BUILDING COMMUNITIES
THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE PLANNING AND DESIGN Conference Proceedings
Publication of the proceedings has been made possible by the following:
THE BUILDING AND SOCIAL HOUSING FOUNDATION HUNT THOMPSON ASSOCIATES YJ LOVELL (HOLDINGS) PLC THE NORTH BRITISH INDUSTRIAL ASSOCIATION RIBA COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE GROUP .. BUILDING COMMUNITIES THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE PLANNING AND DESIGN
CONFERENCE PRESIDENT DR ROD HACKNEY
CONFERENCE CHAIRMEN THE LORD SCARMAN OBE DR THOMAS L. BLAIR SIMON JENKINS TED WATKINS
KEYNOTE SPEAKER HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES KG KT GCB
Conference Proceedings EDITED BY COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE INFORMATION SERVICES (CAIS) LTD
CAIS LTD LONDON First published in Great Britain by Conference Organisers: Community Architecture Information Services (CAIS) Ltd Community Architecture Information Services (CAIS) Ltd 5 Dryden Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9NW 5 Dryden Street, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9NW Distributed by RIBA Publications Ltd Telephone: 01 240 2430 Telex: 299533 ASTG Fax: 01 240 5600 Finsbury Mission, Moreland Street, London ECIV 8VB Directors: Charles Knevitt, Jim Sneddon, Caroline Theobald, Nick Wates. © 1987 Community Architecture Information Services Ltd Conference Co-ordinator: Jim Sneddon
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
We would like to acknowledge the generous support and assistance the following gave to the organisation of the First International Conference on Community Architecture, Planning and Design and without whose help it would not have been possible.
Sponsors: Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies Astoria Theatre Decoration BOVIS LTD Institute of Clerks of Works Free Form Arts Trust THE BUILDER GROUP Institute of Housing CALOUSTE GULBENKIAN International Year of Shelter for the FOUNDATION Homeless 1987 The organisers would also like to thank all LONDON DOCKLANDS International Project for Students of those who assisted including: DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION Architecture The Architectural Association REGALIAN PROPERTIES PLC International Bauausstellung Berlin YWCA RANK XEROX LTD The Landscape Institute Building Design TRAFALGAR HOUSE National Architecture Students Association Architects Journal TRUSTHOUSE FORTE PLC National Community Partnership Chartered Surveyor Weekly WATES FOUNDATION National Council of Building Material Building Producers Geoff Haslam Supporting Organisations National Council for Voluntary Peter Rawsthorne The Archbishop's Commission Organisations Anne South Association of Community Technical Aid National Federation of Community Mikki Hawkes Centres Organisations Caroline Dove Association of Metropolitan Authorities National Federation of Housing Amanda Reekie British Institute of Architectural Technicians Associations Deborah Stratton Building Centre Trust The Phoenix Initiative Rebecca Smithers Building Employers' Confederation Royal Institute of British Architects Vic Dabrowa (photographer) Business in the Community Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Kathy Howe Chartered Institute of Building Royal Town Planning Institute Kate Theobald Civic Trust SAVE Britain's Heritage Virginia Bond Commission for Racial Equality Think Green Campaign Caroline Lwin Community Projects Foundation Town and Country Planning Association Flo Harvey Construction Industry Federation Village Halls Forum Beverley Padda Co-operative Development Agency Doreen Walker English Heritage Exhibition Design and Co-ordination Kevin Jenden Free Form Arts Trust Covent Garden Housing Project Elaine Rigby Friends of the Earth Hunt Thompson Associates Stella Yarrow Habitat International Council Nottingdale Urban Studies Centre Kelly Code Housing Associations Charitable Trust Jeanne Sillet and Brendan O'Neill Kim Ward IV .. CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IV FOREWORD vn
BUILDING AND SOCIAL HOUSING FOUNDATION AWARDS VIII INTRODUCTION x
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME XIII
LIST OF RESOLUTIONS XVI
EDITORS' NOTE XVIII
CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT 1
WORKSHOP REPORTS 139
LIST OF EXHIBITORS 146
LIST OF FILMS SHOWN 146
MEDIA COVERAGE REPORT 149
LIST OF DELEGATES 1s2
.. A GUIDE TO COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE
WHAT MAKES COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE DIFFERENT?
CONVENTIONAL ARCHITECTURE COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE Users are passive recipients of an environment Users are - or are treated as - the clients. conceived, executed, managed and evaluated They are offered (or take) control of commis STATUS OF USER by others: corporate, public or private sector sioning, designing, developing, managing and landowners and developers with professional evaluating their environment and may some 'experts' times be physically involved in construction Remote, arm's length. Little if any direct con Creative alliance and working partnership. tact. Experts commissioned by landowners Experts are commissioned by, and are ac USER/EXPERT and developers occasionally make superficial countable to, users or behave as if they are RELATIONSHIP attempts to define and consult end-users, but their attitudes are mostly paternalistic and patronising Provider, neutral bureaucrat, elitist, 'one of Enabler, facilitator and 'social entrepreneur', them', manipulator of people to fit the system, educator, 'one of us', manipulator of the EXPERT ROLES a professional in the institutional sense. system to fit the people and challenger of Remote and inaccessible status quo, a professional as a competent and efficient adviser. Locally based and accessible
Generally large and often cumbersome. Deter Generally small, responsive and determined SCALE OF mined by pattern of land ownership and the by the nature of the project, the local building PROJECT need for efficient mass production and simple industry and the participants. Large sites management generally broken down into manageable packages
Fashionable and wealthy existing residential, Anywhere, but most likely to be urban, or LOCATION OF commercial and industrial areas preferred. periphery of urban area, area of single or PROJECT Otherwise a greenfield site with infrastructure multiple deprivation, derelict or decaying (roads, power, water supply and drainage etc) environment ie no constraints Likely to be a single function or two or three Likely to be multi-functional USE OF PROJECT complementary activities (eg commercial, or housing, or industrial) Self-conscious about style; most likely 'inter Unself-conscious about style. Any 'style' may national' or 'modern movement'. Increasingly be adopted and appropriate. Most likely to be DESIGN STYLE one of the other fashionable and identifiable 'contextual', 'regional' (as place specific) with styles: post-modern, hi-tech, neo-vernacular concern for identity. Loose and sometimes or Classical revival. Restrained and sometimes exuberant, often highly decorative, using local frigid; utilitarian artists Tendency towards mass production, pre Tendency towards: small-scale production, on fabrication, repetition, global supply of site construction, individuality, local supply TECHNOLOGY/ materials, machine-friendly technology, 'clean of materials, user-friendly (convivial) tech RESOURCES 'clean sweep' and new build, machine inten nology, re-use, recycling and conservation, sive, capital intensive labour and time intensive Static, slowly deteriorates, hard to manage Flexible, slowly improving, easy to manage END PRODUCT and maintain, high-energy consumption and maintain, low-energy consumption ' Private sector: return on investment (usually Improvement of quality of life for individuals short-term) and narrow self interest. and communities. Better use of local resources PRIMARY Public sector: social welfare and party political Social investments. Response to specific local MOTIVATION opportunism. Experts: esteem from profes ised needs and opportunities sional peers. Response to general national or regional gap in market or social needs and opportunities Top down, emphasis on product rather than Bottom up, emphasis on process rather than process, bureaucratic, centralised with special product, flexible, localised, holistic and multi METHOD OF isms compartmentalised, stop-go, impersonal, disciplinary, evolutionary, continuous, per OPERATION anonymous, paper management, avoid setting sonal, familiar, people management, setting a precedent, secretive precedents, open Totalitarian technocratic and doctrinative Pragmatic, humanitarian, responsive and IDEOLOGY (Left or Right), big is beautiful, competition, flexible, small is beautiful, collaboration, survival of the fittest mutual aid
• Chart from Community Architecture; How people are creating their own environment by Nick Watcs and Charles Knevitt, Penguin Books, forthcoming . • Foreword
DR ROD HACKNEY, PRIBA Conference President
For two days last November, the Astoria Theatre in the conference took place and achieved its objectives. London's Charing Cross Road thronged with more The community architecture movement, embracing than 1,000 delegates. What brought them together as it does community development, planning and was a shared belief that local communities and the design, was given fresh impetus and new status on the voluntary sector - often called The Third Force - public and political agenda. largely hold the key to their own destinies by working The conference was also used as the launch pad for together, in partnership with public and private three important initiatives which will take us forward sectors, to rebuild our shattered inner cities and dying to the next conference, hopefully next spring. These neighbourhoods. were The Inner City Trust, under the patronage of Building Communities was an extraordinary event; The Prince of Wales, which encourages and supports and the experience will not be forgotten quickly by self-help community development projects in deprived those who attended. As the Architectural Review areas of our inner cities and the outer estates; the ~eported in its March 1987 issue: 'It brought together National Community Aid Fund, which helps on the same platform representatives of all main community groups to employ technical and pro political parties, of building and environmental fessional enablers to realise their projects; and the professions, of business and industry, radical second year of the successful Community Enterprise community groups, the established church, and, of award scheme, jointly sponsored by The Times and course, the monarchy.' That it all came together in the Royal Institute of British Architects. the very short space of five months is a tribute to the These conference proceedings provide not only a initiative and commitment of the organisers, permanent record of the event, through the papers of Community Architecture Information Services. 40 main speakers together with delegate contributions The generosity of five commercial sponsors, from the floor and an indication of the unprecedented together with the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation media coverage it received; they also act as guide to and the Wates Foundation, ensured that anyone who the extent of 'Third Force' activity on the ground. wanted to attend could afford to do so. In addition to The Prince's clarion call at the end of his Keynote a heavy subsidy for normal tickets, there were 200 Address should inspire us all to achieve even greater places available for just £20. Many of the 39 things, by making 1987 'the start of a new renaissance supporting organisations helped to publicise the for Britain- from the bottom up'. event, and although there was some dissension over who was involved, the most important factor is that Rod Hackney
.. Vll BUILDING AND SOCIAL HOUSING FOUNDATION AWARDS A contribution to the United Nations International Year of Shelter for the Homeless 1987
The Building and Social Housing Foundation projects could include inner city housing and (BSHF) is making a significant contribution to the environment, declining towns which have lost major United Nations International Year of Shelter for the sources of employment and in developing countries Homeless 1987 by organising a competition to find the schemes should include low-cost housing for the self-supporting human settlement projects which poorest sector of the population and address the present practical and imaginative solutions to problem of slum dwellings. Entries are invited from problems of unemployment, diminishing energy individuals, firms and other formally registered resources and housing. organisations in any nation. Two award~ of £10,000 each are being presented The Building and Social Housing Foundation is an annually in 1985, 1986 and 1987 for the most independent and non-political research and education promising projects -already in existence or designed institute based in Coalville, Leicestershire. It carries specifically for the competition - in either a out research into all types of housing. Of particular developed or developing country. interest is the need to identify a sustainable way oflife The first two of these £10,000 awards were for the future in both the developed and developing presented to Murat Karayakin of Batikent, Turkey world. and Sri Karar of Sonatala Milan Sangha, The principle objective of the United Nations Udaynarayanpur, India by His Royal Highness The International Year of Shelter for the Homeless is to Prince of Wales at The Building Communities improve the shelter and neighbourhoods of some of Conference. The cheques were accompanied by two the poor by 1987 and all of the poor by 2000. The goal silver trophies designed by Jane Anthony and Susan for 1987 is for every nation to draw up strategies, Barrow, third year students at Leicester Polytechnic. policies and programmes that Will enable practical The Batikent co-operative project was conceived and attainable improvements to be made in the seven years ago and carried out through voluntary shelter and neighbourhoods of all the poor and organisations in a country with an authoritarian disadvantaged by the year 2000. From 1988-2000, government. It has already housed 50,000 people and nations will be expected to implement these national has transformed semi-desert land. Murat Karayakin shelter strategies. worked as Development Expert of the State Planning Organisation and Assistant to the Undersecretary, Minister of Rural Affairs and Co-operatives before he became first Treasurer and then President of IYSH - A ROOF OVER THE WORLD Kent-Koop. Mr Karar is the General Secretary of 'Sonatala Across the world, one hundred million men, women Milan Sangha', a non-governmental, non-profit and children have no shelter whatsoever. They live in organisation for rural development in the Howrah doorways, on vacant land, on rubbish tips and on and Hooghly districts of West Bengal, India. The pavements. 30 million children live on the streets of name of the organisation can be regarded as an idiom third world cities. Half the population of third world of its philosophy - it means 'come together and cities live in slum or squatter settlements. In some unite'. It organises the inhabitants of more than 150 cities this rises to over two-thirds. City populations villages in the area into village groups. For them, are growing at a remarkably fast rate: Sao Paulo and Sonatala Milan Sangha offers development pro Calcutta will nearly have doubled in the years 1980 to grammes in health, education, vocational training 2000. and housing. In this country the problems are mounting. The entries were judged by Dr Arcot Homelessness has nearly doubled since 1978. Then Ramachandran, Director of the UN Human 53,000 families were recorded as homeless by local Settlements' Foundation (HABITAT) Kenya and Dr authorities in England alone. Today the figure is Soedjatmoko, Rector of the UN University in Tokyo. 100,000 and mounting. Between 1979 and 1984 the Of the £10,000 prize money, £3,000 goes to the numbers living in board and lodging accommodation successful individual and the remaining £7,000 is for (hotels, hostels, lodging houses, etc) rose from at least furtherance of the project. In a developed country the 49,000 to at least 160,000. viii .. BUILDING AND SOCIAL HOUSING FEDERATION AWARDS
THE UN YEAR homelessness. It is more cost-effective, not to say The United Nations has designated 1987 as the cheaper, to build decent accommodation for families International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. The than to house them in inadequate temporary problems of overcrowding, insanitation and in accommodation such as bed and breakfast or security needed to be eliminated. caravans. The United Nations intend 1987 to be the start of a The last two years have seen a variety of major process leading to a general improvement in the living reports from governmental and non-governmental conditions of people worldwide. The schemes and agencies all agreeing on the common problems projects being launched by community organisations besetting housing in this country - chronic under worldwide are models which can be repeated in other investment and a system of housing finance that communities and other situations: models not only of distorts the supply and allocation of housing. new methods or materials but also models of A recent opinion poll by Gallup for IYSH showed community organisation. that a clear majority of the population-52% to 27% would prefer to see greater investment in housing ORGANISATION IN THE UK rather than tax cuts. Activities in the UK are being co-ordinated by the Internationally, IYSH is pressing for a greater IYSH Trust and Council. The Trust, set up by proportion of overseas aid spending to go to shelter Shelter, the National Federation of Housing related projects. At present, only 2p in the pound of Associations, Oxfam, the United Nations Association international aid goes on these kind of projects. and the Town and Country Planning Association, is People seem to think that shelter provision is a the recognised focal point for the Year. secondary consideration in any aid programme. Around the country some 50 IYSH local groups IYSH aims to demonstrate that no long-term are co-ordinating activities - fundraising campaigns development will ever be possible without according for projects in the UK and overseas, work in schools, shelter a higher priority. By 'Shelter' we mean not just promotional and educational work. the technical construction of houses - Shelter is the The IYSH Trust and Council has two main key basis of community development, allowing a objectives for the Year: stable base for health improvements, income generating projects, agricultural development or 1. Generating funds for innovative projects around education work. the world, including some here in the UK, through IYSH believes that the ODA should respond to the generating new sources of funds; Year by creating a new fund for shelter projects, by 2. Seeking to promote action and awareness of the increasing its joint funding scheme whereby for every problems of homeless and poorly housed people here £ raised for a particular project by a voluntary and in third world countries, by demonstrating the organisation the Government gives a £, and by widest possible consensus in favour of action. increasing the support to urban projects in each of its bilateral programmes (i.e. in each programme of aid POLICY from the UK to a particular country). The United Nations aim for the Year is to establish a IYSH is launching a campaign called 'More political commitment to housing that recognises how Homes, More Say' later this year which will link central good housing is to many other areas of family together housing issues in the UK and overseas. and community life as well as its importance in the IYSH will be stressing the increasing recognition in national economy. third world countries that most housing has been In the UK, the objective of the IYSH Trust has built by the people themselves, and that in this been to promote the widest possible consensus on the country there is increasing concern that people need for action on poor housing and homelessness. should have more say over their own housing. The IYSH Council represents the broadest coalition IYSH is a unique opportunity to demonstrate the of interests in housing and development ever wide concern that exists. Because it is international, assembled: it includes the private sector, pro the opportunity is there to demonstrate the universal fessionals, public sector and voluntary groups. right to decent housing, a human need second only to Council President is Lord Scarman. food and water, and to demonstrate also the global IYSH takes the view that Homes cost less than drive to give people more say over their housing.
.. lX Organisers' Introduction
There is growmg realisation worldwide that the and organisations developing the theory mismanagement of the built environment is a major and practice of community architecture, cause of social, economic and ecological ills. There is planning and design over the last decade; increasing determination to find new solutions - To disseminate this experience to others in the particularly in the inner cities. environmental field and, via the media, to Perhaps the most exicing recent breakthrough has the general public; been the emergence of community architecture, To initiate programmes of action; planning, development and design. These activities To establish community architecture, planning are based on the principle that the environment and design as a mainstream philosophy and works better if the people who live, work and play in to place it on the world political agenda; it are actively involved in its creation and To act as the British curtain-raiser for the management instead of being treated as passive United Nations International Year of consumers. A quiet revolution is taking place as Shelter for the Homeless 1987. voluntary organisations, professionals, commerce, The event was also selected as the launch pad for two private institutions and governments are starting to exciting new initiatives: explore new ways of shaping homes, social facilities, neighbourhoods and cities in partnership with the 1) The Inner City Trust- to secure and allocate funds people who inhabit them. for community regeneration. A glimpse of the advantages of such a partnership 2) The National Community Aid Fund for securing can already be seen in pilot projects in many parts of funds for community technical aid. the world: It was also chosen as the venue for the presentation of Reduction of vandalism, crime and stress; the Building and Social Housing Foundation's 1986 A greater sense of community; Awards for human settlement projects. The Awards Creation of self-confidence, new skills and are part of BHSF's contribution to the United new job opportunities; Nations International Year of Shelter for the Invention of new types of housing and social Homeless. facilities tailored to suit individual and It was a difficult conference to organise. The title community needs; generated even more enthusiasm and controversy Buildings that work properly and are well than we had imagined and we were inundated with cared for; individuals and organisations wishing to play a part. Neighbourhoods that evolve to cope with In line with the spirit of the subject matter, we tried to changing needs of those living and working accommodate this interest and there was greater in them and become self-sustaining. participation by a larger number of organisations in 'Building Communities' than in any other conference There are no magic formulae for success although on the built environment in the last ten years. Three many blueprints are emerging. The common thread is separate drafts of the programme were widely the creation of organisational mechanisms which circulated with requests for contributions and encourage a working relationship and creative suggestions for improvement. Every single offer of partnership between the people who inhabit and use speakers, exhibitions, films and workshops received the environment and those with expertise, land and by us from the 40 supporting organisations was finance. accommodated in the programme, even though it The First International Conference on Community meant booking additional space at the last moment Architecture, Planning and Design was conceived as and restricting most speakers to ten minutes. a celebration of this important new environmental The end result was a conference with a unique movement coming of age. Our objectives in balance and dynamic which undoubtedly made it a organising the Conference were: milestone in the battle to create a more humane To bring together for the first time the people environment. Speakers were drawn from all sides of
X ORGANISERS' INTRODUCTION
Money talks: demonstrators outside the Astoria Theatre. We and to those unable to attend from whom we have invited them to address the conference. received many requests for information. They will also act as a starting point for the Second the development industry and the community and International Conference on Community Archi from all parts of the political spectrum. The 1,000 tecture, Planning and Design which we hope to be delegates were equally balanced (25% from the organising in the near future. Any ideas and offers of voluntary sector; 20% professionals; 13% industry assistance will be gratefully received. and commerce; 10% academics and 10% from the church or unidentified individuals). There were over Charles Knevitt, Jim Sneddon, Caroline Theobald, 70 exhibitions and 20 films. The event received Nick Wates and Kim Ward unprecedented media coverage resulting in over 400 Community Architecture Information Services news and feature articles, 23 radio broadcasts and 9 (CAIS) Ltd television items. Coverage and debate continues even 5 Dryden Street as we go to press with these proceedings. London WC2E 9NW We hope these published proceedings will be 01 240 2430 useful, both to those who attended the conference May 1987
WHO ARE THE ORGANISERS? Community Architecture Information Services (CAIS) Ltd, was formed in .May 1986 as an information and communications consultancy for all those concerned with improving the built environ ment. We specialise in the new and growing fields of community architecture, community planning and community design, which are based on the proposition that the environment works better if the people who live, work and play in it are involved in its creation and management.
CHARLES KNEVITT Architecture Correspondent of The Times and former consultant to Thames News. Born 1952. Read
XI ORGANISERS' INTRODUCTION
Architecture at Manchester University. Devised The the Colorgraphic Group and CWP Computers. Times/RIBA Community Enterprise Scheme 1985. Launch organiser, The Limehouse Petition, 1986. Author, Space on Earth (1985), a companion to the Anglia Television series for Channel Four, for which he was consultant; Co-author, Community Architecture, forthcoming from Penguin. Editor, Community Enterprise, published by The Times/ Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. International Building Press" Architectural Journalist of the Year" 1984.
JIM SNEDDON Principal Technical Officer, an inner London Borough. Born 1952. Worked as a miner before reading Architecture at Heriot-Watt University. Set up his own practice in Edinburgh, working for housing associations and local authorities, before moving to London in 1980 where he has worked in several local authority departments.' 'Lived on the Broadwater Farm Estate, scene of the Tottenham NICK WATES riots in 1985, for three years. Joint Vice Chairman of Freelance journalist specialising in environmental the Royal Institute of British Architects' Community politics. Born 1951. Received a First in Architecture, Architecture Group, and is a board member of the Planning, Building and Environmental Studies, and a CNAA. Regular radio and TV commentator on inner Diploma in Development Planning at University city affairs. College, London. Founder member of the Tolmers Village Association (1973) and the Limehouse Development Group (1979). Former News Editor, The Architects' Journal. Columnist on community architecture for Building Design. Author, The Battle for Tolmers Square, RKP, 1976; Editor, Squatting: The Real Story, Bay Leaf Books, 1980 and The Limehouse Petition, Limehouse Development Group, 1986; Co-author, Community Architecture, forth coming from Penguin. International Building Press "Architectural Journalist of the Year" 1978.
CAROLINE THEOBALD Communications Consultant. Born 1957. Read English at York University. A former journalist, she was Press Officer to Robert Maxwell, Chairman of Pergamon and BPCC, 1982-84, before running the marketing department of a major architectural practice. Clients have included Coopers & Lybrand,
xu .. BUILDING COMMUNITIES
THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND DESIGN LONDON, NOVEMBER 1986
MAIN CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
All working sessions were held at the Astoria Theatre, unless otherwise indicated.
