to support rural business and raise their level of performance and input into the North’s economy

Roger Turner, Head of Rural Economies, Commission for Rural Communities

 18. Malmö: Perspectives On Sustainable Urban Development From Europe
• Discuss the strategies in place to ensure minimal environmental impact and maximum resource use in Malmö
• Make connections: how can learnings from Malmö be implemented in Northern cities?

Magdalena Alevrá, Architect and Planner, Malmö

13.00 Lunch, Exhibition And Informal Networking

14.10 Simplification Business Support Working Together To Reduce Duplication And Make Business Support More Efficient And Easier To Navigate
• From 3000 support schemes to 100: what will the simplification process mean for practitioners?
• Explore how local authorities, Regional Development Agencies and businesses can work together to improve efficiency and make business support sustainable
• Assess the progress of the BSSP in reducing complexity, cost and confusion for businesses and entrepreneurs

Janice Munday, Programme Director, Business Support Simplification Programme
Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

14.40 Streamed Breakouts: Choose 19, 20 or 21

19. Community Asset Development: Encouraging Effective Community Management And Ownership Of Assets
 
• Explore the progress made in community-owned asset development
• Examine the funding options available to councils and community groups and highlight the potential pitfalls and benefits of such asset transfers
Jeremy Morton, Director, Tiger 11
 
20. Working With NEETs To Fill Skills Gaps And Tackle Long-Term Unemployment
• Engaging hard-to-reach young people from communities that have a history of long-term unemployment
• What do changes in the Connexions service mean and how can local authorities work together with Connexions to tackle NEETs?
• What does raising the participation age and additional focus on apprenticeships mean for practitioners?
Kevin Brady, Assistant Chief Executive, Salford City Council
Chris Marsh, Director of Community Regeneration, Central Salford URC

21. Code for Sustainable Homes: Meeting Targets In Current Market Conditions

• How can the increased costs associated with low/zero carbon housing be balanced with affordability requirements, particularly during the current economic downturn?
• Resolving the zero carbon definition to enable local authorities, housing associations, public agencies and housebuilders to set objectives accordingly

Simon Cross, Associate Director - Housing Group, Building Research Establishment
 
15.15 Refreshment Break, Exhibition And Informal Networking

15.40 Streamed Breakouts: Choose 22, 23 or 24

22. Explore The Funding Available For Those Voluntary And Community Sectors Delivering Public Services

• What are the pitfalls of the voluntary and community sectors taking on public sector contracts and how can they be avoided?
• How should contracts be negotiated to ensure balanced partnerships?

Jonathan Lewis, Chief Executive, Futurebuilders England
Reverend Canon Sue Pinnington, Cottingley Cornerstone Centre

23. Regeneration Through Re-branding: Shaping People’s Perception Of Place To Break Down Negative Stereotypes

• Discuss how to overcome unfavourable perceptions to get investors and developers thinking positively about the North
• Pinpointing effective ways of differentiating areas and capitalising on what makes local communities distinctive to make an area competitive on a local, national and international scale

John Till, Director, thinkingplace
 24. The Bidding Process: Making Public Sector Procurement More Efficient

• Discuss what more the public sector can do to ensure successful and efficient bidding processes for public sector projects
• Explore new models for a more streamlined, cooperative form of tendering
• Examine the implications of recent EU rulings on public sector procurement
 
Regeneration & Renewal Guest Speaker To Be Confirmed
 
16.10 Opposition Perspective A Different Approach: Assess The Impact A Change Of Government Would Have On Northern Regeneration
• Explore what direction regeneration and economic development policy would take under the Conservatives
• Consider how policy on RDAs could change and discuss what this would mean for practitioners
• Examine policies on neighbourhood renewal and growing local enterprise to assess the impact a change of government would have in practice
Bob Neill MP
Shadow Local Government Minister
 
16.30 Closing Government Keynote
 
The Rt Hon John Hutton MP
Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform

16.50 Chair’s Closing Remarks And Close Of Conference

 

Speakers