Exciting times for city regeneration
ties they serve. There has been a great shift in the last couple of years in how they approach this obligation and that has had a massive and positive impact on property redevelopment. Just look at Birmingham. The city council played a major part in kick-starting the redevelopment of New Street Station and that’s partly why we have the excellent Grand Central. So what’s changed? Councils come in all sizes, shapes and political colours and so they all do things differently.
There are some common threads which have made it so much easier for councils to contribute.
First – there has been a change in the political and commercial landscape over the last ten years.
The changes in staffing, culture, funding and approach of local government have all played a part.
Councils used to have a shortterm approach and local politics often got in the way of the longerterm view needed for holistic regeneration and place shaping.
It made it very difficult for council officers to plan and properly use their property assets. That’s changing. Also central government has massively reduced public sector funding so councils need to generate income and working their land assets are a great way to do it. Next is people. Councils work, broadly, by the politicians and executives setting the strategy with the officers and professional advisers delivering on that strategy.
In recent years there has been a greater degree of joined-up thinking with the public sector.
While maintaining a public service ethos, there has been a move to greater commercialisation and entrepreneurialism.
That’s been an important shift for many councils. So what about the land itself? Councils are still large landowners. The Government previously encouraged councils to sell their surplus land, often for arguably poor financial reward.
Increasingly, councils are investing in sites, working with private developers and using their borrowing powers to make sites more viable and more attractive to the market.
By investing in former industrial sites and dealing with land contamination, providing highways and services infrastructure etc, it de-risks sites.
This means that the councils stay involved and get a better long-term income stream and financial return rather than a quick capital receipt from a sale.
The final major shift is collaboration.
Councils, developers, funders, lawyers, agents, contractors – they have all become so much better at working together for a common goal.
When I first started doing development work it was a very confrontational environment full of “oneupmanship”, theatrically and bravado.
Happily, those days are gone and the successful deals are the ones where all of the stakeholders work collaboratively.
It’s a changing and exciting time to be involved in public sector real estate and long may the resurgence in this sector continue. Chris Plumley is a partner at
Trowers & Hamlins