Wednesday 26 November 1015-1025 Mee-Yan Cheung-J udge, Principal Project Officer, 1800-2300 National Voluntary Organisations Anti Racist REGISTRATION and OPENING OF EXHIBITIONS Consortium At The Architectural Association, 34-36 Bedford Square, WCl 1025-1035 and at the YWCA, 16-22 Great Russell Street, Dave Howell, Assistant Director, National WCl. Federation of Community Organisations Bar and refreshments. 1035-1045 2000-2200 Dr Tony Gibson, Development Officer, Town & AT WORK IN THE COMMUNITY: A programme of Country Planning Association's Lightmoor Project workshops and entertainment arranged by 1045-1115 the National Community Partnership. Break Venues: Architectural Association and YWCA
SESSION 2 KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Thursday 27 November BUILDING COMMUNITIES: THE 0830-0920 THIRD FORCE Registration and Coffee 1115-1200 0920-0930 His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales KG KT WELCOME BY CONFERENCE PRESIDENT GCB Dr Rod Hackney, Managing Director, Rod At the end of the address, His Royal Highness will Hackney and Associates present the Building and Social Housing Foundation's 1985 Awards for the two most 0930-0945 promising self-supporting human settlements. Mr CHAIRMAN'S INTRODUCTION Murat Karayakin of Batikent will receive an award The Lord Scarman, OBE, President, UN on behalf of a co-operative settlement at Ankara, International Year of Shelter for the Homeless Turkey. MrS. R. Karar of Sonatala Milan Sangha 1987. will receive an award on behalf of a settlement at Udaynarayanpur, West Bengal, India. SESSION 1 ENVIRONMENT AND THE COMMUNITY: FROM PROTEST TO 1200-1230 PARTICIPATION DISCUSSION 0945-1005 1230-1400 Paddy Doherty, Projects Director, North West Lunch and Bar Centre for Learning and Development, Northern Ireland 1005-1015 SESSION 3 RECENT INITIATIVES: Dr Arcot Ramachandram, Director, United THE NEW PARTNERSHIPS Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), (all sessions 10 minutes) Nairobi COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE
Xlll 1400-1410 SESSION 4 RECENT INITIATIVES IN Tony McGann, Chairman, the Eldonian CONTEXT Community Association, Liverpool PRJ VA TE ENTERPRISE AND THE COMMUNITY 1410-1420 1640-1700 John Thompson, Partner, Hunt Thompson Norman Wakefield, Chairman and Chief Executive Associates, London Y. J . Lovell (Holdings) pic
COMMUNITY PLANNING LOCAL AUTHORITIES: A CHANGING ROLE 1420-1430 1700-1710 David Wilcox, Chairman, Partnership Limited, Councillor Jeremy Beecham, Chairman, London Partnership and Programme Authorities Group 1430-1440 Association of Metropolitan Authorities Elaine Place, Rural Information Officer, Village 1710-1720 Halls Forum John Ross, Sub-Convenor of Housing, Glasgow 1440-1450 1720-1730 George Nicholson, Executive Member, North John Dean, Planning Officer, Leicester City Southwark Community Development Group and Council former Chair of Planning, Greater London Council CHAIRMAN: Dr Thomas L. Blair, Academic INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS 1730-1740 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT John F. C. Turner, Director, Associated Housing Advisory Services (AHAS) Ltd 1450-1500 Frances McCall, Chairperson, Calvay Co-operative 1740-1750 Limited, Glasgow Ted Watkins, Watts, Los Angeles 1500-1510 1750-1800 Louis Julienne, Director, Federation of Black David Lewis, American Institute of Architects Housing Organisations 1800-1810 1510-1520 David Rodgers, Director, CDS Co-operative Dr Nicholas Falk, Chairman and Managing Housing Society, London, and Chair, UK Director, Urban and Economic Development Co-operative Film Steering Committee Limited (URBED), London 1810- 1900 1520-1530 PANEL DISCUSSION Dorothy Kuya, Managing Director, Affirmata, London 1930-2300 Evening Events: Rainbow Associates Entertainment at the Astoria; Reception by the Builder Group at COMMUNITY TECHNICAL AID the CBI 1550-1600 Andrew Kean, Company Secretary, Technical Services Agency Limited, Glasgow Friday 28 November 1600-1610 0830-0930 Norma Taylor, Chair, COMTECHSA, Liverpool Registration and coffee
COMMUNITY ARTS 0930-0935 1610-1620 WELCOME BY THE CONFERENCE PRESIDENT Martin Goodrich, Director, Free Form Arts Trust 0935-0945 COMMUNITY EMPLOYMENT CHAIRMAN'S INTRODUCTION 1620-1640 Simon Jenkins, Chairman, English Heritage David Bryan, St Matthews Meeting Place, Brixton Historic Towns Committee and freelance journalist
XIV SESSION 5 FUTURE STRATEGIES I4IO-I430 CONSERVATIVE PARTY 0945-IOOO The Rt Hon. Michael Heseltine, MP, Former FAITH IN THE CITIES Environment Secretary Rev. Barry Thorley, Brixton I430-I450 1000-10I5 SOP/LIBERAL ALLIANCE A TEN POINT PLAN FOR THE INNER CITIES Shirley Williams, President of the SDP Dr Rod Hackney, Managing Director, Rod Hackney and Associates I450-I5IO LABOUR PARTY IOI5-1030 John Frazer MP, Front Bench Housing Spokesman PLANNING FROM THE BOTTOM UP David Hall, Director, Town and Country Planning I510-I530 Association and President, Habitat International GREEN MOVEMENT Council Paul Ekins, Director, The Other Economic Summit
1030-I045 I530-I600 SELF HELP IN THE INNER CITIES Break Dr Vince Hines, Director, National Federation of Self-Help Groups CHAIRMAN: Ted Watkins, Watts Foundation
I045-IIOO I600-I730 WHAT BUSINESS CAN DO FOR THE LOCAL COMMUNITY CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS AND CHAIRMAN'S Sam Springer, Business in the Community CONCLUSION
IIOO-III5 I730-I740 LAUNCHING BRITAIN'S NATIONAL COMMUNITY CLOSE OF CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT PARTNERSHIP Christine Bailey, Association of Community I740 Technical Aid Centres, Representative of the Bar opens National Community Partnership 1900-0IOO 1II5-1130 Conference Party, Zenon Discotheque, I96 Break Piccadilly, London WI
1130-1I45 John Patten MP, Minister of State for Housing, Urban Affairs and Construction Saturday 29 November A programme of meetings and visits have been 1145-1245 organised in conjunction with Supporting PUBLIC FORUM: THE WAY AHEAD IN INTERNATIONAL Organisations YEAR OF SHELTER FOR THE HOMELESS 1987 0945- I700 I245-1400 BUILDING COMMUNITIES: THE ROLE OF THE Lunch and Bar ARCHITECT RIBA Community Architecture Group, RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London WI SESSION 6 THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION: A I030-I600 MANIFESTO FOR BUILDING ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY COMMUNITIES ACTION Streetwork and the Association of Community I400- I4IO Technical Aid Centres, Nottingdale Urban Studies CHAIRMAN'S INTRODUCTION Centre, I89 Freston Road, London WIO
.. XV 1000-1300 1100 BUILDING COMMUNITIES WORKSHOPS & SEMINARS A MULTICULTURAL COMMUNITY CENTRE FOR Architectural Association, 34-36 Bedford Square, ROCHDALE London WC1 Community Projects Foundation
1200 1000 COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE: BY THE COMMUNITY? COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE IN ISRAEL FOR THE COMMUNITY? OR FOR COMMUNITY? Dr Litchfield Jim Scott, Consultant in Housing Interactions
CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS
1. Belief in 'Spaces and Places for People' is a faith in 5. That this conference calls for the amendment of the mankind's inherent quest for community, a faith in Housing (Homeless Persons) Act to embrace all the importance of building communities, and a faith homeless people, whatever their circumstances, and in the importance of perceiving a coherent visual calls on the government to provide the resources and Urban Design - where collective unity also encourage the partnerships which will provide accommodates peoples' wishes, and enhances a housing for all. confidence in the necessary freedom of people to Verna Smith express their individualities in enterprises, which Hillview Residents Association progress across social boundaries, towards further investment in both peoples' resources, endeavours and their environment, in order to create a new social 6. In the light of the supposed 'bottom up' basis for energy, named the Third Force, out of choice and this conference and statements so far; I suggest that control. for this National Community Trust to have the confidence and accountability it claims, the trustees John Topping RIBA MUST reflect this community. There must be a John Topping Associates substantial number of trustees who are genuine representatives of all community groups, especially 2. Ideology and a commitment to a certain form of ethnic minorities and women (there appear so far to organisation or action is certainly a spur to get something done but if extreme it leads to extreme be no women in the trustees group). These representatives should be in genuine control, opposition. through democratic processes, of the fund, NOT the I would plead for a pragmatic and flexible approach in any action resulting from this conference professionals, who as usual seem to be holding the purse strings and the power. based on perceived wants of the communities being served and not on some political theory or axiom Mandy Reynolds which ends up in bickering or worse conflict. Support Community Building Design Nancy Thomas Malachite Film & TV 7. Considerable changes will be required in the educational curricula of our universities and 3. This conference recommends that references to polytechnics if community development is to become Waterloo Station be deleted from the Channel a mainstream rather than a minority activity. I Tunnel Hybrid Bill and the siting of a terminal or propose that all schools of architecture and planning terminals be made a matter of public enquiry. willing to work with local communities make this Dorothy Stein known to local groups and local authorities Waterloo Community Development Group represented at this conference and vice versa. For such an initiative to succeed changes will also be 4. That the venues of all future meetings be more needed to the educational priorities of professional carefully chosen to provide the best possible access institutions giving recognition and support to for the disabled members of our communities. participatory management in training projects. If this resolution is accepted, a co-ordinating David Moore network could be established of local initiatives North Tottenham Team which could report back on 'progress in action' to
XVI CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS
future national workshops or conferences. 12. Delegates to this conference individually commit themselves to support 'bottoms up' by asking each Geoffrey Payne candidate for election in their home area exactly what Oxford Polytechnic powers they promise to delegate to which representa tives of their communities. 8. Any financial contribution from the government to the Inner City Trust should not come out of the S. Anderson Harrow D.C. existing urban programme budget but should instead be entirely new money. 13. Repeal the Housing and Planning Act 1986. Hand back LD DC areas and power to the boroughs Isidoros Diakides and people. Hackney Inner City Partnership Sam Webb 9. That community architecture and community Newham Tower Block Tenants Campaign regeneration is, by its bottom up nature, directly opposite to such initiatives as the LDDC (London 14. Another community congress next year. Docklands Development Corporation). Much regeneration is taking place in the docklands Congress Audience but with only lip service paid to past communities. 15. This conference believes that people from The LDDC has effectively asset stripped an inner deprived urban areas cannot achieve their dreams city area leaving the previous community bemused by and potential unless they have control over the their new neighbours and surroundings laid out by important choices of every-day life; this control planners answerable to no one. cannot be given, it can only be taken back by That this conference asks that present and future communities. It follows that community organisa initiatives by the government should be securely tied tions and groups must have access to those resources to local consultation and be available to local which enable this to be possible. communities to avoid even greater divides being These resources include particularly land, property, made in our society between the 'haves' with the services and the generation of wealth within cream, and the 'have nots' who have missed the milk communities together with appropriate education round. and training opportunities. Many communities do Ian Jolly not have access to the necessary funding to enable Private Architect their plans to be initiated within a reasonable time and ready access to start-up finance is a prerequisite. 10. Our society, our cities, our communities, are Fundamental to this process is the accountability divided by inequality and fear. The initiatives that are of local community organisations and professionals being taken offer opportunities to heal these wounds, to the people who have to live with the consequences not to deepen them. To this end, it is essential that the of their actions. resources of money and technical help find their way Professionals can have an important part to play to those who need them most. by assisting communities but they must have The resolution I want to put to this conference, commitment to working for, not on communities (on therefore, is that in administering the Inner City tap, not on top). Trust and the National Community Aid Fund, the This conference, therefore calls for appropriate administrators require that the recipients be actively parliamentary legislation to be enacted that will: working to eliminate prejudice within their organisa tions, whether of racial difference, class, gender or i) Give voluntary community development organisa disability, and that they require this also of their tions the right to local government finance to fund technical advisors and contractors. feasibility development studies for their communities and appropriate start-up finance. Local Authorities Judy Ashley should have the power to raise a minimum rate Leicester Federation of Housing Societies precept of two pence in the pound specifically for this purpose. 11. That the money raised by Inner City Aid should be directly controlled by democratically organised ii) Introduce a re-establishment tax which will oblige community groups- not by professionals or so-called all national, private and public sector businesses to experts on planning, architecture or any other reinstate land and property to useable condition specialism. when they disinvest from an area. H. Hinsley iii) Re-write the terms of reference of all relevant Support Co-operative Quangos (eg, the Housing Corporation, British Rail, xvii CONFERENCE RESOLUTIONS
The British Waterways Board, English Estates, Bruce Smith, Sheffield Development Corporations, Health Authorities, and Howard Seymour, Liverpool others) to create a special responsibility to make land Laurie Chiarena, Liverpool and resources available for community led and Anthony McGann, Liverpool controlled initiatives. Bill Halsall, Liverpool John Ashton, Liverpool iv) Make these Quangos accountable to local communities through Regional Committees including Local Authority and Community Organisation 16. That this conference should stand adjourned representatives. because, this conference applauds the initiative of the v) Give voluntary community development organisa conference organisers, welcomes the setting up of tions powers to acquire public or private sector land Inner City Aid and welcomes HRH The Prince of and property through public or private sector subsidy Wales as Patron; asks that we should not cease our at a price to be established on the basis of an efforts to implement the tasks set by Community assessment of its real market value. Architecture until all men and women have economic liberty-freedom of choice and a decent city to live in, The current owners of buildings and land shall be no matter their class, colour or religion. required to specify their development plans for these assets and will be liable to taxation on the basis of George Clark assumed returns based on their own book values. Director of Community Services Ltd
EDITORS' NOTE
While every attempt has been made to present a Wherever possible we have tried to integrate verbatim report of the Building Communities photographs with the text. Illustration has depended Conference this has not proved possible in all cases. on the quality of photographs supplied as well as the There are instances where material has been lost content of the presentation. In mqst cases, theoretical while the transcribing tape is being changed and there presentations are illustrated by a photograph of the are times when slight changes have been made to the speaker, while project descriptions are shown transcript to avoid unnecessary confusion or graphically wherever possible. repetition. Where slides have been used in the presentation we have tried to write round the delivery We have tried to identify accurately the names of sequence in order to give an accurate portrayal of the people who participated in the open forum sessions, schemes and projects being discussed. In addition, but in some cases this has proved impossible despite where illness or the tight programme prevented careful cross-checking. There are also cases where the speakers from delivering the full text of their transcript is blurred to the extent that proper names prepared address we have published the most have inadvertently been misspelt. For these, and for complete version in our possession. the faults you find and we have missed, we apologise.
XVlll .. DAY ONE
Introduction
WELCOME BY CONFERENCE PRESIDENT
Thank you, Lord Scarman. This is an international conference, the first on community architecture that we hope will become the first of many. We will be showing through the two days the international content, but of course the main aim of the conference is to do with the United Kingdom. The urban environment in the United Kingdom, as in many other parts of the world, has largely become recognised as a disaster area, not because of want of effort by local and private organisations, by the public and private sector, but because the local community perhaps wasn't involved to the extent it should have been from the outset; and development has come to be seen as a rather bad thing. The demolition of tower blocks in and around the United Kingdom over the last five years simply endorses that problem: that is a total loss of resource, the removal of the very properties that were meant to be the bright new houses of the sixties. This leaves us in the United Kingdom with a housing problem second to none in the Western world. Government figures are rather daunting, but some people argue that we have, in the housing field alone, an £86 billion problem, not to mention infrastructure, and then the problems of industry and other environmental difficulties. Conventional approaches don't seem to work, in that the cost to implement them from the top down is so prohibitive that the economy doesn't seem to be able to sustain that approach. outset, than those where people are not involved at So in partnership with the traditional way of all. So I hand you over to the chairman for the first working from the top down, this conference is meant day, Lord Scarman, and the proceedings will to show that we can also work from the bottom up, conclude this morning with a discussion after His allowing ordinary communities access to resources Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has given us his and skills so that they themselves can also participate keynote address. Thank you. Lord Scarman. in what is becoming an urgent problem, one in which we can't wait too long for a solution. Now we're not starting from scratch. This CHAIRMAN'S INTRODUCTION conference is now, but many schemes have been going on in the last fifteen years, and you're going to Mr Conference President, Ladies and Gentlemen. hear about them during the next few days; we have a It is my privilege now to introduce the business of the whole range of people from the community right conference and I shall do so in a very few opening through to politicians and economists. And they will words. But before I do so, let me welcome all of you to be showing you that the pioneering developments this conference which is the first of its sort ever held, that do involve people have a far better chance of and we hope will break new ground and germinate sustaining themselves as viable communities from the new ideas where new ground and new ideas are very .. DAY ONE: INTRODUCTION
necessary indeed. In welcoming all of you to the conference, I would like specifically to say how pleased we of the United Kingdom are that we should have amongst us some visitors from overseas. They are indeed welcome and they indicate our recognition that this is an international conference even though of necessity much of the emphasis will be on national problems and what we can do within our own nation. Almost exactly five years ago, the Home Secretary published the Brixton Report on the disorders there in 1981. In that report there were a number of recommendations concerning inner city conditions. Now I identified Brixton disturbances as arising from a complex social, political and economic situation that was not special to Brixton, but existed in many of our inner cities. The elements of the problem as I then saw it were decaying urban structure, bad quality and inadequate housing, a lack of job opportunities, high unemployment, and the whole made more com plicated, more difficult and more grievous by the existence of racial disadvantage and discrimination. A number of my recommendations in the field of policing were implemented with considerable rapidity, and much credit is due to the police who anticipated legislation in a number of respects. But the social recommendations which I put forward did not evoke such a quick response. In particular, I concluded that there was a need for effective co-ordinated action to improve living conditions in the inner city. This need has not even yet been fully met, but there is no doubt that particularly during the last year or so International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. As tremendous efforts have been made by private, public President of the United Kingdom Council for the and voluntary agencies to improve housing provision year, I feel it my duty to remind the conference that and to improve job opportunities. But as we all know, there are very many people in this country, as in other much, a very great deal indeed, remains to be done. countries, who are very far removed from having any The provision of housing for the homeless and the choices or options themselves over the houses in inadequately housed is, of course, the overriding which they live, or maybe compelled to live. I theme of this conference during the next two days, received, only a few days ago, a very moving letter and as our president has already indicated, both by about this conference from the Bayswater Hotel what he does outside this conference and by his few Homelessness Project. That project represents words in opening the conference, we shall be stressing families living in bed and breakfast in the Bayswater the need to harness the energy and initiative of the area, and I will conclude my observations by quoting people who live in the inner cities. I don't really like a passage from their letter to me. And now I quote saying 'I told you so', so please forgive me, but I did from the Bayswater Homelessness Project: say in the Brixton Report that a 'top down' approach All of us here (that is, in Bayswater) urge you to tell the to regeneration of the depressed urban areas had not conference that homeless people also have a legitimate interest worked; and I emphasised that people who live in the in the way that housing is provided. The average family in a inner city need more say and more control over their Bayswater bed and breakfast hotel is trying to bring up children in a "home" which is no more than a single tiny room, living conditions, over local projects and particularly usually with no cooking facilities, with all their worldly goods over the development of their housing. I suggest to stacked dangerously on top of wardrobes, electric wires you, Ladies and Gentlemen, that those two words, festooned across what little space there is. No wonder we see people's choice and people's control, need to become nasty scalds as children pull down the electric cable to the the keynotes of the debate upon which we are now kettle. For this appalling accommodation over £200 a week st1uting. per room is paid to the hotel owner. The families are the first to The conference is, as I have said, international as say that this is an absurd waste of money. It would be cheaper to use the resources to build new homes. well as national, and indeed this conference is one of the lead-in events for next year's United Nations' Ladies and Gentlemen, in our deliberations over the 2 .. DAY ONE: INTRODUCTION next two days, let us, with a sense of humility in the session as well as points arising from His Royal face of the distress of people such as that, address Highness's address. You should have found a slip in ourselves to the business of the conference your delegate's pack which you can hand in to any remembering always that the homeless should have a official, who will make their way to me, and I shall choice as well as everybody else. endeavour to see that as many speakers as possible can say a few words in the limited time allowed. Each CONFERENCE PRESIDENT speaker should try and limit him or herself to about The first session, as you all know from your two minutes. More than that I think will be very programme, is entitled Environment and the difficult to accommodate. But now we will go straight Community and we have five speakers. There will be into the business. I need not introduce our speakers no time before the coffee break for a discussion on the because you will already have the introductory points arising out of this session, but after the keynote matter in your programme of events. And I call first address by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales on Paddy Doherty, Projects Director, North West there will be a discussion period. In that discussion Centre for Learning and Development, Northern period the speakers may take up points raised in this Ireland.
3 SESSION 1
Environment and the Community: From Protest to Participation
PADDY DOHERTY, Projects Director, North half centuries: the two churches, the Catholic Church West Centre for Learning and Development, and Protestant Church look at each other across an Northern Ireland. area known as the Bogside. It is one of the few remaining walled cities in the whole of Europe. Lord Scarman, Ladies and Gentlemen. Derry, after the last war, went into decline rapidly The most important avenue and perhaps the only along with its dockland. Dilapidation. Gracious avenue towards human development is the willing houses began to fall into disrepair. There was acceptance of responsibility. Whether that happens hopelessness and helplessness and apathy; and to be an individual out of the amorphous mass of apathy to me is frozen violence which spills on to the humanity trying to make the statement 'I am' or the streets of Northern Ireland. Despair went right across community group struggling against the dead hand of the province, and resulted in so much violence that bureaucracy, or an emerging nation trying to carve the British Army was brought in to secure the peace. out an identity and a rule for itself on this planet, An uneasy peace lasted for about one year and with which is fastly running out of resources. Un the introduction of internment without trial and the fortunately the exercise of authority and responsibility killing of thirteen people in my city on Bloody always carries risks and those who organise society Sunday, the violence escalated. for us, out of the goodness of their own heart, or The bombing campaign of the Provisional IRA perhaps out of a sense of fear, will not allow us to tore the heart out of the city. And those who suffered exercise that authority and that responsibility and most were the young people. At that time it was would rather do it for us and continue to create a decided to open a community workshop, one of the dependent people. If this conference does nothing first in these islands, and we opened in an old building more this week than send us away with the intention which had been built in 1814 and was in an awful state of clawing back from central authority the power that of dilapidation. No-one wanted it. And with the we need to make decisions about our own lives, it will young people working on that building, cleaning it have served its purpose. Last night I listened to the out, we had removed 300 tons of rubble before we delegate from Los Angeles talk about what they're could start to see even the walls. And out of the work doing there and he used terms like 500 million dollars of their own hands the building began to take shape. of investment; he talked of hundreds of houses being Young hands scarred with the throwing of stones built by ordinary people. Beside this, the story I have began to produce a thing of beauty. Armed with to tell today almost fades into insignificance. But, experience gained in this project, we then decided to there is a significance. I come from a city at war and it look beyond it and we looked at the ancient city of is very important that throughout the turmoil of Derry and its walls and we examined it and because of Northern Ireland we have been able to hammer out lack of political will, the place had fallen into some questions, not answers, remember, questions disrepair, the bombing campaign had left gaps all that can be put to the people of this country in their over the city. different inner cities, which are falling into disrepair, The challenge was - could we in fact bring this city and to the millions of people who are unemployed at back to life? The people had fled and the first building this moment in time. I will tell you that story and I that we bought was a building scheduled for will sum up when I am finished. demolition. And we worked at that building and, during the time that we were working, our young The city of Derry is situated in the north-west of people discovered an old well which had obviously Ireland, right on the border with the Republic, and been used during the famous siege of Londonderry in when the country was divided in 1922, it cut off Derry the year 1688. So the young people themselves were from its natural hinterland. It's an ancient and getting in touch with their own history. The beautiful city and its architecture spans three and a magnificent staircase was restored in its full glory. 4 SESSION 1: ENVIRONMENT AND THE COMMUNITY
The William and Mary ceiling, the only one left in the produced one of the finest exhibitions of painting whole area, was restored as it had been and the ever seen in the city. These young people are gold building was brought back to life. The building in nuggets and must be cared for. The most ambitious turn, of course, gave to us space where young people project was the one on the left. That old set of could be trained and have an experience in a variety buildings was in such a bad state of repair that we had of crafts- photography, video and craftwork of every to begin to take some of it down in order to get at the kind. The second building we got was one which had root of the trouble. We began to rebuild and during been bombed. There was no roof on it, the floors had the course of the rebuilding the Ethiopian crisis hit gone, the windows had gone; nothing but the walls the world and my city, which has 80 per cent of the was left. That building was brought back to life again. heads of households in poor areas unemployed, Significant because the gates that are on that building subscribed more per head of the population than any were built in memory of one of our tutors who died other city in Ireland. And Ireland itself gave more per after a short illness. The coat of arms of his father is head of the population than any other nation in the on the right, the coat of arms of his mother is on the world; perhaps, remembering its own famine of more left. It is a touch of humanity amidst the building of than a hundred years ago. The buildings were bricks and mortar; where we can, we build living brought back to life, the people of the Georgian era accommodation in these premises to bring back knew how to live. You can see how beautiful they are. people who have left because of either fear or because The building on the left was bombed and besides our they went to other areas because of bad housing library we cleared the site and that building became conditions. Other parts of the building are used for an amazing learning experience for the young people music, computer studies, and, where we can, we blur and the long-term unemployed. Building with fairly the edges between what is considered men's work and sophisticated building skills, it was brought back to women's work. This old building had been life and it is now our headquarters. abandoned and bombed, the rear of it had been A few shots now of the people working on the completely demolished. We went to work on that scheme. Sorry, the building on the right is what's building with the young people and some long-term known as California House- the people of California unemployed and we brought it back to life. That don't know that. I'll be hoping to get them to pay for building is now used as a library for the young people, the building of it. It was so bad that we had to remove it is used as a centre for reconciliation by the members it totally and we got the young people to clean the of the public and it is used for art exhibitions- and the bricks- the recycling of resources. Some of the people four young people with their tutor were four of the working on the site. Some people had never worked toughest young kids and when they were given the in their lives before. Looks like a debate there opportunity to show what they could do they between those who wear hard hats and those who
.. 5 6 SESSION 1: ENVIRONMENT AND THE COMMUNITY don't like to wear hard hats and all of us working in ground and who see society as it is and who are building sites knew the problems of that. The men in indignant enough to want to change it. And with their the middle appear to have a casting vote- he hasn't head high enough in the heavens to see a dream. And made up his mind yet. That is the site when it was that is enough to make that dream a reality. Thank finished. When we examined the old city maps we you very much. discovered that there was originally a castle built on that site that had disappeared. We asked our CHAIRMAN Thank you, Mr Doherty. It's wonderful architect, and remember in this kind of work you to start this conference with a picture of achievement, need a very sympathetic architect and one who is not just words, but achievement. We now have Dr prepared to work without pay preferably. We'd Arcot Ramachandram, Director of the United convinced the City Council to adopt this scheme, we Nations Centre for Human Settlements from got some money from Europe, some money from Nairobi. Central Government, and we decided with the help of an outside contact this time to bring that castle back to life, to be used as a resource for the community and DR ARCOT RAMACHANDRAM, Director, interpretive centre. Isn't it a cracker? And because the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements hardest had been chased out of the area in the year (Habitat), Nairobi. 1608 we decided to celebrate the occasion of building Mr Chairman, Lord Scarman, distinguished delegates, the family home again, we brought them back from Ladies and Gentlemen. all over the world and we had a party which lasted a It is indeed a great pleasure for me to be here this month. morning, the first international conference on The castle is on the right. We will take a tunnel community architecture, planning and development. from the castle and bring it up inside a vacant site at The theme of the conference Building Communities, the moment where we will build a craft village. The is close to the work of the United Nations Centre for site is derelict. It has been bought, some money has Human Settlements. The Centre was founded in been acquired and that site will be used for a craft 1978. As a consequence of our technical co-operation village where the young people who are now being and activities in 85 developing countries, covering all trained will hopefully earn a living. It may be that aspects of settlement, planning urban shelter and shape or that shape. Who knows? A shot of few of the community services, we have come to the conclusion young people; and let us remember in all the work that successful amelioration of shelter conditions that we do, we are concerned about creating a better requires the active participation of those involved; life for those who come behind us. We have a small namely the urban for themselves. If economic and farm where young people get in touch with nature social development is to proceed, and not stagnate, in and it is not all work as you can see. And in the the development of countries all over the world, the meantime, someone decided to plant a bomb in the poor, who in these countries form the majority of the library. But we needed a new carpet anyway! population, must cease being recipients of aid and Thank you very much. become active participants in the planning and the Just a few words to sum up. To me, society is building of their own future. And this changing role divided in two main groups. Those who care and must be facilitated by governments, since we believe those who don't. And of those who care, there are that it is in their own interest to do so. This facilitator three easily recognisable elements. There are those role and posture of government has been referred to people who work within institutions and hope to as an 'enabling strategy'. We have just heard our bring about change through evolution. And there are previous speaker: 'What can be done ifthere is a will?' other people who withdraw and who attempt to This is the way forward. Active community develop themselves believing that with this kind of participation, particularly in the construction and mystique you can change the world around you. And improvement of shelter, has the potential sub there are those who in a sense of frustration lash out stantially to improve the urban environment: this has against the wrongs of society hoping that in the greatly influenced the programme of work connected destruction of institutions they may create the fallow with the International Year of Shelter for the ground for better institutions. I believe that none of Homeless for which this organisation, of which I am these ideas on their own can succeed. To opt out is to privileged to be the head, has the organising deny the existence of others and to destroy any hope responsibility. The scale of the need, present and is to deny the lesson of history. What we need are anticipated, is so enormous that it is clearly beyond people who have their feet firmly planted on the the capacity of governments around the world to cope. They need partners and allies and who better than the beneficiary community itself; the poor of the (OPPOSITE) The Award winning Derry Inner City Project. cities throughout the world have demonstrated
• 0 7 SESSION I: ENVIRONMENT AND THE COMMUNITY remarkable ability, energy and resourcefulness in coping with their situation, under the right conditions building for themselves and improving their own shelter facilities. Within the next fifteen years a million people will be added to every city and town in the developing countries of the world. And most of those who will be coming to these cities are the poor, particularly from the rural areas, who will not have the resources for adequate shelter nor the necessary services of water supplies, sanitation, and waste disposal. A substantial number will be rural migrants, but, remember that more than half will be born in the cities and all will look to the city to provide them with a livelihood and the means to build a better future for themselves and their children. Unfortunately, in many industrialised countries and in the developing countries there is a widespread belief, a quite mistaken point of view, which sees this urban growth as an undesirable and highly destabilising process. We are asked to believe that a mysterious series of events is causing untold numbers of happy, virtuous, hardworking rural citizens to drift to the city where they become lazy, shiftless, irresponsible, dissatisfied, even criminal, parasites on society. We are also asked to believe that these millions of people are so unenlightened, so sailing on the wings of idealism. It is a practical and misguided that they cling tenaciously to their practicable approach grounded in economic realism miserable life in the city despite all efforts of and validated by experience. Already the urban areas benevolent authorities to persuade them to move in the developing countries conth bute 50 per cent of back to the countryside in their own best interest. We the gross domestic product of the country and by the all know, of course, that this is simply not so and I year 2000 will reach two thirds of the GDP. It is, think it is about time that we put this kind of talk to therefore, clear that the future of economic rest and faced the realities of the world today. While development in the countries of Africa, Asia and we do not have all the answers we do know that Latin America is linked to the continuous economic urbanisation is the single most important process growth of their towns and cities. But this growth will detectable in the developing countries of the world not occur if these cities are allowed to slip into an today. We also know that it is not a negative abyss of despair and hopelessness. Up to now, the phenomenon; it is not negative for the people poor have coped in that they have managed to build concerned, people born in rural areas migrate to the themselves some sort of shelter. They have survived cities and people born in cities tend to remain in cities. against all kinds of odds: eviction from the sites they It is not negative for the development of the economy occupy, lack of assistance (or even overt hostility) both national and local. It is not negative from a from the authorities, lack of health care and social point of view since it promotes awareness, educational opportunities and a condition of interaction, change, and above all participation. Let permanent physical precariousness. Our estimates us therefore see the urban poor for what they really indicate that over 1 billion people around the world are: a resource, rather than a problem. We must be lack adequate shelter, water supplies, sanitation and guided in our actions by the recognition that if cities services. And at least 100 million people are literally and towns are to grow and prosper in the future homeless in the developing countries. The admirable physically, economically and socially, and to fulfil efforts of the urban poor in providing their own their historic role as creators of wealth and as creators shelter has been recognised and in many countries of technological and social change the potential enabling policies are becoming accepted, with contribution of the poor must be harnessed. In short, increasing assistance being directed to self-help as has been said by Mr Robert McNamara, former efforts and to community participation projects president of theW orld Bank, if the cities of the world which develop and improve the quality of services in will not deal constructively with the problems of the the individual settlements. However, there is urgent poor then the poor will deal destructively with cities. need to give a sense of direction to all this. At present, Mr Chairman, ours is not another romantic notion the bulk of the urban population of developing 8 SESSION 1: ENVIRONMENT AND THE COMMUNITY countries settles and consolidates wherever towns second category includes social services notably and opportunity permit. One of the more curious health care and primary education. These actions aspects of this whole problem is that although the that I've suggested should by no means be seen as private and the public sectors thrive on the facilities merely theoretical. They are derived from government cities provide, namely infrastructure, transport community partnerships which have worked in services and human power, they remain extremely locations as far flung as Lima in Peru, Accra in grudging in surrendering to the city even a small Ghana, Bombay in Karachi and Berundi in Somali. proportion of the wealth thus created. This, among Community groups, with the support of government other things, makes it extremely difficult to attract and governmental organisations and the private the level of people that are needed to manage urban sector, have turned slums and shanty towns from areas expertly and effectively. Enlightened and places of despair into signs of hope through self-help responsible leadership may provide the required construction of building projects, the building of direction and leadership but nothing is going to come schools and community centres and the improvement to fruition unless and until cities receive a fair share of of health and sanitary facilities. the wealth they produce and cities are planned and Finally, Mr Chairman, although I have all along managed by individuals committed enough to tended to highlight the situation in developing identify their future with that of the city, who have countries where the problems of the urban poor are sufficient experience to chart the best course ahead, most widespread and threatening, I am sure it is who are resourceful enough to mobilise the financial unnecessary to remind my distinguished audience resources necessary to sustain urban development and, that poverty knows no frontiers and is not the as has been pointed out by the previous speaker, are exclusive domain of the developing countries. The confident enough to recognise public and community enabling actions that I have outlined are as participation as a resource for, rather than a appropriate for the squatter settlements of Sao Paolo constraint on, urban management and are sufficiently and Kinshasha as they are for the inner city of the recognised and rewarded to be able to take pride in metropolitan areas of the industrialised developed their job. Enabling strategies, Mr Chairman, must countries. Certainly though, governments of the contain a response to two main challenges: developing countries cannot claim to have the administrative capacity and the resources needed to how to deal with problems created by very large make enabling strategies work. What is needed is the numbers of people; political will to act, based on understanding that the how to provide for the effective autonomy of neglect of the poor and their aspirations is community based groups. incompatible with the ethical values that we all profess to share. It can be summarised in one phrase: It would be impossible to find answers to the first 'The betterment of the human condition'. Our task challenge without the adoption of a city-wide grows every day and time is running out. The approach while the second challenge can only be met International Year of Shelter for the Homeless has at the local level, whether it be an inner city slum or already raised a global awareness of the immensity of one of the marginal shanty towns so prevalent in the the task ahead. Next to food, shelter is the most cities of the Third World. Enabling strategies must important basic human right of all people. It is now therefore fuse settlement-wide action with local up to those who hold the reins of government, and initiative. The main responsibility of government at those who exercise influence on them, to face up to the local authority level resides in managing the the demands and aspirations of their peoples; they growth, both physical and economic, of the must see to it that the world of day-to-day survival of settlement as a whole. This is a responsibility that the poor and the disadvantaged (be it in my home authorities have always sought to exercise and can country, India, or in this great country, the United only be vested in governments. The main re Kingdom) is turned into a future where their dreams sponsibilities of community-based groups reside in of a new world built upon the existing one can be carrying out improvements at community level. realised. Thank you. These are responsibilities that the people have to exercise de facto even if this is not formally their CHAIRMAN Thank you, Dr Ramachandram, and we responsibility. In this new division, therefore, public have indeed been reminded most eloquently that the authorities do not propagate their responsibilities but problem of shelter for the homeless is an rather assume new ones which reside in the area of international problem and that in the Third World supportive and enabling actions. Such services fall are the great cities of the next generation. I now call into two main categories: the first is a physical on Madame Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge, Principal infrastructure especially the networks; water, Project Officer of the National Voluntary Organisa electricity, sanitation and waste disposal. And the tion's Anti-Racist Consortium. Madame Mee-Yan. 9 SESSION 1: ENVIRONMENT AND THE COMMUNITY
MEE-YAN CHEUNG-JUDGE, Principal Project various groups by putting emphasis only on the Officer, National Voluntary Organisation's Anti positive view of their cultural contribution. But Racist Consortium. actually at policy level, there is a lack of will to According to the United Nations there are 132 translate any of such view into reality. The third type independent political states in the world. The number of response is total acceptance. These political states may fluctuate because of the political instability in (very few exist in the world) believe in the peaceful the world but, as they stand, 91.8 per cent are multi co-existence of different groups within the state line racial/ethnic. That means that within the confinement and therefore in policy they pursue co-existence via a of a political boundary there co-exist several racial systematic equality programme. and ethnic groups. There are various factors that give If one does a policy audit in the United Kingdom rise to this demographic reality: the process of one finds that United Kingdom response to its multi modernisation, industrialisation, the operation of racial ethnic society really belongs to category two if colonisation and imperialism. However, how they not bordering on number one. Most of the policies operate may be debatable but the reality of such relating to black and ethnic communities are of demographic reality is undeniable. The political temporary and remedial nature reflecting a stout consequences of this demographic situation are denial not only that Britain has been, is now and will significant because the moral axioms and values of be a multi-racial society, but that such demographic one group are not equated with the moral axioms and reality is actually a legacy of Britain's colonial and values of the other group. And depending on how the imperialistic past. It is important to note the political states respond to this demographic reality, the and international background in our discussion on intergroup relationship within society can either be racism when a society like Britain's response to the very fragile or harmonious. In general, there are three multi-racial population results in the denial of the types of response that political states can make dignity and integrity of the black ethnic communities. towards multi-racial society. The first type is total While finding support for such a system in some refusal to accept that a multi-racial society exists negative and deterministic beliefs about black and within their country and therefore the majority of the racial communities, racism becomes institutionalised, state policies reflect only the dominant group's which, in turn, results in racism being illustrated at all culture, values, and beliefs. The second type of levels. response from some states is 'pseudo acceptance'. These states may, at face value, accept the integrity of Today we have no time to recite harsh 10 .. SESSION 1: ENVIRONMENT AND THE COMMUNITY governmental statistics on unemployment, inequality reports calling for it to exercise more vigorous co in health, education, housing and racial harrassment. ordination within government on matters of racial However, racialism is rampant in the United disadvantage. The only body at ministerial level to Kingdom and, due to a lack of state policy to combat discuss policies concerning racial disadvantage (that racial disadvantage, the quality oflife of black people is the Home Secretary's Advisory Council for Race in this country is severely affected. In 1975 the White Relations) was described by this same report as 'a Papers from the government preceding the 1976 Race high power talking shop deprived of effective power'. Relations Act promised 'a more comprehensive So the government's general strategy on race strategy for dealing with the related, and at least relations has been unchanged. equally important, problem of disadvantage'. The Given this as the situation within a central government has developed no such strategy since government, it is no surprise to see how many local then. The 1977 White Paper policy for the inner city authorities have taken no action at all under Section shifted the whole focus from racial disadvantage to 71 of the Race Relations Act of 1976 in exercising inner cities and assumed that black people would their statutory duty to eliminate unlawful racial dis benefit particularly from measures proposed to advantage and to promote equality of opportunity counter the general problem of the inner cities. and good relations between persons of different racial However, do black communities benefit from such groups. The feebleness of the Race Relations Act policies? The recent Church of England Committee manifests itself in stating such general and ambiguous made significant criticisms about the operation of duties without any support of sanctions or incentives. such policy and concluded that it was 'inadequate As employer, and often the major employer in the and superficial'. The Urban Aid programme provides area, local authorities have shown no real commit an example. It was set up by the Labour Government ment to implement equal opportunity policies. Many in 1969 to help combat economic, environmental and of them just began to monitor their work force some social problems in urban areas by sponsoring ten years after the passing of the Race Relations Act. innovative and experimental projects. Many of you Given this as the situation, is it any surprise to find are involved in such programmes and will know that that people from a racial community vent their anger not only has the amount since then allocated to the and frustration in massive protest? Can you hear the programme been cut drastically, and the local messages they are trying to bring across? They have government component of the 25 per cent been no protection under the law. They are not recognised. subject to rate support grant penalties, but the Their integrity is not accepted. And they have lost expenditure has persistently failed to reach black and trust in looking to the State for leadership in setting ethnic communities who form sizeable proportions of up centres of fairness and justice. What does all this the population in the area targeted by central have to do with your profession? Among the various government schemes. Over 40 per cent of the West functions you carry in your profession as community Indian population and 20 per cent of the Asian architects, surely high on the agenda is community population live in the inner city, compared with 6 per involvement. The fact that you chose Community cent of the white population. Three quarters of the Architecture instead of other specialities is because black population live in a census enumeration district you are committed to extend your professional (ED) with a density of black households of more than service to people within the community. When you 4 per cent, whereas only a tenth of the white lobby for alternative use of land and when you build population live in such areas. Evidence from and convert community buildings, when you build Birmingham shows that although the area has the houses and convert houses for housing associations, highest proportion of blacks in its core area, i.e. 43 when you take initiatives to redevelop land, have you per cent, only 3 per cent of the partnership funds in considered the following things? Have you considered 1983 and 1984 have gone to the black project, the type of people within the community, the totality although nearly half the bids for funds came from of their experience, the socio-economic context where black groups. They received only 13 per cent of the they live, and the type of cultural and racial definition grants in Birmingham. In 1981 another House of of what constitutes an attractive environment and Commons Home Affairs Committee report on racial how to improve their quality of life? Have you disadvantage provided the government with a list of considered any of those in your work? In other words, things that could be done, 'some of which are a have you actively sought to let their world influence · response to past inaction'. It recommended that the your approach to your work? If your work is in an Department of Education and Science should set up a inner city, then involvement in combating racial unit concerned with multi-racial education and that disadvantage could not escape your agenda. the DHSS and DoE should create a specialist racial Where do we go from here? What is needed is a disadvantage unit. The Home Office rejected both critical way of thinking, a healthy introspection and a recommendations. The Home Office also rejected the commitment to participate in an equality movement .. 11 SESSION I: ENVIRONMENT AND THE COMMUNITY
in race, class and gender. At the end of the day, it's know that there is a generalised view that what we not so much what we have accomplished pro have is a society of harmony and that it is annoying fessionally that counts, but it is our integrity. Thank when you get the occasional conflict that comes along you. and upsets the applecart. What I suggest to you is that our society is made up of thousands of minorities and CHAIRMAN Thank you, Madam Mee-Yan. I am thousands of conflicts and that is how our society sorry to tell you that I have had to invite our last two develops and that's how change comes about. If we speakers to limit themselves to five minutes each as can invest in that kind of idea, invest in people, that is we have to close this session not later than 10.50 am. the most important thing I think that could come out Mr David Howell. from the points that were raised by Lord Scarman in his keynote speech: 'People's Choice and People's DAVID HOWELL, Assistant Director, National Control'. Federation of Community Organisations. On Friday, a partnership that I have been involved Good morning Conference, Chair. in will be launched; it's called The National The reason why I wanted to speak at Building Community Partnership. That will give an oppor Communities Conference is to do the thing that has tunity for professional and technical groups to work been done here already this morning, and that is to in partnership with voluntary organisations; not direct people's attention to what Building Com controlling, not determining, not acting like so often munities is about. This conference has a massive in the past when we needed things to be done. The range of different groups and interests here in time has come for power in terms of resources to go to attendance, and the point about communities is that organisations locally. That organisation, community, they start from people. That's what communities are hasn't got a lot- it's not sexy I was told yesterday about and there is no need for us to go away and write and that's one of the problems in trying to get a good treatises on what community actually means. People press for what people are doing. The organisation make their definitions in their localities, in the way that's being launched this week is The National they form organisations, in the way they address Community Partnership, so the one thing I can say in problems in their community; that is what the trying to give a little bit of hype is that when you get voluntary organisations and the voluntary sector are into your motor car and you actually go and park it all doing. Voluntary organisations and projects that somewhere you'll always remember the National people are talking about now haven't been invented Community Partnership because its initials are NCP. in the last few years; they've been going on since Thank you very much. people first emerged and formed societies, but what has happened in the last few years, and you can see CHAIRMAN Ladies and Gentlemen, in a few that through history, is that there seems to be a minutes' time we shall be joined by His Royal definite relationship between the deprivation and the Highness The Prince of Wales who wishes to come in social problems, the crises of a society and the and listen to the concluding phase of the first morning increase in activity of voluntary groups and of people session. If I have to interrupt, it will be for the very striving to do their own thing in their own local happy purpose of welcoming the Prince. community. Now people do a mass of things; they May I say, Mr Dave Howell, thank you very much find their own techniques and they find their own indeed for your speech. You truncated it because of resources. Within this conference you'll see some shortage of time but, by Heavens, you said a few examples of that and you fall over them in your own worthwhile things. communities. It's not hard to find the massive range of those local projects. But what do projects need? DR TONY GIBSON, Development Officer, Town People, as I say, have found some resources and they and Country Planning Association's Lightmoor get on extremely well. Very often there is a wide range Project. of talent that is on tap automatically in their local Lord Scarman and delegates, communities. But one of the things that we can do, I want to talk about needs, resources and the human and this is what a whole range of organisations have cussedness factor. We are all pretty familiar with all been doing in a small way, is to form the kind of three of them, particularly the last one. In the partnerships that make life meaningful by putting the devastated inner cities, in the housing estates where investment back into people, and the investment back people fear to know each other, in the dormitory into people in their organisation in the community. suburbs where people are waking up suddenly to find This conference is made up of a whole range of that changes are overtaking them which make them people coming from different backgrounds and what victims instead of agents of change, they and we know we have in this room is a representation of the about needs. massive range of conflicts that are in our society. I What about resources? Many of the resources are 12 SESSION I: ENVIRONMENT AND THE COMMUNITY close at hand. There are the resources of the land ago, materials which would help people see what is that's lying idle, the premises that are unused or being planned. We produce something called hardly used at all, the equipment, the offcuts, the planning for real; it's a very crude sort of model, as materials that are often just burnt by the factories. crude as you can get. The point about planning for And the people. People in work, some of them with real is that you make a gigantic model, which has got professional skills. People who are retired. And the the grot as well as the houses. You make it in sections people whose talent has been buried alive by so that it is easy for people to put it together. unemployment. Resources are near to hand but they Different sections of the community, the pensioners' are not enough unless you get hold of some of the lunch club, the youth club, even the architects' money that's swilling around. The money is mainly department, the planning department all take the public's money and it's usually in the hands of the different sections. They make up the place as it is, money minders who may be the central government warts and all. And then they hump the thing around. or who may be the pension funds, the insurance It's awfully important to hump the thing around funds, the building societies, or the banks. That wherever people foregather - in the bingo hall, in the money has somehow to be brought to bear on the park, in the pub, wherever, and then people get the local resources. chance of beginning to put their ideas on to the model Here we come up against the human cussedness - all sorts of ideas, adventure playgrounds or bus factor because when we want to get the act together, routes, whatever they may be. They begin to suggest there is a sort of sod's law that operates whereby some what they are concerned about and then you begin to of us get it right and some of them mess it up and the lace the residents with the professionals. You begin to 'us and them' problem is absolutely crucial. get quite a strong and heady brew because people are You can look at 'us and them' from either end of beginning to establish a working relationship, and the spectrum; the professional 'us' looks at the with that working relationship you can begin to sort residents sometimes as being as thick as two boards out the priorities. because they don't appreciate all the things that we There's an example in the Lightmoor Project which the professionals know (how long we slaved at started from scratch and you can see the way in which university and all the rest) and when they get it developed to the point where we are actually something that we carefully prepared for them they building houses and workshops and roads. take no notice of it, or they look on while it is Now the point about the demonstration project is vandalised. At the other end of the spectrum the that it's bringing in to focus something which people who actually want to get things done reckon represents not merely a working relationship but a that professionals never deliver on time or, when they building of confidence; building that has to be done do deliver, it's not what was ordered. So the 'us and from the ground up. Top down is top heavy. It's all them' problem is central. I think the real trouble right to put all the visionaries and experts together about 'us and them' is that the talkers nearly always you can have Ebenezer Howard and Alice Coleman win. The talkers, I suspect, are mostly the likes of us and everyone else here and that still isn't enough here. We were the ones who at the infant school, when unless you've got that missing component, and the the teacher asked a question, always raised our hands missing component is commitment; the commitment and at the junior school we always wrote a full page. comes from shared achievement. People who have Later on we may have got on to sitting on helped to produce their neighbourhood will want to committees, and asking searching questions and safeguard it and that commitment gives bargaining writing important reports; one way or another we are power to extract money: commitment is staying the ones who are in charge of the talking shop and in power: and this is what outside financiers are the talking shop the flow of ideas is always in one interested in, but what we want to make sure is that direction. the people themselves are the ones who set the terms This is the crux of the problem. Unless we can of the deal. overcome that problem, 85 per cent of the people who have nous, who have local knowledge, who have judgement, who are capable of making up their own CHAIRMAN Thank you, Dr Gibson, for a very minds, but who happen to lack the words or can't get inspiring talk. Ladies and Gentlemen, I believe that a word in edgeways, don't get much of a chance. His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has either That's why Education for Neighbourhood Change, joined us or is about to join us. There will be no coffee first at Nottingham University and subsequently in break. We shall go straight on and I shall be inviting association with the Town and Country Planning the Conference President, Mr Hackney, to introduce Association, began to produce, ten or fifteen years His Royal Highness.
.. 13 SESSION 2
Keynote Address; Building Communities- the Third Force
CHAIRMAN Now I shall ask Dr Hackney, the welcomed. Professional institutes began to take heed Conference President, formally to introduce the of the message. Prince to the business of the Conference. Such is the influence of royalty in this country and it's something we have to welcome because it's CONFERENCE PRESIDENT something that has put this movement on a pedestal The watershed for the Community Architecture that it's going to have a hard job to live up to. But it Movement in the United Kingdom came on 30th May thrives on competition and just think, this is only the 1984 when The Prince of Wales spoke out on the start. Can I introduce to you the champion of the subject at the occasion of the !50th anniversary of the Community Architecture Movement, our patron and Royal Institute of British Architects. Reducing some friend, The Prince of Wales. of the audience to tears, some of joy, some of sorrow, he actually transformed overnight the stature of the HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF Community Architecture Movement. WALES KG KT GCB The main point of the speech was that there were Lord Scarman, Ladies and Gentlemen. professional enablers around who were producing a That, if I may say so, was some write-up and I don't quality product in partnership with the community quite know how I'm going to live up to it. All I can say groups they were meant to serve, in direct contrast is that over the last couple of weeks while we've been perhaps to some of the products produced without travelling around the Arabian Peninsular I've read public participation in the 1960's. By giving royal little tiny bits here and there about what I'm going to endorsement, because that's what it was, Prince say today and so I am absolutely fascinated to hear Charles gave the Community Architecture Movement what I'm actually going to say. (CHUCKLES). But respectability and credibility that it badly needed in whatever I'm going to do, I'm not going to beat about its aims and aspirations to provide a better the bush. professional service from within inner city The reason I am standing here, about to invite a communities. barrage of criticism that I don't know what I am His Royal Highness followed the speech with talking about, that I have got my facts wrong and numerous visits to Community Architecture projects clearly haven't done enough research, is not because I throughout the country and he also talked about it at am a deranged masochist (CHUCKLES), but further speeches, in particular the one at the Institute because I happen to believe that the subject this of Directors in February last year. The effect of this Conference is addressing itself to is one of patronage was soon felt throughout the projects that extraordinary importance. Now I'm here frankly were already in progress, but most of all in the new because what is known as the community architecture projects that were beginning to blossom as a result of approach makes a great deal of sense to me and I this new-found support for the movement. Projects would like to see more people become aware of what finding great difficulty in funding suddenly got off the it actually means. It makes sense to me because my ground at a tremendous speed. People queued up to own personal experience has confirmed it. Through say they supported the Community Architecture going around various parts of the country, Movement. The media started to run stories about particularly some of the more deprived parts, I have the advantage of the professional living and working witnessed something of the decaying urban areas and in schemes. Politicians from all political parties the shattered communities which inhabit them. became interested. It seemed to cut across the Before I had ever heard of community architecture political dogma whether it was a Tory scheme or a I kept wondering to myself how the situation could be Labour scheme; if given the opportunity all improved and transformed. So, when I discovered politicians seem to be able to associate their dogma to what had been achieved by some remarkable the type of scheme they were doing and that was to be architects working closely with groups of people in 14 SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
run-down parts of our inner cities and towns, the first within an environment that is based on a human scale thing I wanted to do was to see for myself what was and which is designed to create a sense of belonging actually going on. Having seen several projects and rather than of alienation and anonymity. Everyone, I having met the people concerned, who had been suspect, in this audience knows intimately the kind of involved in either renovating or building their houses, de-humanising environment I am talking about and I came away totally enthused by the atmosphere I of the urgency of the problems facing our industrial encountered and by the transformation that had towns and cities - especially in the North. At this clearly taken place in the lives of individuals and point I don't think there is any need for me to families. reiterate the problems - everyone knows them and Now, ladies and gentlemen, my problem is that I can see them with their own eyes. The question we are have an inherited inability to keep my mouth shut! all concerned with is the solution to these problems. (LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE). I certainly can't And that, inevitably, is where the disagreement keep it shut when I hear good news and when I find anses. what I consider to be a thoroughly reasonable and Now, no-one can claim that community archi imaginative approach towards solving some of the tecture is the only approach to the problem, but there problems our people face. Before I go any further, let is no doubt in my mind that it can play an important me make it quite clear that you can all ignore what I role in re-building communities of people in decent say if you want to. No-one is under any obligation to surroundings and, at the same time, help to generate do what I suggest. I am merely expressing an opinion fresh economic activity as a spin-off from the new based on personal experience and those who wish to skills that can be learnt during the house-building can follow the banner I intend to unfurl. process. However, the re-building of communities is , One of the main reasons I believe that the I know, and I'm sure many of you know too, a very community architecture approach makes sense is difficult process and requires extraordinarily patient, because I believe in the individual uniqueness of every dedicated professionals to make it actually happen. human being. I believe that every individual has a Many people are not interested in being involved. contribution to make and a potential to achieve, if it There is apathy and resignation; cynicism and, as can be brought out. There are, of course, exceptions, I often as not, other priorities. The statutory bodies do realise, but I believe that individuals tend to and authorities are frequently distrustful of com operate best within a community of other individuals; munity initiatives. There is sometimes a feeling that 15 SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS they are bound to be amateurish, unreliable, tectural profession with regard to community unrealistic and full of endless complications; not to architecture - chief amongst these is the worry that it mention a threat to the established way of doing could easily slide into a black economy provided by things. However, I think it is vital to emphasise that the not very good under a cloak of social idealism for under the community architecture approach it is not those who want to obtain design on the cheap. So, necessary for community groups to displace the clearly it is most important to ensure that architects 'establishment'. So much more could be achieved by deliver a highly competent, professional job in the creating partnerships. Community groups can often best sense of the word. However, I would make a plea contribute vital elements, such as local knowledge, that we look for the opportunities that exist, not just care and maintenance and, above all, sheer highlight the problems that may appear to be unadulterated enthusiasm. The keys to the success of insurmountable. Above all, I would suggest that it is some of the projects I have seen seem to be, firstly, time to submerge differences, to put wise heads that the local authority went out of its way to be together and create stronger associations between flexible in its attitude and to listen to local people those active in this field, rather than wasting time in before drawing up a planning brief. Secondly, the rivalry and competition for publicity and scarce community groups followed strategies that won resources. Most importantly, we need to provide as support and, thirdly, private business (for instance a much support as possible for those remarkable building society) took the trouble to produce a people who care passionately enough to be prepared balanced scheme. There is no doubt that the people I to act as the driving force in these regenerative have met in schemes where they have played a leading projects. They are the ones who tap the technical role in the design and building have found a new sense expertise, whether of architects, lawyers, planners or of belonging, which then often produces a more surveyors. But there is an urgent need to provide relaxed and responsible community (in fact you can greater access to technical expertise, whether through actually feel this in the infectious spirit which regional centres, like the members of The Association pervades these remarkable groups of people). This of Community Technical Aid Centres, ACTAC, or investment of effort gives tangible benefits to all through local authorities making their expertise concerned - to local authorities who find they spend available in helping community groups to implement less on the upkeep of their areas, and to the financial their projects. Birmingham i~ a classic example, institutions who are secure in the knowledge that where the City Architects became one of the first local their investment in the future stability of the schemes authority departments to decentralise their depart is guaranteed. It is so hard sometimes, I find, to ment to allow enterprising architects to set up street convey just what is possible through this approach to corner offices in the older city areas. those who haven't seen it for themselves. In a recent Some weeks ago I believe I got into a certain project I visited there was great cynicism and doubt amount of trouble for suggesting that derelict inner among the residents until a group of them went and city sites should be used for redevelopment in looked at a completed scheme in another part of the preference to greenfield sites. As you can imagine, I country, talked to the people who had been involved was deluged by paper from almost every substantial in the project with a community architect and they builder in the land! (LAUGHTER) And I am now returned bursting with enthusiasm and inspiration to much the wiser but I shall stick to what I said then; get on with their own particular schemes. As I but perhaps I didn't emphasise the difficulties that mentioned earlier, one of the most encouraging builders can face trying to obtain access to these sites aspects of involving people in the decision-making from local authorities. The secret, I think, is to process affecting the environment in which they live, develop partnerships where possible. Despite the is the development of self-confidence. This can then difficulties, some of the largest building organisations lead to the creation of new economic activity and are trying extremely hard against tremendous odds. employment because the task of regeneration falls to Wimpeys and Barratts, for instance, are making the very people who can benefit most by the learning special efforts and have the perseverance to keep of new skills - those who are unemployed. This going in partnership with local authorities and results in them not only restoring their areas to high building societies. In Swindon, Lovells, the builders, standards, but by participating in the actual work and the Halifax Building Society have teamed up to they have the opportunity to acquire skills which they redevelop a derelict area. There is no doubt that the can then trade for wages after they complete their most enterprising schemes are those which take into initial work. account the resources of some good and substantial Ladies and Gentlemen, I do not for one minute buildings and also the endeavours of the existing local underestimate the difficulties and complexities of the community. problems that face us. I know, for instance, of the Ladies and Gentlemen, next year has been considerable anxieties that exist within the archi- designated as the European Year of Environment. 16 SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
1987 is also the International Year of Shelter for the His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, The Inner Homeless with which Lord Scarman is closely City Trust. This trust has a fund-raising arm called involved. We have an opportunity therefore, I would Inner City Aid. It is modelled on successful aid suggest, to do three things - to create a new programmes already initiated in this country for renaissance in architecture; to launch a major which a tremendous amount of money has been campaign to save our heritage; and to stimulate a raised for wortl~y causes. The Trust is meant to whole host oflocal initiatives to promote community provide practical encouragement and support to and economic development. individuals working, as His Royal Highness says in Taking the first point (which will really have to be his conclusion, from the bottom up. The money will the subject of a separate speech at a later date) I think not be put into the present conduit of topped down it is time to resurrect the principles by which classical cash investment. The recipients will be the people Greece operated - in particular we should hoist the themselves with the minimum amount of bureaucracy. flag of a rather obscure person called Polycleitus His Royal Highness has agreed to be the patron of from the highest tower block. He said that this trust, which we hope initially will last for two 'proportion is not a matter of individual taste, but years. The first meeting of the Trustees was yesterday. depends on mathematical laws of harmony, which We managed in record time, I believe fifteen working could only be broken at the expense of beauty'. We days, to get the registration through the charity have been led, I would suggest, by the noses for long commissioners. I wish to thank them for that. I say enough down a path which totally ignores the that because some applications are still in, having principles of harmony and the well-calculated been put in this time last year; so we appreciate their relationship of the parts to the whole. Rhythm, effort. We also have the backing of the Inland balance and equilibrium have been missing for too Revenue, which is quite important for us because this long. We must recall what Ruskin said - trust is so wide-ranging that the Charity Com 'Architecture is that art which so adorns the edifices missioners have said that we seem to have set a raised by man that the sight of them contributes to his precedent here. mental health, power and pleasure'. The exact This isn't a specific charity. This is about opposite has been happening for too long and people regenerating Britain's inner cities. The press has have been ignored. John Betjeman knew what he was picked up the term 'Band Aid for the Inner Cities' and talking about when he wrote that 'Human scale is the indeed we are modelling it on that tremendous effort size God made the world for mankind's sake, not to of which Britain should be proud. But this particular frighten or intimidate. Every shape makes him feel trust is about Britain itself, the inner cities and the human. The highest mountain in the world is of such deprivation, bad housing and unemployment in these a shape it makes him feel grand, and the diversity areas. Those who contribute to the trust, and we're makes him feel his own variety'. Can't we try, looking to major benefactors, major industry, therefore, to make mankind feel grand? Can't we government and also private individuals and, as raise the spirits by restoring a sense of harmony; by Paddy said earlier today, people in these islands, re-establishing human scale in street patterns and particularly in Ireland, who are known for their heights of buildings; by redesigning those huge areas generosity, will be supporting a social investment in of what is euphemistically known as 'public open the renaissance of the United Kingdom from the space' between tower blocks which lie derelict, inner city outwards. They will be supporting not only festering and anonymous? Can't we restore people's an alternative method of directing money and pride; bring back self-confidence; develop the resources to where it's most urgently needed, but a potential and very real skills of individual people in whole range of practical schemes which will this island? This may all be a tall order, I realise, but complement existing programmes and are not meant how can any country survive and prosper unless it has to replace existing endeavours. an aim and an inspiration? So, let's make 1987, if we This fund is not meant to compete in any way with possibly can, the start of a new renaissance for Britain local or central government's initiatives and we hope - from the bottom up. the money that is put in to these areas will not in any Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen. way diminish existing funding going into adjacent areas. What the trustees are hoping for is that this PRESIDENT indeed will be nothing less than a new deal for local Thank you, your Royal Highness. As you've communities, a strategy for rebuilding social probably read in the press, it is also the intention of cohesion as well as the physical environment of this conference to launch certain initiatives for which Britain's blighted inner cities. What we are His Royal Highness has agreed to be our patron. endeavouring to do is nothing short of totally I am going to take these in order. I'd like to upgrading the environment by creating long-term announce first the setting up under the patronage of employment in these areas and by the teaching of new .. 17 SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS skills to residents and community groups. They will go through. So these professionals are men to not only tidy up, brighten up, improve, renovate and articulate the residents' and community cases when build new structures, but the mere task of doing that they put their proposals to local authorities, central will in fact be their investment for the future. They government, and the major financial institutions. So, will create new jobs, new opportunities. We hope that on behalf of the National Community Partnership, the public and private sector agencies will see this as this conference today launches the National something very worthy of support. It is in no way Community Aid Fund. meant to be the panacea to solve all evils. We are not Thank you. indicating how much money we expect to raise but we are optimistic, and even if we manage to achieve the The first main speaker this morning was Paddy targets that others have done in the last two years in Doherty, a social entrepreneur driven by vision, similar endeavours abroad, it will be as nothing determination and an enlightened perception of what compared to the extent of the problem. But it is hoped a community can achieve if it is simply given the that the money we raise will trigger off a whole re means to do so. In June last year, His Royal Highness investment in these areas by the traditional finance The Prince of Wales presented the Charles Douglas giving agencies. Many of them are blighted because Home Award to Paddy Doherty and his team as the the major funding bodies don't feel their investors get top prize for the first year of the Community a good return on their money coming into these areas. Enterprise Scheme, sponsored jointly by The Times So if nothing else, we hope that this funding will bring newspaper and the Royal Institute of British these schemes to that level where the major building Architects. This scheme will be repeated this year, societies, the pension funds and the insurance and is indeed launched today. It is backed by the companies will look again at participating in these Gulbenkian Foundation. The big difference for this areas with their much needed cash. second year is that we are concentrating on a special The Trustees for the time being are: The Reverend category of award to celebrate the International Year Canon Sebastian Charles, Sir Hector Laing, Sir of Shelter for the Homeless; that means schemes Frank Layfield, Mr Evelyn de Rothschild, The Rt which benefit people who do not have permanent Hon The Lord Scarman, Mr Sam Springer, Mr homes will get a special category. And it is hoped that Wynford Vaughan-Thomas and myself. The patron many people here today who didn't submit last year, is His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. and many of those schemes that" didn't succeed last Thank you. year because there's a tremendous amount of competition, will in fact submit their schemes this The second announcement today, also concerning year, and I hope the publicity attached to this money, is the initiative of the National Community conference will go out to others who are not here Partnership under their chairman, David Howell, today, and we will get more than two hundred entries; who is one of our speakers this morning. We are last year we had about a hundred and eighty-four. launching today the Community Aid Fund. This We're looking for the most imaginative, viable and fund will be to pay those much-needed professional need-fulfilling community projects which have been enablers the right rate for the job, for actually living initiated by the communities themselves, which the and working in these schemes and getting them off professionals then serve; we're not looking at the ground. Because of the degree of intensity of schemes generated from the top down. And they can labour involvement, present scales of fees by all be housing, especially the category about the institutes don't recognise the amount of commitment homeless this year, environmental improvements, involved, and it's very difficult on the face of it to workshops for starter businesses, urban farms, justify higher fees and higher wages for these people; community centres, adventure playgrounds or what but they are committing, with missionary zeal, their have you, if it raises the spirit in these inner city and lives to these schemes and the Aid Fund is aimed to rural areas. It is not, I should emphasise, specifically allow communities in these urban regenerative orientated only to the inner city but to anything that schemes to call in professional enablers directly is an example of community enterprise. The prize themselves, and not wait for these people to be paid money this year will be similar to last year, donated for by others. By involving local people in the very generously by the Gulbenkian Foundation, of community architecture process, and having as their £10,000. And I look forward to it being as successful, neighbours these community catalysts, professionals, if not far more successful, than the scheme we had last a partnership between professionals and communities year. So it gives me great pleasure to announce that will be established. It is a problem of a modern society our patron for the second year for the Community that you simply can't get out with a shovel and start Enterprise Scheme is His Royal Highness The Prince digging and improving or building a new house, of Wales. there's a whole panoply of controls which we need to Thank you. 18 .. SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
The final announcement is to celebrate the schemes around the world which are simply so unique International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, a you can't copy them. In this case it can be copied special award from the Building and Social Housing anywhere. The residents have been involved in self Foundation for schemes of tremendous community build and they've been involved in the management effort, which has shownjust what communities can of the scheme. do abroad when they're given the opportunity. This The Udaynarayanpur Scheme of rural housing is a scheme is part ofthe contribution to the International project in India which has provided, by self-help Year of Shelter for the Homeless; the Building and methods alone, five hundred houses for destitute Social Housing Foundation itself is funded by a families in the Ganges Delta area of India. No other group of one-time, previously homeless, ex method would have provided this scheme, it simply servicemen. We're giving two awards today, for had to be a partnership of money and the innovative housing projects in each of the years 1985 involvement of the locals in stabilising their area, and 1986. I believe another one will be given in 1987. building their own community. And the housing A panel of international assessors, including Dr project forms only part of a much broader self-help Ramachandram who you heard this morning, scheme for the whole region, which includes the Director of the United Nations Settlement Founda provision of clean water and health education and tion, and Dr Soedjatmoko, the Rector of the United community centres for local people. Nations University Tokyo, and their panel, have Both projects receive £10,000, to be used by the selected the winners. winners to publicise their efforts so that others will I'll be asking His Royal Highness to present two follow. And we have managed, with the agreement of very splendid trophies, and perhaps Sue Barrow and the Charity Commissioners, to do it in such a way Jane Anthony, the Welsh designers, will stand up so that it's in the form of a gift and a prize, so that tax is we can see who is responsible for these fine statuettes not deducted off the prize. So on behalf of the that are standing on the desk. Batikent Project, I'd like to invite up to the green table over there President Murat Karayakin and His The Batikent Project provides co-operative housing Excellency the Turkish Ambassador in the United in the state of Ankara, Turkey, for middle and lower Kingdom. income Turkish families. Ir-is an imaginative and innovative scheme that is replicable in other areas. (BELow) Mr Murat Karayakin receives the Social Housing Foun This is very important because there are many one-off dation award for the Batikent Project, near Ankara, Turkey.
19 SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
And from Udaynarayanpur, somebody who has (ABOVE) Mr Karar receives the award fo'"r the Udaynarayampur never travelled out of his village before, never mind Scheme of rural housing in India. got on a Boeing 747, please welcome Mr Karar and also with him Dr Dieter Baldfaux from Desbols in Mrs Kadebo really wishes to add anything to the West Germany who sponsored the scheme. conference at all - she asks a question, and I'm not That completes the announcements appended to His sure that I'm in a position to answer it, but it will Royal Highness's speech. We are now going to hand entertain you to know what the question is, 'Could back to our chairman for the day. I believe, Sir, you smoking be restricted to the breaks, and please not in and I are going to sit at the front, while we have a the auditorium, especially in the circle', where I discussion time. imagine Mrs Kadebo herself sits. Well, we will try and observe that request. CHAIRMAN Mr Bill Taylor, of the Co-operative Development Before we resume our business, on your behalf I Services asks: 'Is there really a community architect? would like to express the delight and deep appreciation of the conference to His Royal Highness MR TAYLOR The Prince of Wales, for his inspiring address. We all The question is, is there really such a thing as a of us really will live from the bottom up, but having Community Architect? Isn't it rather the case that the reached those commanding heights, we propose to community describes the client, not the architect? Is remain there. the enabler, or motivator role, best served by an architect, or are there other professionals who could Your Royal Highness, ladies and gentlemen, we now service an enabler or motivator role as well? enter the discussion period of our morning's business. Shouldn't the community be given a choice of As I indicated earlier, each speaker must keep him- or technical skills as and when necessary throughout the herself really short. As I have not had an opportunity process of developing these schemes, rather than of going through the slips that have been handed to having the co-ordinator as that single professional? me, Your Royal Highness, ladies and gentlemen, All I'm asking us all to think about is the case where a there will be no censor, I've not had time to censor more multi-disciplinary type professional could help any of it. And I first call upon A. Kadebo from in the formation of this community uplift from the Manchester City Council, and I don't think, however, bottom up. Thank you. 20 SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
CHAIRMAN working as a service for groups who usually approach Now Mr Paul Jones from the Thameside Community us from slum clearance schemes saying that they wish Services. Here is the point he wishes to raise: 'At a to follow the model set by earlier co-ops and actually conference that asserts the importance of local create their own housing projects by democratically community involvement in planning and design, is it controlling the design process themselves. We don't not ironic that the conference itself still reflects a necessarily favour the idea of a community architect. top down approach? Why are there not a lot more We offer the groups a choice of architects, and many tenants and local people involved in the conference_?' of the architects who work with the groups don't have Mr Jones, come and put your question and explam an ideological commitment to working for com the anomaly. munities. They are practical working architects who are prepared to offer their services and compete very Some material has been lost at this point. hard to provide an enabling educative kind of service of the sort that the groups need. There are now ten or MRJONES twelve practices in Liverpool, some of whom would . . . large overspill estate in Manchester in the north of define themselves as community architects, some of England. And the comment was ~his, that _they whom would be happy just to describe themselves as themselves felt alienated from today s proceedmgs, architects who compete for work generated through that they thought that there should have been a lot this process. Now there are many local initiatives more work done on encouraging tenants and local represented at this conference, of many different people to participate in the debate at this level. It was kinds, and for people like us, one of the most valuable a plea that at future conferences of this type local things of a conference like this is to see what other people, tenants, should be encouraged, and they nee.d people are doing, because a lot of the initiatives that to be given more encouragement to take part. Tha~ s are actually working on the ground don't receive a lot my day-to-day business, encouraging people to begm of publicity, often don't want a lot of publicity, they to believe in the possibility of taking control and often find it very unhelpful. They work away power over their own environment. It's just a ~lea for unnoticed, but there are lessons to be learnt from that encouragement to be given by the orgamsers to each other. And the only way to understand what involve more and more tenants, not just representa contribution they're making is to get into the details tives oflocal authorities, architectural schools and so to find out exactly what the funding packages are, on, planners and all the rest of it, but more and m?re and how the jobs have been created. I've been local people, tenants should be he~e to~ay, m~km_g tremendously excited to see a scheme in a run-down their voice heard, because it's the1r vmce wh1ch 1s housing estate in Glasgow, which I'd never heard of neglected so often in today's society. That was it. before yesterday, where at least forty real jobs have been created through a very interesting funding CHAIRMAN Thank you, Mr Jones, indeed. The next package to identify the additional costs for training question I have here comes from Paul Lusk and people, and establish local businesses which act as David Jepsom. They can fight it out between them_ as sub-contractors when investment is made in to who's going to be the spokesman. Co-operatl~e environmental improvement. The environmental Development Services Liverpool Ltd 1s the1r improvement itself runs through a community organisation, and their point is put in the form of a architecture process. question which I will read: 'This conferen~e But all these local initiatives are actually very illustrates diverse local responses to local opportum different - different responses to different local ties, complemented by the marked strategies of a few circumstances - and we all know how ripped-off architectural practices. Are these initiatives actually people can feel when a certain image of what they're united by a coherent theory, and/or set of doing is conveyed through the media. Interviews are experiences? If so, how, and is there a real community done; it's presented as being very nice; it invol~es architecture movement?' Now those are very participation, but then they find what's actually bemg interesting questions, particularly the last one, and I sold is actually a completely different solution, would ask either Mr Lusk or Mr Jepsom to come up something which has no bearing on their own here and develop them. problem or on the problems of their neighbours or on MRPAULLUSK the problems of the community groups that come My name is Paul Lusk from Co-operative Develop along and listen to them and then try and take that ment Services in Liverpool. Ifl may, I would like very model away. Now I think I have to say that His Royal briefly to present the credentials of my colleagues and Highness has put in an enormous amount of effort me for being here today. We have worked with the actually to find out what is happening at the grass development of the new housing co-ops and other roots level and present a true version of it and I think initiatives in Liverpool over the last ten years, all those of us, including my own organisation, have 21 ,-
SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS benefited from that. I'm deeply grateful for the work that he has done actually to find out what is happening on the ground. We have enormous opportunities now through the work of His Royal Highness and others to go on and solve much bigger problems than any of us have really begun to tackle, the enormous problems of the collapse of both public and private enterprise in the inner cities and the outer housing estates, and there's a huge problem which is a design-related one and an economic one in these areas. If the Community Architecture movement is to contribute to those, then it must define very carefully what each initiative is doing, and it must define very carefully what it is that unites the various elements in that movement, and there must be a very sensitive dialogue if this process is to work and not to rip people off, and that dialogue must actually define what it is that unites the various initiatives represented here today. I've been very excited by what's been said this morning because, from the Third World perspective, and from various per spectives in this country, certain key things do emerge; the key point perhaps being questions of responsibility and control. How do we locate that control at the local level and establish a contractual relationship between the community and the government and private sector institutions? But let's have that very sensitive dialogue to identify what it is that unites this movement before a media hype starts developed with local people. In" this way, schemes about what it actually represents. Thank you. could be started off in the most appropriate and right way, and I wondered if this was a view that was CHAIRMAN I've been asked to make an announce generally held by people in the audience. Certainly, ment, which I think is worth interjecting at this stage, we have heard today about a major call for funds to by the Bayswater Hotels Homeless Project. They be forthcoming for the inner city aid. I believe that have put on an exhibition in the YWCA building and other funds in due course can become available every one of us is invited to look at the exhibition, but because I believe about all that Community especially His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales. Architecture is not only socially desirable but Next I have a slip from Ian Finlay. He is chairman extremely cost effective. Thank you. of the Community Architecture Group and he wants to make a point on the bottoms up approach, and I CHAIRMAN Next is a slip from Michael Walshe of invite him therefore to come and make it since time is Lees Associates Architects, and I think I will read short and his point is quite a long one. I will leave him what he has to say because he is taking us to another to develop it if he is available. point which has not been looked at. He says Dr Ramachandram summarised that the urban poor are IAN FINLAY a resource which can be directed towards solution by The point I would like to make is quite simple. What I enlightened and responsible leadership. And his believe is that there's no point in actually pouring question is: 'Who does Dr Ramachandram see as the money into a situation after the horse has bolted, and leader?' I will ask Mr Walshe to develop his question, I believe that through adopting the bottoms up and then I will invite Dr Ramachandram to answer it approach and really involving local communities, if he wishes to do so. certainly the Community Achitecture Group believes that significant monies could be saved in such areas as MR MICHAEL W ALSHE maintenance, social servicing and policing; even the Dr Ramachandram suggested that responsible and demolition of projects that have gone wrong could be enlightened leadership could perhaps contribute avoided. Such savings, we believe, could be towards finding a solution to the problems of the reinvested into the beginning of schemes, into the community and I wondered whether the community formative early stages where they're being locally architect is necessarily the right leader for the finding 22 .. SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
of a solution. It occurred to me that the planning this: 'The structure of city government should be officer might be a suitable leader and also that the reorganised into smaller and more sensitive units, property developer might have a role. If the property capable of working at a scale at which peoples' own developer has a role, I wonder what criticisms are efforts can be seen to be relevant and effective.' valid for current actions of the property developers? We've all been given pieces of paper as we came in JAMES LA THAN describing how the sponsors of today's conference I want to draw attention to the enormous scale of the are vultures rather than falcons, and while there may problem that we have with the dilapidation and be some validity in that, it seems to me as not all bad decaying of property in Britain as a whole, and in and that there are different roles the property particular in the inner cities. Figures such as £19 developers could play which could be considerably to billion are referred to as the backlog of repair work the advantage of the community. I know of one we have to do. Now the problem with community property company who's trying to achieve in Tower projects is that they are by the very nature of them, Hamlets the development of two empty apartment small scale, painstaking, sensitive and relatively slow blocks for the borough which would leave the moving. So that we have to come to terms with what property in the borough's freehold ownership and we all accept is the best way to do it, but with an allow the community, that has been forced away from enormous problem which cannot be overcome by those two apartment blocks, to return as purchasers those methods alone. So we need vast resources, all at extremely subsidised rates. I would very much the resources that we can obtain from central and appreciate a response to that. local government, and from private developers and from building societies, and we need somehow to DRRAMACHANDRAM deploy those resources at a local level, in a multitude That's a very interesting question. In the developing of small schemes, because big housing schemes fail, countries what we are looking for is a person who almost inevitably. But it's no coincidence that in the enjoys the confidence of the community, and we cities with the biggest problems, very often the believe in training community leaders who can then extreme political view comes to the top because it is call upon the expertise of the community planner, advocating the big housing programme and it gets community architect, community engineer and so on. elected on that basis, and the small, sensitive co The whole object of this is to get communities to elect operative schemes get submerged." So what I am a person whom they can trust to reflect their suggesting is that if we are serious about restructuring perceptions and needs which can then be put forward and enabling communities to be restructured, we before the experts for implementation. Thank you. have to recognise that it isn'tjust a matter of building, it's a matter of social and political organisation, that CHAIRMAN Next I shall call upon Catherine Jones. we have to have our local community housing Her note contains one really lovely phrase, and scheme, our local policeman, we have to have our therefore I shall read it, not with any intention of local schools, and this surely means we have to have a curtailing her exposition. She describes it not as a much more local scale of government. And, so if I question but as a comment, which is very fair may read my proposition once more, Sir, it is that the comment. She says, 'Just a brief note. Please let us structure of city government should be reorganised ensure that the promotion of this initiative promotes into smaller and more sensitive units, capable of good design for all with no barriers to any member of working at a scale at which peoples' own efforts can our community, because as we all know, the be seen to be relevant and effective. community is made up of all shapes, sizes, colours, ages and disabilities.' How right she is. 'Let's ensure CHAIRMAN The time is now ten past twelve and it is we go full speed ahead with no barriers.' And as one my duty, on behalf of all of you, not only to thank His of the disabled, I dislike barriers. Royal Highness The Prince of Wales for his eloquent contribution to our deliberations, but to wish him CATHERINE JONES God's speed as he is now leaving the conference. I don't really want to say anything more than that, Before he does so, I know you would like me to say to because it's intimidating standing up here looking at His Royal Highness that we deeply appreciate his thousands of faces, but I do think it is very very dedicated interest in the work that we are trying to do important for us architects to design sensibly and in this conference. He, of course, looks through the with logic, and make sure that we don't design in any words of the conference to the substance outside, and barriers for those who are less fortunate in getting the best way that we can thank His Royal Highness about. Thank you. when this conference is concluded, is to go out and get done what we're all agreed needs to be done, and get it CHAIRMAN I call next on James Lathan, and he says done with the same inspiration and enthusiasm, and 23 ,-
SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS in the same spirit as that in which The Prince has assistance can community architects, community addressed us. Your Royal Highness, for a short time planners, the speakers here, those who are interested we thought we were in the company of a Fairy Prince. in protecting and encouraging a community which has tried and is succeeding in regenerating itself from I have a few more slips, and they are all of them the bottom up, give us to resist these pressures. interesting, and I shall give each of them a chance to put a point to the conference. The first one that I pick CHAIRMAN The next slip is an announcement that up comes from Dorothy Styne of the Waterloo Mr Christopher Robbins of the Mersey Region Community Development Group. Dorothy Styne Health Authority would like me to make. He wishes wants to know, who among the assembled speakers to bring to your attention the relevant World Health and participants is prepared to assist a community Organisation's European project on healthy cities. that has been trying for fourteen years to regenerate It's the subject of a national meeting next May in itself, with notable success. This community is now Liverpool, to look at how to develop city housing under threat from a top down plan, I refer to the work, general environment, community involvement Waterloo Community which is threatened by the and partnership with public and private sectors. And proposal to site the Channel Tunnel terminal at the important thing is the details of this meeting can Waterloo Station. Unacceptable pressures seem to be be provided by Mr Christopher Robbins of the about to be brought on land use, roads, and the Mersey Region Health Authority. community by this proposal. The next is Nigel Mellor, Liverpool City Council. And his point is this: 'if funds are to be available to DOROTHY STYNE meet the costs of architects and other professional I represent a community that is within walking involvement in urban regeneration, how are these distance of here. The Waterloo Community Develop funds best used to achieve the greatest benefit?' ment Group is the planning arm of the Association of Waterloo Groups, which is the neighbourhood NIGEL MELLOR council of Waterloo. This community has been What I want to say simply and briefly is that in trying, from the bottom up, for fourteen years to relation to funds being available to facilitate or rehabilitate, to restore and maintain a residential enable architects and other professionals to be community that had been really devastated since the involved in the regeneration of inner urban areas and turn of the century, or even before; it had lost elsewhere, it seems to me that the funds should be something like five sixths of its population due to available for committed, sustained and reasonably various kinds of developmental pressures; it had been long-term presence by those professionals, because bombed, and it has been fast losing shopping, there are a whole range of different products from schools, housing. About fourteen years ago the that situation that are not available or don't arise community began a series of consultations and from the well-meaning and interested involvement by developed a plan to create more housing that would architects working in a one-off basis. What I want to be available at reasonable rents, to protect shopping, make a plea for is the sustained involvement of to protect schools, to resist pressures for excessive professionals, whether they're architects, lawyers, office development - being right near Waterloo accountants, or whoever, being available in urban station, it has a very high density of office buildings areas to work with representatives of local people, already. Having learned to live with a busy commuter and with local people themselves, because it seems to station and also the South Bank Arts complex, it has me that that way offers an excellent opportunity for now on plan and in progress housing which will people to share their joint experiences to learn increase the residential population by something like genuinely what's involved, and to encourage those 25 per cent. Recently, without any consultation with professionals to commit themselves and to learn the the community, and indeed without prior study of the skills of working with communities. As a result of impact of the plan on the residential community, it that, certainly from my experience, a whole range of was decided, in a hybrid bill, to designate Waterloo other products arise from that situation that are not Station as the frontier facility, the single London likely ever to arise from individual well-meaning passenger terminal for the Channel Tunnel. We have attempts. The kind of things that I'm talking about, been attempting through the hybrid bill procedure to that will arise over a period of years' involvement, are raise our objections to this siting of the plan, the development of training sessions on common overriding the regular planning procedures, but we issues, such as maintenance projects on building have not had so far very much success. The Select schemes. We can share our experience of fund-raising Committee that met has recommended that the matters, because voluntary projects in the inner city terminal shall be sited at Waterloo Station. What I areas, as we all know to our cost, are never properly would like to know is what kind of help and funded, and therefore people have to marshall 24 .. SESSION 2: KEYNOTE ADDRESS resources from a whole range of different sectors. the equity will go up and the houses and the area will They end up usually being done on a shoe-string, and become desirable and gentrified. And we don't want so the professionals will need to develop fund-raising that to happen in Handsworth as it has happened in skills and awareness, and a whole range of other areas of London. The people who live in the inner city aspects to do with the sustenance and operation of the areas should be enabled to stay there. I'd like community organisation. So I would make a very everyone at this conference to be aware that that is a strong plea, that if funds are to be available, they are danger. It's already happened to a certain extent, used to create and sustain the presence of architects because in Birmingham there is an initiative called the and other professionals working together with local enveloping scheme. The city has spent a lot of money people, over a long period of time, taking part in the re-roofing certain areas, and in those areas the social education process that is needed to provide a property values have started moving already, and proper basis for the regeneration of our urban areas. middle classes have started buying in. I think this is a Thank you. real danger, and I'd like everyone to be aware of this.
CHAIRMAN Barbara Coin is the next one, Midland CHAIRMAN I'm now going to close the morning Area Improvement Housing Association: 'Hopefully session. Before I do so, I would like on your behalf to the initiatives promoted by this conference will be thank our speakers who opened the conference successful, and the interest in inner cities increased. dealing with the problem of the environment and the How then do we safeguard the area from becoming community, protest and participation. I think indeed gentrified, and property prices increasing dramatic we had a very interesting time with Paddy Doherty, ally, thereby pricing local people out of the reach of Dr Ramachandram, Madam Mee-Yan, Dave Howell those existing in the cities?' and Dr Tony Gibson. And they have certainly set the conference along the right lines, and our thanks go BARBARA COIN out to all of them. I'm an unemployed resident working, living in an inner city area. I think I'm in a minority at this I have two announcements to make before we conference. I live in Handsworth, and contrary to adjourn. First I would draw delegates attention to the public belief, Handsworth is a very beautiful area exhibitions, to the film and to the film programme. with a lot of very large, beautiful Victorian houses. I The exhibitions are at the Astori 25 ,- SESSION 3 Recent Initiatives: The New Partnerships Community Architecture to centralise everything in Liverpool. We even offered a compromise with them; we wanted to work with TONY McGANN, Chairman, the Eldonian them, and we were told, 'We do not recognise Community Association, Liverpool. community groups'. We then stood back, and took Now I was going to talk about one or two things that stock, and we thought about demonstrating, banging have already been spoken about in here this morning. drums and marching, but that sort of thing doesn't I'd like to tell you a little story. A story of endurance work. Because all these people laughed at our op - it and true grit from people in Liverpool. Going back to just makes them more famous. So what we decided to the seventies, communities in the Vauxhall area were do was to take more direct action, and a hundred of smashed left, right and centre, first to make way for a us on one night went along and joined the Vauxhall ring road that was going nowhere, and then for the Labour Party, and we kicked the Militants out and second Mersey tunnel. This was done without any took over. Ever since then we've been fighting Hatton consultation whatsoever. It had a double barrel and his army and the whole of the Militant Tendency effect, because in building that tunnel, they also in Liverpool. It was us that sparked off the enquiries smashed up hundreds of small businesses and put into the Militants in Liverpool, and thank God it's people on the dole - most of the people belonged to now got shot of some of them. We didn't do it for Vauxhall, and are still there on the dole. And then ourselves, we did it to tip the balance of power in they decided to send in professional people to help the Liverpool, back to the people; to give that city back to rest of us who were left. Professional leeches is what I the people where it belonged, to give the people a say call them, lousebacks. Because when these people in their own lives and a say in their own communities. came into this area, they started talking down to Parallel with that, we had to work on Phase 2 people, and they used that area as a stepping stone for because there were other people who wanted to stay their own ambitions, for themselves. in the area, and we had nothing mapped out for them We then had the Council come back in 1978, and at the time. But then Tate and Lyle came along, and they wanted to finish off what was left of Vauxhall, they packed their bags and ran away from Liverpool and by that stage the people of Vauxhall had had and put 2,000 people on the scrap-heap: thank you, enough, and they told the Council to go and get Tate and Lyle. They then left a vacant site, and we stuffed. From then on we decided to regenerate our decided to take advantage of that and we saw an area ourselves; that was eight years ago. The first opportunity for rehousing the people of our area thing we did was to find out what the people wanted, there. So we drew up a scheme with our people and not what the Council wanted. And as soon as we our architects, which gave share ownership for the found out what the people wanted, we split it up into people who were employed, fair rent for the Phase I and Phase 2. And in the first phase we unemployed, and dealt with the special needs of the organised a housing co-operative, which was the pensioners. And we took that along to the Secretary biggest in the country at the time. Also a conversion of State, who was Patrick Jenkins at the time, and he scheme for people who didn't want to join our co supported the scheme, but he made no promises. He operative, but had kept that community together. didn't have to. Because four months later that scheme Then in 1983, the Labour Party took over in had gone down the shoot, because the secret of Liverpool, or should I say the Militant Tendency. As getting the funding for that scheme was to share soon as they took over, they smashed our co ownership and give the people who could afford them operative and smashed any other co-operative in the mortgages. After they'd finished with Vauxhall and pipeline. Yes, they said to us, you can keep the design, closed places left, right and centre, and people were you can keep your houses, but at the end of the day we made redundant elsewhere, out of the seventy will control all the houses not you. They wouldn't families, with whom we started, we had twenty-seven municipalise them, and ever since they've attempted left working. That scheme had become unviable. We 26 .. SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES didn't give up; we'd learnt to fight by then, and we people in housing associations, they do a great job, went back to the housing corporation and we put our but then you get people who think, well, we've got a cards on the table, and we said the only way we're housing co-operative, and that's the end of it. That's going to keep this community together is by allowing far from the end of it. You have got to get involved in us to have a co-operative. And this they allowed us to everything that's connected with your community, do. And in 1985, January, the housing corporation and with everyone who is going to make a decision funded that scheme to the tune of £6.6 million. But about your community. You take the Eldonians, for that was the easy part. The hard part had to come, instance. We're involved in about fifteen to twenty and boy did we know about it. Because we had to put five different initiatives. Because of the unemployment in for planning permission, and they were waiting for of that area, we've now decided to tackle that. And us. And ... He gets killed in the end. (LAUGHTER we've started up, or attempted to start up, small AND APPLAUSE). True to form, every dirty trick in businesses, worker's co-ops, a horticultural project; the book was thrown at us, and needless to say they we're involved with the community programme, threw our application out. But we'd made contingency we're converting an old warehouse into a sports plans because we knew we were going to get that back centre. The Eldonians are on the governors of every anyhow. So we took it to the Secretary of State and school in that area, we are involved with the appealed, and we spent three days in Liverpool in the pensioners and we also have an ongoing dialogue October of that year at a public enquiry. And I've got with the police. We're involved with the Chamber of to tell you one tale; there was a guy from the Commerce, and we have a great relationship with Environment there, and he stood for a full hour Liverpool University. But our latest initiative is to set saying why we shouldn't have houses on that site, and up a neighbourhood development trust, because it was only after an hour that he found that he had the there are acres, hundreds of acres ofland in Vauxhall, plan upside down. (LAUGHTER) and somebody has got to tackle it, and ifthere's any Anyhow, needless to say, we won that appeal. We rich developer out there, I'd like to meet him didn't only win, we won about a hundred and fifty nil, afterwards. it was a massacre. But community building is not just Because of the politics of Liverpool, we've now put about houses: if you want to regenerate your own a proposal to the Government, to extend the powers area, or your own community, you have got to be in of the Merseyside Development Corporation up to the whole ball game of everything, you have got to the Vauxhall boundary. People might think that that keep your finger on the button. I know co-operatives, is undermining the local authority. Well, it takes two • 0 27 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES to tango, and we are not hanging around for the last Hunt Thompson Associates of London, also to talk waltz. on community architecture. I would just like to make one or two last points. To Lord Scarman. When communities are kept together, JOHN THOMPSON, Partner, Hunt Thompson long standing communities, they don't only look Associates, London. after one another's families and one another's houses, I can see this afternoon is going to be a bit like the they look after the weak and they look after the old. Eurovision Song Contest. I'd rather have followed In our area, we have an ongoing dialogue with the Norway than Tony McGann. Until a few months ago, police, and community policing works in our area. any architect receiving an invitation to address an We probably have one of the worst environments in august company like this would have smelt a rat a this country, but slowly but surely we are changing long way away. He would have assumed, probably that. But also, on the other hand, we probably have quite rightly, that he or she was invited as a sacrificial one of the lowest crime rates on Merseyside. Just to lamb for slaughter. In fact, I am still keeping half an move on to Prince Charles. A couple of months ago I eye on the trap door in the stage floor. The escape of heard Prince Charles say red tape is strangling this our profession, within the last twelve months in country from one end to the other. Boy, do we know particular, from a position of almost universal about red tape. We've had to deal with four vilification to front page tabloid admiration, has to Secretaries of State, we've had to deal with four be one of the great escapes of our time. I'm not in fact Government bodies, we've had to deal with God sure that our profession isn't leading the way in some knows how many civil servants, as well as having a respect. If you look at the medical profession, if militant council taking our legs from underneath us. you're a consultant working in Tower Hamlets trying Just a bit more for Prince Charles. I've just met to give women the choice of how and where their him, so I think I'll give him a bit of my time. In order babies should be born, you'd find yourself accused of for people to regenerate their own areas in the inner negligence and suspended by your fellow profes cities, the system has got to be changed, people have sionals. Since lunch, I've become rather anxious, got to have access to people who can make decisions, because I noticed that our own inner city physician, not the office boy in the middle. And what I say to Dr Rod Hackney, has mysteriously disappeared. He Prince Charles, instead of saying it once or twice is, ofcourse, fighting a torrid battle to bring about a politely, why don't he get on top of Buckingham palace revolution within our own institute at the Palace and shout it and shout it and shout it until moment. You'll be hearing a lot more today and somebody listens to you, or kick backsides. And tomorrow, and I hope you'll be visiting the while we're on it, why don't you come down to exhibitions and the workshops, and coming on some Vauxhall and have a look what the Eldonians are all of the visits that are being organised on Saturday to about. I thought we might be able to discuss this some of the community architecture prejects in today during tea-break, that's if we can fit you in. London. You'll be hearing a lot about the process of And the last thing I'd like to say is to the community regeneration. I think it's best for me, in professional people, especially professionals who my short slot, to try and look at the product, because think they know everything or that they have got all the quality of the process and the quality of the the answers to the inner city. The people who sit on product that is produced are both vitally important. the toilet, dreaming up ideas, and voicing opinion on We are the guardians of our grandchildrens' inner city groups - well you better not come near us, inheritance, and they will inherit buildings and 'cos we'll run you out of town. Certainly I believe environments long after the excitement of the architects should work alongside community groups, involvement of the creation of their births has since but it has got to be on the basis of architect and client passed. Could we have the slides please? relationship; the professional peoples in our area, As an illustration of how the quality of the product they come part and parcel with the family, and can effect people's lives, I would like to briefly talk they've earned that respect, but we hire, and we fire, about two estates that were built in London just and we run the ball game. And just to finish off, to before the Second World War, and have a look at any professional who's listening, if you want any what has happened to them in the last fifty years. Lea advice on participation, or community architecture, View House estate and Wigan estate were both built or inner city regeneration, I suggest you write to the by Messrs Joseph Architects just before the outbreak Eldonian Community Association in Liverpool, and of the Second World War. They were both courtyard you'll get the best advice money can't buy. estates; Wigan is a smaller estate but also a courtyard Thank you. estate built to the same design. They are both referred to as 'Heaven' in Hackney, and they remained CHAIRMAN Thank you, Mr McGann, we've noted extremely good buildings and extremely strong that address. I now invite John Thompson, Partner in communities through from the thirties through the 28 .. SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES . fifties, but in the sixties and the early seventies they people, large families. There were problems of car began to decline. We were called in by the local parking; children were being run over as soon as they authority, without the tenants being aware, six years came out of the buildings; there was nowhere for ago, and this is what we found. We found at Lea refuse. We realised that the problem could not be View an estate that was perceived as a prison by the solved by in situ improvements, and in fact the people living there. It was a sink estate, people were tenants at Lea View originally had been asking for ashamed to tell their friends that they lived there, and exactly the same package of improvements that had the tenants had been fighting a campaign to be moved been already incorporated on to the Wigan estate, off the estate. We were given the opportunity to carry which were basically material improvements such as out community architecture on quite a large scale, lifts, central heating, bigger kitchens and so on. We because we had a community that had no option but realised that the social problem couldn't be resolved to remain on the estate. unless a new way was found of using the buildings. At Our approach was to go in and look first at the people Lea View everybody enters the estate from one place, and their problem, and carry out a social survey, to everybody is regimented around an inner ring road, move our own team on to the estate, and carry out a and into staircases, into identical blocks, housing process of tenant involvement which is still going on unidentical people. We decided that we had to reuse today. Before we looked at the building fabric, we the buildings to house a whole community of looked at the social fabric. We realised that there was different people in a way that would respond to their an immense possibility at Lea View of getting own needs. Around the bottom of the estate we everybody living there involved right down to the created family houses with their own front entrances most detailed design level, and we also realised six direct from the street. This left the upper floors with years ago that it was terribly important that when the only small flats sharing the upper staircases, and we project finished the tenants should remain involved in also provided special accommodation for the elderly all the future decisions about their own housing. and the handicapped, so that those members of the We perceived that the social problems on the estate community could remain on the estate instead of could not be resolved without a complete redesign of being moved off into some other scheme. the way the buildings were used by the people. People At Lea View we now have completely safe play were sharing staircases with people with completely areas for children because we've turned the estate different social needs: single elderly people, frail inside out. We have family gardens leading into • 0 29 l t _...... - landscaped areas without any cars at all. The space Commended. Lea View House, Hackney, after rehabilitation. around Wigan is still a derelict wasteland through which intruders break into the ground floor flats of the estate. At Lea View, with the same people and the commumtles they claim to represent, and if the same buildings, definitely I would say the same - politicians can really put their trust in their there is no difference between the community at Lea communities, if the grass roots energy of these View and that at Wigan - but at Lea View we now communities can then be released, and if the skills of have no vandalism, no crime, no litter, no graffiti; the the emerging generation of community architects and language of the buildings and the language of the other related professionals can be harnessed, then we community has changed radically, and I believe that really could be seeing the beginning of the renaissance is entirely due to two things. One is the process, but that The Prince of Wales called for this morning. We the other is the product. could be moving towards a new society, and towards But I must enter a caveat. Lea View is about to a meaningful expression of that society, towards a return to local authority management. The very new and relevant architecture, towards the archi special nature of the project will soon be finished. The tecture of humanism, and towards an architecture of decline of Lea View could be just as rapid as the happiness and of hope. Thank you. decline of the estate in the first place, unless the people living there are allowed to continue to be CHAIRMAN Thank you, Mr Thompson, for a most involved in all the decisions that are made about their interesting and indeed in a sense deeply moving own housing. As yet there is no indication that the presentation. I now invite Mr Ken Atkins, Chair of politicians wish to see that change take place. the First Lewisham Self-Build Housing Association, In closing, I would like to say this. Ifthe politicians London, to round off these presentations on can relinquish their paternalistic control over the community architecture. 30 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES MR KEN ATKINS, Chair, First Lewisham Self went to that meeting and I listened to what the Build Housing Association, London. Council had to say, and I met a very remarkable man, Thank you, Lord Scarman. Walter Segal, the architect. He presented some My name is Ken Atkins and I'm a self-builder. We did houses he had built for private clients, and I a self-build project in Lewisham which is an Inner immediately understood what he was trying to say London Borough of Lewisham, which starts just over and I decided that this was for me and my family, and Tower Bridge in London and stretches out to the I started to give the commitment. Bromley suburbs. How do you get involved in self We formed a steering group, and we came up with a build and community architecture? Our scheme came set of proposals that even today I think are far about through the Assistant Borough Architect of reaching. It was born out of total ignorance because Lewisham, whose name is Brian Richardson, who'd we didn't know anything about self-build and nor did been an architect all his working life with a local the local authority. After about nine months of authority, but who wanted to get away from the discussions with the group and with the local paternalism of local authority housing because he authority, we came up with a set of proposals. The realised that he did not fulfil a need. He joined forces people who were eligible had to come from the with an architect called Walter Segal and a chap waiting list or the transfer list, so that meant we called Colin Wald and they decided that they would vacated properties in the Borough for other people. It put forward an idea to the local authority called had to be irrespective of age or income. There were Walter Segal Homes. · 168 families who showed an initial response, and their At that time I was living in a concrete block, much ages ranged from young married couples with young like Broadwater Farm; one night, when I came home children to old age pensioners. So it had to be from work, my wife said, 'What do you think of that?' irrespective of age or income, no capital, because It was an article which said, 'Would you like to build most of us could not get onto the housing market in a home of your own?' So I read this article, to keep the the normal way. We simply had no money. So it had peace really. She said 'Do you think you can do that?' to be a way in which we could actually get building I said 'Yes, of course I can'. (Laughter) Well, she kept with no capital. There would have to be a guaranteed me to the promise; she sent a letter to the local mortgage, as most of us never qualified for a authority, and we had an invitation back to attend a mortgage in the normal way. Each builder would be meeting with the local authority in the Town Hall. I responsible for building his own ltome, (unlike the 31 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES traditional self-build where you build as a group); we to build, and I can honestly say after those three and a would only communicate and get together on things half years, and perhaps the two hundred meetings, like main drains and actually putting the frames up. three hundred meetings that I attended, it was the These houses are designed so you can build the house pleasurable part of the job. A little extension that I as a family and avoid the enormous pressures that did two years ago cost just over £1,000, and the apply to traditional self-build. quantity surveyor said if I did it with bricks and How did we arrive at these things? The mortgage mortar it would have cost me about £5,000. was based on a Swiss equity of 50 per cent rent and a Lastly, and most importantly, is that it is through 50 per cent mortgage. The DOE, in their wisdom, this process that community spirit comes together. It said, it had to be a 50-50, a 50 per cent rent and a 50 is unlike traditional self-build. We encourage the per cent mortgage. This reduced the costs of the women, the children to be on the site to see what their mortgage down to what we could afford. On the parents are doing. It creates a wonderful atmosphere, second scheme, we can vary this equity from 5 per and I like to bet that these children won't be going cent rent to 95 per cent rent and 5 per cent mortgage; round putting graffiti on other people's property. it does mean that we can actually get unemployed Thank you very much. people building their own houses. Lastly, I've only got ten minutes (and I'll try to CHAIRMAN Thank you, Mr Atkins, and that condense eight years of my life into ten minutes), it concludes the presentations on community archi comes down basically to architecture. Walter Segal tecture. We now pass to community planning, and I was an architect, and probably there are not many ask Mr David Wilcox, Chairman of Partnership people in this audience today who have not heard of Limited, London, to open the presentations on this him, certainly in the architectural profession. He was topic. a tremendous free thinker, and he went back to rethinking housing and came up with a different Community Planning solution. He had been building houses of his own DAVID WILCOX, Chairman, Partnership design for private clients, middle class people, Limited, London. doctors, market gardeners, for a number of years, Lord Scarman, Conference. and he decided to let people in a local authority have a This contribution is c::ntitled 'Community Planning' chance. in the programme, although I didn't choose that. It This is where self-build began. There was a school was originally, in the first programme, called teacher and his wife in Woodbridge in Suffolk, and 'Partnerships in North Kensington', because I spent they had employed Walter's carpenter to build a four years as Chairman of the North Kensington house, and after one day he got Walter on the 'phone Amenity Trust, back in the mid-seventies, and that and he said, 'Walter, I don't think I need these was the point at which I began doing some of the carpenters, I think I could do this work myself, and things that I am involved with now, particularly, in Walter said, 'Well, if you feel you're capable, Mr Development Trust; but I did ponder upon the title Holland, you go ahead', and this is how self-build was and I thought, it would really be better called 'What a born. We use timber-framed, portal frames stood on Former Planning Correspondent Learned from the the ground; there's no need to level or lay expensive Community', because I started coming to conferences foundations; the foundations for our houses are in like this back in the seventies when I was working for the region of £300-£400, as against £3,000-£4,000 on the Evening Standard and, at that time, from my the land where we were building. The group came viewpoint as a journalist, I could see what many together once you have laid the frames to stand them people on the ground know even more sharply - the up; this is the main structure, and everything that stark contrast between those who exercise power and goes into the building from now on can be adapted those who experience it. Both the public and the and changed to suit your needs. So not only were we private sectors were often insensitive to local interest the only first council tenants that I know of to sit but they did have the resources and the ability to get down with an architect and actually get involved in things done. It was the people on the ground, the local the design of the building, but as you're actually people, who knew what was best but they didn't have building, you can adapt it and change it to you and the resources and they didn't always have the your family's needs. It took us three and a half years; necessary skills. Now, that paradox provided me and and a lot of speakers before me have said it is an many other journalists with a living; reporting indictment of the system that we live under that you conflicts of Docklands, Covent Garden, housing see this wave of enthusiasm in communities, and yet it development, motorways - it all seemed newsworthy is three or four years before you actually get off the and, of course, it still does; but after a few years, there ground. Somebody is going to have to change the red was a terrible sense of the same stories being repeated, tape in this country. That house took me ten months of only the names of the politicians, of the developers, 32 • 0 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES the architects and the community groups changing. sustainability. Funding is usually short-term and the The cuttings libraries of newspapers are morgues projects frequently don't generate income and, for idealism. They certainly teach you, if you look without continuing community effort, they're bound through them, that just writing about things doesn't to fold; so at any point that we are enthusiastic about achieve very much. I also found the conferences were community initiatives, we should always think: 'How rather predictable; but, has anything changed? Well, I are they going to survive in the long-term?' So, think it has. perhaps, I draw the conclusion that it is very easy to I left journalism in 1976, believing that behind all decry the profits of developers, making their money the conflict there was some scope for getting the best so simply, until you try and do it yourself, at which out of the public, the private and the voluntary and point, it isn't quite so easy. community sectors. I spent four years learning the Thirdly, skills. Now, community-based projects, hard way what that was about in North Kensington: inevitably, involve a range of different interests, although I wouldn't claim for myself much of what because the community throws up a tremendous was achieved on the ground there. That was done, in range of client interests and to be successful in many ways, by people like the Director, Roger achieving things, the professional skills of architects Mackland, who is here, and architects Franklin and planners and engineers are, of course, needed; Stafford, and, more particularly, all the people of but there are, also, very important human skills, North Kensington, who worked to change twenty which people like the Eldonians have, obviously, in three acres of derelict land underneath a motorway plenty. So, my third lesson is that it is fun to write into something which is today a major benefit to the about rows and incompetence until you find community and something which is sustainable, somebody writing about your own scheme and realise because it's now reached the stage at which it's that you have to learn how to resolve conflicts and beginning to pay for itself. agree objectives. Now, this conference and exhibition shows a far wider range of community initiatives than any of us in So, what sort of ways forward might we find in those days ever dared to hope for. Over the last ten relation to those three issues? years, I've spent time helping set up Development I suggest that we need, first of all, appropriate Trusts, devising systems for public participation and structures to match the scale of the problem, and programmes to support community projects and it's those are now emerging. It is very e'xciting to see, in certainly taught me that doing things is an awful lot the exhibition today, groups from all over the more difficult than writing about them. I assume that country. I mean, for example, from Perth the Hunter the aim of whatever it is (Community Architecture, Crescent Co-op, obviously fired by the example of or whatever we're talking about) is about helping Liverpool, and, closer to home, you will be hearing people create the projects that they want and learning about what the Tower Hamlets Environment Trust something in the process. It's about enabling people and the Whitechapel Development Group hope to to do things bottom up, as people continually say, achieve, with a very major scheme in East London, rather than imposing top down solutions, and if I can which could never have been conceived ten years ago. be a little bit analytic- because I can't really match Secondly, we need top down support to help that the eloquence of those who now continue to be fired bottom up effort. Trusts and co-ops need backing by the capabilities of communities to build for from the public sector through grants, through loans, themselves - if I can be a little bit more analytic, I'd through permissions. They may get private sector like to say that this bottom up approach does, of secondees and sponsorship and they buy in course, throw up its own particular problems and professional skills. And smaller scale schemes also issues, and I'd just like to address three of them: need a support system. They need promotion, to tell groups what other people have done and to The first is that of scale. The problems of the encourage people to participate. They need informa opportunities are very substantial. We continue to be tion and advice, so that they do not have to re-invent told by the journalists of the problems in scale of the the wheel, so that they can learn from other people. inner cities; but, very often, the resources are They obviously need grants and resources and they insufficient - a few workers, without the cash or the need feed-back, to find out where they're going framework to operate with. So my first lesson that I wrong and how to change direction; and a good draw out of my time in this is that, while I saw that a example, shown in the exhibition, is Manchester City newspaper campaign or a community group could, Council, which has launched a Community Initiatives relatively easily, hold an office development or a Fund, which offers grants of up to £25,000 to groups motorway scheme, it takes an awful lot more to create to carry out schemes. The local community Technical something of similar substance in its place. Aid Centre provides the advice and there is an And the second point I'd like to make is about excellent information pack which, I must say, we .. 33 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES have been involved in, but I hope will be the model for today's time is being devoted to considering that; so other local authorities to show groups the sort of one of the questions I was almost tempted to ask is things that they can do; and I think it is very exciting that - does community architecture, planning and that, from the top, some local authorities are helping design relate to rural areas or is it totally an urban or bottom up schemes. inner city phenomenon? I do sincerely hope not. Finally, I think we also need appropriate skills. Clearly, rural areas are not removed from the Obviously, a lot of the debate is about the building problems of today, problems of change. In some and other professional skills, but we do need human ways, the problems are similar to those in inner city or skills to bring different interests together and it's very urban areas but in other ways are quite different. often here where things go wrong. Now, at the Unemployment might be an example. Rural areas moment, we're doing some work with people in the aren't exempt from having unemployment. Clearly, University of Sussex in the Operational Research it's a national phenomenon. But in rural areas it is Department - people who are usually dealing with often compounded by problems of access to very different sorts of problems - but we have found information about employment that might actually out that there are professionals who have looked at be available. the ways in which groups can come together, decide So how are rural communities rising to the where they are going and how they relate to other challenge? What planning is happening? One way in organisations; and I think, just as much as we need particular is through the developing role played by community architectural skills, we do need people community building in rural areas, for example the and professionals who have experience of working on village hall. Increasingly, village halls are having to the ground to share their experience of making things promote and develop their facilities away from being happen. traditional centres of recreation, although, clearly, One other small point was made by Walter that still remains important and away from the image Menzies, from the Macclesfield Groundwork Trust; that they are given by, dare I say it, people who live in everybody says: 'Well, if only we could share each urban areas; that they are buildings that are seldom others' experiences, we could learn what other people used, are dilapidated, run down, have no services and have done.' Now, the Groundwork Foundation, where really quaint little activities go on like the WI. I which promotes Development Trusts in the urban assure you, they are not centres of that ilk any longer. fringe, is encouraging the existing trusts to swap They provide an important •stimulus for the experiences with the new ones, so that directors of the community and an important setting for the existing trusts actually go and help the new trusts that provision of services within rural areas. Clearly, are emerging get started, and it would be good to village hall committees draw on volunteers. They are think that from a conference like this a network totally resourced by volunteers and, as such, clearly emerges for sharing experience. need help and advice and, equally important, In summary, I would suggest we need new resources. Resources can mean many things, skills, organisations, we need new contexts and we need a what-have-you, and it would be wrong to ignore the new mix of skills and I hope that the new Inner City fact that they, too, need cash. They also need support Trust will recognise this diversity in the support that and resources. Inevitably, they turn to professionals, it provides to schemes. to architects, solicitors, planners, surveyors, the works. Very often they find that they would turn ELAINE PLACE, Rural Information Officer, more often if they felt convinced that those Village Halls Forum. professionals knew what it was that their situation Thank you, Lord Scarman. Good afternoon, ladies actually was, and how they want to be actually and gentlemen. involved in the process and not told what it was that I actually feel a bit of a fraud being here this they needed. One way we hope to provide afternoon. I came along to a conference billed as professional support is through the National being 'Building Communities' and, it seems that the Community Partnership of which the Village Halls term 'communities' is thought today to be Forum is actually a member. synonymous with the term 'inner city or urban area'. There are also county bodies called Rural My background and working concern is not, in fact, Community Councils and they perform an important with urban or inner city areas at all. It is quite the role in bringing together professional people, and opposite. My concern, and the Village Halls Forum's representatives of the statutory sector, with the concern, is with rural communities and with people voluntary sector in order to talk about and promote who live and work within those rural communities. the needs of the people in rural communities. Village Rural areas of England provide homes for 20 per hall committees, rural communities shouldn't be cent of the total population and cover about 80 per ignored. Their problems, as I have said, are as good cent of the land mass and yet only a small amount of and as important as urban and inner city areas. Very 34 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES often the village hall committee is in the best position difficult to make high streets different from one to know what the community wants, to know what another. the needs are of that community, and it is up to the I now invite George Nicholson, Executive Member community architects to work with them to achieve of the North Southwark Community Development their aims and to fulfill their needs. They do not want Group and former Chair of Planning, Greater ideas to be plonked from on high. They want to be London Council to address the conference. involved in the process themselves. The Village Halls Forum itself exists as a national body to try and GEORGE NICHOLSON, Executive Member, promote and ensure that the partnership approach North Southwark Community Development Group develops on a basis of equality. It's no good and Former Chair of Planning, Greater London promoting partnerships if the partnerships are Council. actually based on an unequal basis and on a basis The politicians are coming in for a bit of flack today where one side does not actually understand or and the trouble is if you live in a democracy you have comprehend what the other side is on about. Clearly, got to put up with them. So what I want to do is not to there is a need to share information in that way. We knock politicians but to look at some of the politics. hope to influence professional bodies, such as Last week's Chartered Surveyor Weekly had this to architects, to encourage them to develop their role in say: 'London's Thameside is now ready for some the community and, particularly, in our work in the landmarks in the style of Manhatten and Sydney. provision of community buildings. The Village Halls Early buyers will get discounts worth £16,000 on Forum has just launched an audio-visual which is £105 ,000 units. Residents will have the best views about the practical building design of the village hall, across the river even getting a view 'possibly' it says, which I suppose in a sense we are promoting as being of Canary Wharf. something of use to village hall committees without The first eight floors went on sale last weekend at buildings or planning extensions; but in our heart of up to £280,000 per unit. Now that is on our land. So hearts we sincerely hope that architects will look at it what is community planning? What we fundamentally and devour a lot of the information contained there, feel , and what we will always feel, is that if you want which suggests ways in which community needs could something to happen you have to make it happen. be met. In addition, the general needs of the rural That is what community planning is about; and I tell areas are guarded to some extent by Rural you what it is not about. It is not· about accepting Community Councils and by the National Council friendship from the hands of Michael Heseltine, or for Voluntary Organisations. But from Aprillst next his friends in the property world. He presided over year, we hope to be launching a new national the creation of the Docklands Corporation and he organisation called Action with Communities in has triggered a process which is destroying Rural England, or ACRE as it will be commonly communities throughout Docklands, and in effect known, provided once again funding comes through democracy has been abolished. Every level of elected on time. This will be concerned with the wider rural representation opposes that particular body. That is issues connected with people living and working in hardly a model for partnership; abolishing a body the countryside and about building communities in like the GLC, probably the biggest top down enabler the widest possible sense- away from just structural ever; putting all those jobs and services at risk - 50 bricks and mortar. Time does run out. I am aware projects are even now still hanging by a string because that we are running a little behind time, so I would of the London Residuary Body and its asset stripping like to take the opportunity of alerting those of you activities are putting them at risk-(I hope somebody who are interested in rural issues that RIBA, in the will report on that after today). Strangling local workshops on Saturday, do actually have one authorities' abilities to build housing or to keep their devoted entirely to rural issues entitled 'Rural existing housing stock in order - that is hardly a Communities- he Forgotten Areas'. I take it, and model for partnership. The problem is that much of hope, that they won't be forgotten for very long. the language which supports that model of partnership can be found in this very book on CHAIRMAN Thank you, Elaine Place. Elaine Place community enterprise. It's not enough to talk about has, of course, reminded us of the existence of the red tape, or under utilised land, or surplus land, or country and I would like just to reinforce what she negative approach: if we hadn't feuded for ten years has said by beseeching architects and planners who we would never have got Coin Street off the ground. have jobs to do in village surroundings to make use of David Wilcox was around when we started ten years local materials and to stick as far as they can to local ago and he is still there; and we are in the business designs. It does help immensely to give character to now of building houses on Coin Street. You can go retain the character of the villages (and villages can be and see them; but we had to feud like hell for ten different one from the other), whereas, it is very years. We had to fight two public enquiries. It is not 35 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES enough to talk about red tape. That in itself fuels the do the best they can. People have power and they use whole mood of anti-planning which the old EDC and it absolutely ruthlessly. We should be aware of that a lot of people in the property world want to see and when we get power we should use it absolutely encouraged. It is not enough to talk about under ruthlessly, too; but for the people who support our utilised land. You have to ask why it is under-utilised: cause, not for the people who don't. What we did basically it is because the market wants it to be under when we were there was we made sure that people utilised until it needs it. That is a political issue- Coin who wanted to have residents' plans- whether it was Street made that very clear. in Wimbledon town centre, or whether it was in The negative approach, the whole language of the Bromley, we weren't selective, we weren'tjust talking negative approach, is basically talking about anti about the Bermondseys of this world (although we planning. Saying 'no' is not always negative. managed to get a few million quid in that direction as Probably I and most of us in the North Southwark well). We made sure that people in those communities Community Group, (and many others in the who wanted to draw up a plan and fight for their area community planning movement) have more reason had the money to do so and to draw up a plan to be to be anti-planning than anybody, I would think. I presented at a public enquiry in a way that actually can remember back in 1972, the Chairman of the countered the developers. We put a lot of money into Planning Committee was introducing a plan, the that, into funding groups, and it's important to have strategy plan for Southwark Thameside. The whole that money, to have those groups that can actually language he used was absolutely extraordinary. I fight those battles at those Public Enquiries on an remember him saying: 'You don't understand'. Well, equal basis; and we are talking about equality when what that means, if you ever hear somebody saying it, we're talking about Community Planning. is that they are just about to do something to you Fundamentally, what we are talking about is which you are not going to like. He said: 'You've got raising the quality of people's lives and raising to look at the borough as a whole.' You know what people's expectations. The whole basis of what we that means, that the place you live in is going to be tried to do on the GLC and what we're fighting for in wiped off the face of the world. And then he said, of North Southwark is to raise people's expectations. To course, that we were being utterly unreasonable, make sure that they do make more and more meaning that he was being reasonable. The very demands; and to make sure that people have the slogan that best, in my view, encapsulates community power and the resources to respond to those planning is: 'How to be unreasonable and right'. This demands. conference is basically held because of that slogan. It The point is that we want not less planning but would not be here if there had not been people more. It's not possible to involve people in a banging away over the last twenty years or more on democratic process and speed it up. That is a that very stable notion of being unreasonable and contradiction. The problem with property-led absolutely right; and we welcome the Prince's strategies is that they are both anti-democratic and intervention because it says loud and clear that anti-planning and the Community Architecture something is wrong in this country. We are a country Movement will be no exception, unless it is absolutely at war with itself. Even if he said it in a rather coded unambiguous on that issue. way, I think that's probably what he means. The fact One of the major lessons, which we have to say time that we have to even contemplate a Band Aid for and again, is that we will be whatever you do and, for cities is confirmation, if more were needed, that we are God's sake,just realise that and respect our traditions enjoying a new-found status as a third world country. and respect our communities. We can't accept the Now, in North Southwark in 1972, we didn't even fact that some people in our cities are treated know what a planning application was and by 1982, differently from others. Now, we've been accused of we were running London and it is fair to say that we being Luddites over the years but I really don't think learnt a few things along the way. We learnt that you can say to people who live in the Divis flats, or developers and landowners use planning when it suits people who live in Liverpool, or Glasgow, or the East them and attack it when it does not. They even End of London and those sort of areas, that they are invented a plan for London which suited both Luddites. The places they live in are absolute eventualities; so, after ten years of campaigning disgraces to a civilised society. The evidence seems to against this thing, we decided when we got elected in be that change hasn't been for the better. We believe 1982 that we would change the plan, and we did. We passionately in partnership but it has to be on equal made a new plan for London and we encouraged terms: not as receivers of charity, or as a hi-product of Londoners to get involved in the future of their city. some commercial scheme. The GLC created a policy We had power and we used it. Basically, this whole called the Community Areas Policy. As I said, it was thing is about power and who has it. It is not just probably the biggest top down enabler in existence about little people and individuals battling away to and we managed to liberate about £200 million, 36 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES pumping it into communities in central London that Community planning is abo~t three things were facing the rigours of the market place around fundamentally. It is about putting people first and the central commercial core. Coin Street and other property second and if private money can stomach projects in central London are a testimony to the that, then we have a partnership. Community success of that policy. We gave community projects planning is about thinking what sort of cities we millions of pounds to renovate community buildings. want, rather than what the market is telling us we They had money as they had never had it before and should have, and if private money can stomach that, probably will never have it again. But they showed we may have a partnership. Community Planning is that, ( 1) the ideas they had were right and, (2) when about treating all people in our cities the same and if they were given money they could be trusted to have it private money can take that, then we may have a and use it responsibly. Those two lessons alone were partnership. This conference is about creating a new worth proving. I think the GLC itself proved that it kind of consensus and if we do, then Community behaved responsibly, although it did not get much of Planning will have come of age and this conference a good press for it; but what we tried to do was to gain will have served its purpose; if it doesn't, we're still recognition that there was a new constituency and going to be here. one that was crying out for support. That I close on the words of a pensioner, who was at a constituency was created by a movement and the conference that I was at on Saturday. She said: 'You policy we made was designed to sustain that growing know if you always want to get someone else to do it movement and the fact that the demands went up but if you say it's someone else's job or someone else every year was a testament to the success of that idea. should do it, the trouble is, the buggers always go and Now, we feel that 'community' is a pretty much do it and you don't like what they do.' abused word and it is not yet clear in what direction the Community Architecture Movement is taking us. CONFERENCE PRESIDENT If it turns out into simply another property-led Fellow delegates, I would now like to thank the Lord initiative, albeit on a modest scale of the LDC, it will Scarman for the Chairmanship of the Session. He has fail and deserves to fail; but if the Trust is based on the to leave us, but I think we are all agreed that he has concept of a growing movement and is used to make been an excellent Chairman. He's kept everybody in links between people, rather than treating them as order; I think he may well have presided over quite a clients, then there is real scope for change. momentous series of speeches, particularly the .. 37 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES launch of the Inner City Trust, so could I have your Secondly, the records of one of the previous appreciation, please, of Lord Scarman. presentations are on sale in the right-hand corner of the auditorium. LORD SCARMAN Thank you, and I wish you all 'Community Development' will be next on the success. programme. The first speaker is Frances McCall, Chairperson, Calvay Co-operative Limited, Glasgow. CONFERENCE PRESIDENT Miss McCall. Thank you, Lord Scarman. Dr Thomas Blair now takes over the Chair. From New York City, he specialises in housing and urban regeneration schemes, especially those connected Community Development with disadvantaged, multi-ethnic, inner city areas. He FRANCES McCALL, Chairperson, Calvay is a visiting professor at Cambridge University, he is a Co-operative Limited, Glasgow. consultant to the London Diocesan Board for the Thank you very much, Mr Chairman. Bishop of Stepney on a programme of adapted re-use I am very pleased to be here today, particularly of redundant church buildings and sites in the inner because up until now, nobody has mentioned city area. Please welcome, to chair the rest of today's peripheral estates and in Glasgow we have a new Session, Dr Thomas L. Blair. initiative which is backed by the Labour Council and we are looking at forming co-operatives in peripheral CHAIRMAN estates, particularly run-down estates where the Thank you very much, Conference President. deprivation is very bad. Glasgow Council are I must say that I am very pleased to be here and to act supporting us because they think tenants in control in some way that would be of assistance to the might be able to solve some of the problems. Now, purposes of this conference. Obviously, Lord I'm not saying that that's a bad idea for the Labour Scarman's chairmanship is a tough act to follow but I Council, saying: 'Let's get it as property'. We think shall do the very best that I can. it's a great idea that they've supported us in this Already there are a number of announcements that initiative and for the last four years now, six groups I have been asked to make. First of all, there is a pop have been studying the fact of forming a co-operative concert this evening which you are reminded will be in the estate they live in; and in the last four years, we taking place, starting at 9 o'clock. have learnt a lot- we've never been trained and we are 38 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES . all voluntary workers but our architect team, mainly, does an area need from all of us together? Let's put in have been very supportive to us and I've listened to some money together and make this community today's conference and, to me, Community Archi work.' You can build houses, you can repair houses, tecture starts with us in these co-ops, because our you can modernise them but you can't make architects have been in from day one. It could be that communities work unless the people in them are they never got funded and they would never have happy - and they're not looking for jacuzzis or gold been paid for the job, but I'll show you some slides taps in the bathroom, believe you me. All they want is that I've brought along and maybe you can grasp a roof over their heads so the rain doesn't come in. where our architect was a great help to us. So I'll go on to show my slides. I've listened to the gentlemen from the planning First of all, this is Calvay Co-operative, of which I department and, as a tenant living in a peripheral am the Chairperson, and I am also Chairperson of the run-down estate, I must say that sitting in it, paying a Scottish Federation of Housing Co-operatives which rent for it and not getting such a good service from are mainly on peripheral estates, not all in Glasgow. your landlord makes you think that architects and We have them in Paisley, we have them in Perth and planners are mad people. I mean, you sit in your also in Greenock. house and you say: 'Who designed this building? Some of these co-ops are funded, some of them are Who planned it this way?' I live in an estate where not yet. We're hoping that they will all get off this there are 8,000 people and the population is part of a year sometime and next year. And that they will give greater estate in Glasgow and it is actually bigger people a choice of tenure. Where you can have a than a small town; but we have only got three shops. public sector house, you could have a co-op, or you The tenants are now taking on responsiblity, forming can buy a house if you can afford it. a co-operative, gaining improvement grants, and In my own co-op, Calvay Co-op, which is six miles they're hoping to create jobs and build up a outside of Glasgow and the East End, the relevant community. points are: that unemployment is considerably larger Well, let me tell you, you can't do that alone and than Glasgow's average; the permanently sick and that's what partnership is all about. In Scotland, disabled proportion of this population is relatively we've got the SDA, we've got Strathclyde region, they high; the labour forces are largely unskilled; there are give grants and I think that I'm saying that they ought few work opportunities in the general area - in fact to all get together in a partnership, and say,: 'What there are none; they have got three shops; the area is .. 39 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES deteriorating at an alarming rate; and it's a hard-to of the Co-operative we started at 104 boys, there's let area and I'm sure that most of you know what a now maybe 90 or so. But we're mainly trying to put hard-to-let is. When your area becomes a hard-to-let new people that come in to improved property. And area then you get a stigma attached to you, because if we've got a lot of old tenants wanting to move back you want to rent a television, or something, and you and they've been living in areas we'd desire to live in. give your address, they go: 'Oh, no, no, I'm sorry, you They want to come back to Calvay because that's can'thave that. That's a bad area you stay in.' So, I'm where their grassroots are and they know that they glad to say that there are groups of initiatives in can help to rebuild this community again. Glasgow where people are saying: 'I live in a bad area This is one of our population too. Unfortunately it but I am going to do something about it.' was the outside of the landing, the light day pact says I'll run through the slides for you and I've got three you have no security at all and people tend to have a committee members here with me from Calvay and dog or two. Some have more than that. This is my today, or tomorrow, if you want to ask them any back garden. That's where I hang my washing out. questions, I'm quite sure they'll be happy to fill you in You see that big slab there? That's where my vegie with the rest of it. patch should be sitting. So you're talking about three This is a typical committee meeting with members streets and the one back. It's not cordoned off in any ofCalvay Management Committee, set up in January fashion and the bin cans lie on top of the slab. Now 1984 as a steering committee and now they are the that's deprivation. Now that's why I left inner city 35 management committee. We are all voluntary years ago. workers; none of us have any knowledge about And here we are back in with water again. I sit in housing, planning, architects or anything. the summertime on the grass verge. You can't hang We now employ six members of staff. You might your washing out anywhere. This, our shops, and think that's ridiculous because we are all tenants and honestly I didn't make up these slides. These are we are all voluntary workers but we have done all actual. If you want to come to Calvay you can see right so far. We have got a development officer, who them. Now that's the deprivation that comes when has only come in the last four months, so Calvay you really get so bad that vandalism isn't a thing that Co-operative's Steering Group actually developed it people really bother about any more. And that's themselves, along with their architects and that's unfair because the children at this stage need the what's important at this conference today. We have correction so that when the pla ~e is put right they're got a development officer, a housing officer, a clerk of going to take care of it. Thankfully things are works, a secretary/receptionist and a part-time changing (quite slightly). copy/audio typist, because we get so much paper This is Calvay Road where I stay and I've stayed work together and we have got to let tenants know here for twenty years and brought my family up here. what is happening all the time. We have also got a And the members I have with me have lived there cleaner, who is also local. quite long-term as well. This is the Calvay area and it is made up in para And this is what it's going to look like. Now I'm peripheral estates; the property's post-war and it is sure you see a massive difference in that? Apart from made up of 366 flats and I think that you'll agree that, the refurbishment of the outside of the building, we're at that time, it was a mass exodus from the city. also doing indoor improvements, but the point is that Obviously we are living in dreadful conditions but the architect when he first came to us said, 'What do they built three and four-appartment flats and they you think the problems are here?' and we all said, are nearly all four-appartment flats and today's 'Ooh I want this, I want that.' you know, but it was all families do not require so many four-appartment about having a comfortable home. Nothing fancy but flats, but we are stuck will them. The centre-piece is comfortable. So what we did was put down fifteen 87 flats; and, now, that's Phase I and Phase I is now things that we thought, as a steering group, we had a more in sight; and this is typical of the properties in problem with. And then we went round all the doors the Calvay Co-op area and I think you'll see the of the tenants and put the leaflet through and went deprivation, part of the desires, falling to bits. round to collect them again and we found that the five This is another slide. Now people live here. I live in items that everybody suffered from were all the same. one of these houses here and it really isn't funny. I Everybody suffered from solid penetration and it mean, if you were to take on a house, more down than causes social problems throughout estates of this type this particular close; well you're talking about of housing because you can hear a light switch being unemployed people, low income families, do you turned on. You have no privacy. If you want to fight think you'd have the money, apart from the desire, to grow and plant roses and make it really nice? That slide is quite nice. It's not as bad as the rest of them. (OPPOSITE) Before and after. The award winning Calvay Co-op, Here's a good example. Boys everywhere. At least out Barlanark, Glasgow. 40 .. 41 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES with your man, everybody in the street knows about think you can see where I am talking about the back it. and front door now I've actually put a front door at See this play ground here? Calvay Co-op managed the side of the main close now and it's a wee hallway to gain another aid grant which we applied for four through to the back and there's a back garden. There tyears ago before we thought of becoming a co we are, it's coming on. There's red bricks going on the operative, and we actually managed to gain it and it's roof. You can see the improvement as it goes along. sitting in the middle of all our deprivation. But the This is an actual drawing and that is the elevation of kids still play on it. It's great, although it's only a what Calvay will look like when it's finished. Now couple of climbing bars. So that's a wee start. Here we these are all the slides I brought out to show you, but are. We got a funding. if anyone wants to come up to Glasgow, don't come I would like to say today that this particular up once. But if you want to come up to Calvay you're conference that Glasgow Distric Council supported very welcome. We have visitors all the time. But what us in our initiative and we were at a stage where we I'm trying to say today is that Community had building societies and banks ready to back us and Architecture is about, as you said, asking the tenants acquiring the property, getting the improvements what they want, what do they think they need, not through the non-HRA capital budget. And we were giving them what you think they want; but taking a ready to go and we needed the government's approval census and saying; well, if you want a jacuzzi, I don't and the government said, 'Oh no no, you can't have think you should have a jacuzzi, but if you want a that' and we obviously thought, 'Why not?' I mean bath and shower you can have them? And not only in the money is there, the system's there, worked out new building should you consider the tenant, but in and they said, 'Oh no, sorry, We can't do that'. But modernisation programmes; the tenant has to be we said we'll fund it through high funding for you involved because the tenant is the person who lives in through the housing corporation 100 per cent grants. the house and they know what that house requires. But that brought on the fair rents officer, and when And in our co-operative we're now looking at the fair rents officer came in, he put our rents up. And conversions for single people, elderly people, as tenants we really don't think that's fair. But we had invalided people and that's something we don't have a choice so we went to the tenants' public meeting and in a deprived estate because all houses look alike all we asked them - they said, 'look, do you want your over Easterhouse, which is our largest estate, every rents to go up and then you will get this or whatever,' house, every street looks the sa ~ e. And I think that so you are in a different system and explain that all to there's a lot to be done in old property, never mind them and if the majority of the tenants said, 'yes, let's new built. There's a lot of old property all over the go ahead with this thing cause we're really fed up city, especially in Glasgow and other cities too where with what we've got just now' and we are willing to you could go and convert it. Change the mix of the pay that little bit more. But as Chairman of the group community and I think you can make it work and I was really angry because I said to the Minister that we're sure of it. Thank you very much. surely that you realise that if you put your rent up any higher you will get even more unemployment in the LOUIS JULIENNE, Director, Federation of Black area so people can't even afford to take a job on. Housing Organisations. Because you're saying that if you're unemployed you I would like to inform you of three inner-city can live in it, and if you work you just can't. So community projects - projects which have been unfortunately we've taken on a new argument, in successful in their aims and objectives. The reason I fact, and that is the rents officer. And we're going to have chosen these particular projects is because they try and fight that now. best sum up the sort of co-operation which is required Now this is a back area. And you can see where the for the regeneration of inner cities ... site has just started. And that's the back, a couple of weeks later and what we've done is we've got together Some material has been lost at this point. with our architect and said, well look, how can we improve the environment never mind the housing? ... Twelve black trainees were taken on this course, What can we do to settle it? So what we decided to do most of them were unemployed and had little or no at his advice was to make the lower-down houses, qualifications and, after the twelve months' training, back and front door houses that have a back garden ten of them obtained permanent jobs with housing and front garden of one and that leaves six tenants associations, thereby at a stroke trebling the number obviously instead of eight tenants. There's an access of black people employed in housing associations in back and front and a drying area of their own as well Liverpool. as bin shelters with gates on. This is what the back The third project is called the Zenzele Self-Build green will look like and it's actually like that in Housing Association, in Bristol. It consisted of a Calvay just now, only I don't have a slide with it. I group of twelve people, average age of twenty years, 42 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES advice and after obtaining a provisional loan from Central Government, through the Housing Corpora tion, obtained a mortgage, and a loan for the property, while the construction work was going on. A mortgage of £12,000 was obtained for each member from the Bristol and West Building Society and the DHSS guaranteed to pay the interest on the mortgage, while the members remained unemployed. A general building firm with experience in several trades was appointed. Work commenced in May 1984 and was completed in fourteen months in July 1985. It had been expected to take nine to ten months and the reason for the delay was that during construction, some members of the group obtained employment; so they had a system whereby unemployed members of the group worked on the project during weekdays and those who were in employment worked weekends, holidays and in the evening; and now, the situation is that all twelve are in full-time employment, employment gained through the skills that they have acquired during the construction period of their homes. Three of the twelve have formed a small building company and have completed several small contracts already in the twelve months they've been formed. all unemployed, largely unskilled and living either at Through co-operation between various sectors home in overcrowded conditions, or sharing with (government, private, professional and voluntary) friends and relatives. In fourteen months, they have this is a fine example of success .at work. These built a home for themselves, a pleasant, well projects have common features. There's evidence of a constructed block of twelve flats, worth now upwards of £20,000 each. How was this achieved? Well, they The award winning Zenzele Self-Build Housing Association in met for nearly two years, co-opted professional Bristol. 43 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES partnership between government, private, public and voluntary sectors, with people who have taken or been given an opportunity and/or jobs they didn't have before. Now, another common feature is the fact that black people in the three projects were involved from the beginning and played an essential part of this. It is unusual for black people actually to be involved in community projects, either at the beginning, or as beneficiaries. That is a generality which is well documented. We've heard sometime today and I am sure we'll hear about tomorrow, about the Housing Co operative Movement. It is a movement that is essentially a white movement, where black people not only have been discouraged- I'll give an example of this - but actually excluded from joining. The Vauxhall example this morning in Liverpool is built in an area which is a no-go area for black people and has been for certainly for the best part of this century; so that black people would not go to Vauxhall to join a co-op. There are other co-operatives in Liverpool8, where the bulk of the black population live and there away as a souvenir, OK? We are also asking people, if are other co-operatives in Brixton with a totally white they feel that their pockets can manage it, to give us membership. Housing associations have a very bad any donations they can. Thank you. record of employing black people at all levels, whether as staff, or consultants, or contractors. The CHAIRMAN Thank you very much. And now on to local authorities' record is little better and the private Dr Nicholas Falk. sector is even worse; I won't go into detail but it certainly is. · By illustrating those examples of the Zenzele DR NICHOLAS FALK, Chairman and Managing Project, I was hoping to get the conference to take on Director, Urban and Economic Development board the fact that black people have been excluded, Limited (URBED), London. are being excluded and we want it to stop. Now, there Thank you very much. is talk offunds being set up, a trust fund, and one of Well, I'm neither an architect, nor, as will be clear the conditions I would like the trustees of the fund to from my accent, am I a community architect. I impose on any scheme in inner cities is that it should suppose you could call me a kind of enabler and what take on board the needs of black people and, what is I am going to do in literally the ten minutes I've been more, I think there should be black representation on asked to speak for is to share some experience about the board of trustees. the process of development that we have observed I thank you. I'll end on this. from the projects that we have been involved in over the last ten years or so. CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, Mr Julienne. The Prince of Wales called for a renaissance and I Concerning entertainment, there are 500 tickets think the most exciting thing about a day like today is available from the girls with red bow ties for a concert the fact that we are not, any longer, talking about tonight, £3.00 each. Miss Helen Laird wil say a few isolated initiatives. We are talking about a tide which words about that. is beginning to sweep the other way again, and over the past few months, I have been privileged to look at HELEN LAIRD projects in various European countries and to see the Thank you Mr Chairman. same kinds of things are happening all over the place. Ladies and gentlemen, the Rainbow Community One might almost label them as Community Project has put on the entertainment for this evening. Environmental Development Agencies. We're talking Our aim is to try to re-open the Rainbow Theatre in not just about communities opposing change but Fins bury Park and I am sure a lot of you know about actually organising projects that employ people, that it. We are asking for donations from this organisation attract resources and have the potential to be self to help us to refurbish the building and to open it up sustaining. I'm not going to talk at all about housing, as a concert venue. This evening's programme is which has been well covered by other speakers, but to inside the brochure, so you can actually take this focus on a more limited area, that of local economic 44 .. SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES development and to say a little about the process that rather motly crew of businessmen in Little Germany, I believe underlies successful projects. which is a very run-down twenty-acre area of What we're talking about is nothing less than Bradford, who own property in the area and are bringing dead areas back to life; areas that have lost concerned to see something better result, came their original purpose that of industry, and are together and in only six months beavered away to looking for a new role. create Festival Square. I believe this is to be a I think the first stage of this development process is successful technique. It's rather like saying The that of opposing threats, and one of the most Prince of Wales is going to come and open something. significant examples of that in this country is the If you commit yourself to having a festival, to show a battle in Covent Garden to save the area from being better place to the outside world, then the resources redeveloped. It can also involve the preservation of will all come together in a very short time. historic buildings that people love and are familiar Trusts need not just be about environmental with. improvement and creating new squares. They can be It can also be when a community sees an insensitive to do with tackling dereliction. They can also be to do scheme proposed for an area, like the one the with the restoration of buildings, and there are now Limehouse Development Group has battled over in over eighty preservation trusts up and down the Limehouse in East London where we are talking country. about acres of wasteland surrounding an area of The mechanism of a development trust creates a water that could be a lively place for people to enjoy means whereby one can package a cocktail of funds but which it was proposed to fill in. from different sources behind projects which have All of these are threats which cause people to unite social benefits, as well as, perhaps, some commercial and come together but the next stage, I think, is when basis. I believe that such trusts, with charitable status people start doing things for real and that means and run by committed people, not necessarily organising into bodies. I don't think you could have architects, can provide one mechanism for beginning seen a more depressing picture than faced us when we to revive run-down areas. started in Sowerby Bridge. This is the centre of a little Yorkshire textile town and local people were incensed CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, Nick Falk. Our at the way their town was falling apart. Indeed, the next speaker is Dorothy Kuya, who is Director of leading light was a butcher, who had seen the trade of Affirmata, here in London. Dorothy Kuya. his shop go down and down; and it was quite clear that the ideas which the local people had come up DORORTHY KUYA, Director, Affirmata, with were potentially viable, providing one could London. unite enough resources behind their ideas. And so the Thank you, Chair, ladies and gentlemen. people came together to form the Sowerby Bridge Can I say that I am not here on behalf of Affirmata. I Improvement Trust. A strategy for the whole area, am here for a number of general reasons, one of which was in a series of different ownerships, was put which is that there are hardly any black speakers together. The Chairman of the Economic Develop appearing at this conference. There are still too few ment Committee of West Yorkshire, and a leading and I was asked if I would be prepared to speak; not light in the community, the local headmaster, who only because I am a black woman but because I was was concerned that his kids despised the town that also a member of the Broadwater Farm Enquiry and they grew up in and wanted it to be a better place, because I've also been involved in campaigns against came together in order to ensure that the resources racism for most of my life. were there to acquire the site. I wrote to Jim Sneddon, who is one of the One of the key things, I think, is producing very organisers of the conference, on 16th September, to early results, so that people feel that things are ask about the aims of this conference and it was only happening and that they are having an influence. In yesterday that I received the programme, outlining this case, it was a canoe slalom course, which was what the conference was about. I must say, I'm still a built only a few months after the project was officially little unclear; but, meanwhile, I was billed, initially, launched, with money largely raised by a duck race - to speak on race and inner city problems. I protested plastic ducks on which people bet-and, of all things, about this, as I do not believe there are race and inner a tourist information centre. Now, Sowerby Bridge city problems. I believe there is a problem of racism was widely known, still is perhaps, as a dump but the within white British society. I do not believe there is local people wanted to show that there was something an inner city problem. There is, however, an outer there for other people to see and that, I think, is quite city problem, a problem with suburbia and the white an exciting strategy for reviving a run-down area. highlands of this society, where those who wield The next stage is to get on to organising projects power and authority and who hold the purse-strings and packaging finance and employing people. A of this country live. The inner cities exist because of .. 45 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES their policies, because of their designs and because of are participating to have the resources to enable their mistakes and it is they who are the problem. I them to take charge of their needs, to make decisions wonder if the Inner City Trust, which is going to be about their life and to enable them to grow in such a set up out of this conference, is going to deal with that way as to be able to contribute to the care and well one and is going to address itself to that particular being of others. The care and well-being of others problem; or is it just going to allow those in the outer should not be the prerogative of those in the outer city to appease their conscience by donating to the cities. Trust? And will it just hand out a few coppers here The fact is that Britain is a racist society. Everyone and there- a bit of first aid- to ease the suffering and recognises that Britain is a multi-racial society, even if to ease the oppression of those who are in a situation they don't like it and some of us know, in studying the which is not of their own making and which they have history of this society, that Britain has always been little power to do anything about? multi-racial. What is not sufficiently recognised, When I received the programme yesterday, I however, is that wherever people are born in this discovered that I was programmed - for the second country, wherever they live, work, are educated and time without my consultation - to talk under the trained, be it in areas like Liverpool 8, where I was heading of Community Development, an all born and grew up, or Handsworth, or the Broadwater embracing title, meaning anything and everything; Farm Estate, or the white highlands of Norfolk, so, I decided a little hurriedly last night, with a little Devon, or the white highlands of parts of London, all help from the first volume of the compact edition of white Britons are implicated in this multi-racial the Oxford English Dictionary, to formulate my own society and have got to adjust to the reality of it - a definition of Community Development and part of reality which they are continually denying. Britain is that is: 'a growth within a community which arises a racist society, because racism permeates every out of a common character, a common identity, the aspect of life in it, and there is no part or facet of recognition of special and separate needs and general British society in which black people do not agreement, out of which arises a process of experience the oppression of racism, either by development, leading to concrete results and further omission or commission. There is an abdication of developments and plans.' That's only part of it. responsibility for the needs of black people, there are I was trying to say something, not just about people covert and overt forms of racism, and there is the working together in agreement, not just about growth marginalisation of the needs of the black community. of a community, not just about concrete results and The people in the black community are proportionally development but something also about democratic much poorer than any other group in Britain and they participation, which should enable those people who are poor, to a large extent, because they are black. 46 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES There is, above all, on the part of white people, a cent on that estate locked into their houses and failure to recognise the all-pervasive nature of racism locked into poverty, the problems ofthe deteriorating and the force and the dynamic which racism has. housing on a new estate. Racism is an ideology which is a product of white However, when we did our survey of the estate we western culture. The beliefs arising from the ideology saw what excellent work Dolly and her group had of white supremacy form a set of inter-connecting done in raising tenant's awareness ofthe community ideas, which are not often openly expressed but groups on the estate: 90 per cent supported the which, in fact, inform the attitudes and the behaviour Mothers' Group; 81 per cent had heard of and of all white people most of the time and the structures supported the Youth Association. and the modes of functioning of all the white In other words, those groups were beginning to institutions all of the time; and what I want to say to work for the whole of the estate, draw them into what you is that you cannot have effective community was happening and make them feel they were development, nor can you build communities in a benefiting from the activities; but what is significant racist society, without taking on board the issue of about this real form of community development and racism. That is important, whether you are a multi increasing democratic control and participation on a racial or multi-ethnic group of people, or a mono multi-racial estate is how those institutions and racial, mono-ethnic group of people. You cannot organisations outside have reacted to it. have a common identity and agreement between Local government found itself more able to begin black and white people together, unless white people to support a genuine multi-racial endeavour (in fact, deal with their racism. You cannot have a common they almost became inspired by that and maybe it's identity and agreement between white people, some the duty of community groups to inspire local and of whom will be actively racist and others who will be central government); on the other hand, the police, wanting to deal with their racism, unless the group in the Home Office and the establishment became more which they're operating on the whole takes on amd more hostile to a group that was gaining responsibility for eliminating racism within it. strength, gaining confidence, gaining power, gaining The danger for community development, if it more skills. doesn't tackle racism, is that you will strengthen But community development has to be more than racism, you will reinforce and extend racism, which just about changing structures and physical environ already exists within the individuals and the ment and economic conditions. It has to be about community doing the development and in these changing the hearts and minds of people in the circumstances, where racism is being developed and process, so those people don't just build another extended and built upon, you cannot have growth narrow, racist enclave from which they can exclude from within, a growth which would benefit the whole anybody they don't like, but that they use their own community. development to enable them to contribute to the care The Broadwater Enquiry team found a clear and well-being of others and to begin to share example of this when collecting evidence about the equitably in the ways and means of eliminating history of the Broadwater Farm Estate, when we were racism from British society forever. Thank you. looking into the disturbances of October 1985. We found that, for example, from the very early days, the CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, Dorothy Kuya. tenants had been well organised on the Broadwater Unfortunately, due to illness, the presentation by the Farm Estate. They'd had social clubs, they'd had Whitechapel Development Group has been cancelled events, they'd had striptease and they'd had all sorts [A synopsis of this is included below]. We therefore of activities but they'd kept black people on the estate move on to the next subject, which is Community , out of those activities and made sure they were Technical Aid, and the speakers will be Andrew Kean alienated from them. When faced with muggings and and Norma Taylor. Andrew Kean of the Technical robberies, they had chosen to blame the young people Services Agency Limited. on the estate, who just happened to be black. They accused them of muggings, of attacks on old people; Whitechapel- The Community Plan. they colluded with the police and even demanded a Will it get Built? police station to control them. People like Dolly Kiffin and others who have worked with her have THE WHITECHAPEL DEVELOPMENT highlighted the real situation and the real problems of GROUP Broadwater Farm Estate; the problems of all those The Community Plan for Whitechapel is to build a young people who were unemployed, the problems of 200,000 square foot shopping centre, 460 new homes them having no places for leisure, no opportunities and 40 light industrial units on vacant Council owned for jobs and training, of being harrassed by the police, sites. the problems of the elderly, of whom there are 25 per The Tower Hamlets Council have planned a .. 47 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES shopping centre at Whitechapel since 1976. They rebuilding purely to the professionals, then we'll end appointed a development consultant after a competi up in the same mess as we're in nowadays, because, tion in 1978. Nothing got built. At the borough plan after all, it's the professionals who designed the high enquiry in 1984, the Tower Hamlets Environment flats that're in a terrible state; it's the professionals Trust objected to the mega (750,000 square foot) who designed the damp houses that we have to live in, scheme and proposed a new approach to the especially in Glasgow, where I come from. redevelopment of Whitechapel. So, how do we go about involving the community? The Council decided to have a second competition. Well, we could involve them using the actual design The Community Plan, co-ordinated by the Environ process but I would like to suggest, using my ment Trust, has drawn together a team of the best organisation as an example, how we can take it one professional agencies, held nearly 25 local public stage further. My own organisation is based on meetings, assembled a consortium of local housing something called 'user control'. It is a federation of associations and attracted all the necessary develop all, or a large number of community groups, 185 ment and investment finance. community groups within the Glasgow and Strath The Community Plan, born out of people's clyde region. The most important aspect of ACT AC frustration, devised through careful and detailed is that it is user-controlled. It is controlled by a consultation with local people, and representing a management committee, elected from representatives unique community and private sector partnership, is of community groups. We employ architects, we now on a shortlist of three with two private retain a lawyer, we provide architectural services to developers. the community, either for design projects, or for The plan differs from the private schemes in three defect reports. Through our user control, we have a important respects. Firstly, a percentage of the greater response to the needs of the community. It is revenue income from the shopping centre will go on interesting to note that the Calvay Housing Co to the Whitechapel Development Trust which will use operative seemed to have difficulty in getting an the money to further regenerate the area. architect to work for them because the first thing an Secondly, the plan has three times as much housing architect looks for is a fee. We work on the basis that as proposed by the private schemes. we don't necessarily charge fees. If a group can't Thirdly, the whole plan has been drawn up afford a fee, or can't get funding for a fee, then we still involving local people aimed at their needs and at the carry out the work for them, s'o there is no profit regeneration of the whole area. motive. We can carry on and provide the service for In the context of the current debate about inner city the community, whatever that may be, without redevelopment, the Community Plan for Whitechapel having to worry about a profit at the end of it. demonstrates a model for a new approach to urban Another advantage of our system is an involvement regeneration. of the people in the community, within individual Tower Hamlets Council decide on their choice of projects and within the control of the agency. In all scheme in early December. If the council choose the the projects that we carry out, it is vitally important Community Plan, it will be on site next autumn and that the people in the local community are involved at completed by early 1990. all stages, right from the very initial response, and the initial response, in fact, comes from the local community- we don't go and say to them: 'You need Community Technical Aid a community centre'; they come to us and say: 'We ANDREW KEAN, Company Secretary, Technical want a community centre. How do we go about it - Services Agency Limited, Glasgow. will you give us help to design that?' An example of Thank you very much Mr Chairman. that and how we insist on this involvement is a project This morning we were talking about the top and which we carried out in the Easterhouse area of the bottom; I'm quite proud to say that I'm from the Glasgow. It was a run-down youth centre, badly in bottom. I'm not professional. I work for people who need of refurbishment. The group had the funds to own a big tower round the corner and when it says carry out the refurbishment and asked us to help on 'Company Secretary of Technical Services Agency' I the design and one of the main points which we made do it on a voluntary basis. concerned the management; the trustees of the On behalf of ACTAC, I'd like to focus the project were, in fact, people like the ex-Chief attention of the conference for a short time on one Constable of Glasgow, the Lord Provost of Glasgow. aspect of community technical aid. I'd like to ask the Now, they weren't the people who were going to use question: 'What input should a community have in the centre. The people who were going to use the any building programme or rebuilding programme centre were the young folk of Easterhouse and, within it?'; and our answer to that would be that it therefore, we insisted that in the design process, there should have a very large say. If we leave the had to be a way for the young folk to have an input. In 48 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES fact the number of young people using the project has doubled since the refurbishment, because they got what they wanted. Another aspect of our project is research. Because we know the needs and the problems within the community that we serve, we can respond by carrying out research into common problems; and, as I said already, one of the most common problems in Glasgow and in the west of Scotland is dampness; and we're now carrying out two projects in the city of Glasgow. One is taking two houses and carrying out a pilot project. Now that was done in consultation with a local community group at very little cost because we persuaded some of the larger firms, local firms and national firms, to provide the materials to allow us to carry out the pilot project. We're also looking at other methods within the dampness field which have never been tried before and, hopefully, we'll have some success in that in the future. We have one problem, initially, and that is, like many community technical aid centres, we are funded; in our case by a grant from Strathclyde Regional Council. We have four years to go and at the end of four years' time, the funding will disappear; so, we are, in fact, setting up a community business, which will be used to raise money to provide the continuation; but in all the work that we do, there is one important thing that comes back- I can't stress enough- and that is user control. I would hope that in federation of networks, set up more than three years all the community initiatives that are going to come ago, initially to share experiences; that is, technical out of this conference, the one important thing is that aid centres in different parts thought it would be a the people who are going to get the service are the worthwhile thing to do and that's what they still do; most important: the local community. We're talking but later, a decision was taken to employ two about building communities and if we don't do it by development workers, who now give wide-spread involving the local people, then we're going to hit the advice to groups who want to set up technical aid same problems as we have now. centres, or to anybody who wants the help of Can I make one personal comment to Mr Hackney, architects, surveyors, or other professionals in their who announced the trustees this morning for the new area. It is, in fact, a multi-disciplinary organisation. Trust Fund; it was interesting that they all had big, Membership is about seventy. Many of them are here fancy titles, like 'Sir Somebody'; there was nobody today, but if you want to know anything further you from any community group. I would like to suggest have a leaflet in your conference package; there's a that the trustees should look at that. It seems to be directory and a report available at the bookshop and funny that we're setting up a trust from the Building at the exhibition, so do please take those if you want Communities Conference and not including anybody to know more. That organisation, ACTAC, has from the community. representatives of the youth organisation, tenants', residents' associations, ethnic groups and other CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, Mr Kean. And community organisations, all of them sympathetic to now, we now have a presentation from Norma the concepts of user participation, some already Taylor, Chairperson, COMTECHSA, Liverpool. committed to user control and others moving towards it. NORMA TAYLOR, Chair, COMTECHSA, Probably the most useful thing I can do in this Liverpool. short time available is to say a bit more about my own Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. experience of user control in the Technical Aid Andrew, who has just been speaking, and I are both Centre in Liverpool - that is COMTECHSA - and representatives of ACTAC and I'd like to say a few then I'll show you some slides of the work which more things about that organisation, for the benefit COMTECHSA does. of those of you here who don't know about it. It is a COMTECHSA was set up originally in 1979 and 49 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES since that time, it has given a lot of help to many fact, I'd like to go on to do that now. Could we have voluntary organisations in the city. There are about the slides, please? two hundred members and there have been about The first slide shows a typical problem. That estate three hundred projects done in that time. They help behind is where the kids come from to play on this people who know what they want. They help people ground. That's the only place they have to play. You who are only just getting together to sort themselves can see two containers, over there. That's the only wet out. They can put people in touch and show how to weather accommodation that there was for them; so, set up committees and so forth. The types of work the adults got together and applied for funds and that have been done are many and various and you'll were successful and, so, the programme started off see some of the range on the slides in a moment or doing somethings about this. They roped in volunteer two. labour- there's a former Minister of Sport doing his But this question of user control. In the first place, bit. voluntary organisations apply for membership of Here's some men standing around drinking- don't COMTECHSA and then obtain a £1 share. It's a they do that alot?! non-profit-making friendly society. At the AGM, the Morris dancers on the hard court area- it's a very shareholders elect a committee of management from popular activity in Liverpool, so they're involved as among their number- that is the representatives of well. community groups. Then we have the monthly This is another that eventually was a drop-in centre meetings, at which the committee consider the for the unemployed, who took over the house next applications for membership and, also, requests for door, and it was very nicely refurbished but that's the work. The staff are present but do not vote. The staff scale, the sort of problems that people are coping with then go away and do the work, implement the and coping well. decisions that the committee have made; but, in This is what some of the roofs look like -patched addition, one committee member is allocated to each up with putty, it looks like, in some cases. project, so that the voluntary group involved has Here's an interesting youth club. It's a bricked-in direct access to the committee, if they should require archway underneath a railway. It's called 'Over the it. The amount of help varies with the group. Some Bridge Youth Club'. They had a problem, because need a lot of help; some people have got their ideas they had a lot of rain coming in and just above that together and only need the final stages, the plans, the was the expansion joints on the track and they site supervision and so on sorted out. couldn't stop all the trains to Salford while this was As a result of this work, since 1979, the committee sorted out, so they had to put this sort of umbrella up and the staff have been able to identify that there are to stop the rain coming into the youth club; it's a sort certain common problems that all groups have. One, of corrugated plastic sheeting which diverts the water in particular, is the fact that so many, because of the to some other place. shortage of funds, are having to make do with This slide we put in because this one shows the sort premises which are not in a good state of repair. The of thing that contractors do - I'm not saying all group provides the service to the best of its ability and contractors do this but this one did - thought he leaves the maintenance of the building until it has could fool the community group and part of the lead reached crisis stage and then the service has to close on the roof is, in fact, silver-painted cardboard and I down while somebody rummages round and writes understand they're still looking for that contractor loads and loads ofletters to try and get the funding to (LAUGHS IN AUDIENCE). cope with this situation. So, from that observation, a There's a bomb crater, which is used as a pond. It building maintenance scheme has evolved in shows you the speed at which environmental change COMTECHSA. A building survey is done and the occurs in Liverpool. It's over-fished, very shallow. group given advice as to how to go about raising the Voluntary labour put in those temporary fishing funds for the immediate problems. There's a platforms but the group have now obtained funds. procedure where our staff advise the local groups of Interestingly, both this project and the last projects the best way of maintaining their building; just obtained EEC money to help in their project. ordinary things to be done, like clearing out the One thing that people may be asking themselves is: gutters, for example, to prevent the dry rot and the 'What, precisely, is the difference between user wet rot that occur. So, it's routine maintenance that controlled technical aid and the conventional people in the voluntary organisations are advised on. relationship between architects and clients?' Probably, There is a small amount of funds, in the form of the quality of the finished product isn't a lot different, grants or loans to community groups, to help them but we are assuming that the product more precisely with their maintenance problems. meets the needs of the local people and, therefore, You'll see in a moment on the slides some of the money is not so likely to be wasted. However, it is the horrific problems the groups have to cope with. In process that is all-important- the educative process, 50 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES as has been mentioned before. It enables members of on canvas had very, very little to do with the voluntary organisations to expand their capabilities aspirations and the direction and the energies of the and develop confidence, not only in this particular people that I knew there. sphere but in other situations. The experience of So, the nature of Free Form and the development technical aid centres is invaluable for the identifica of it was to try and see whether any of our new-found tion of common problems. Probably, the Building skills had anything to offer to these communities and Maintenance Scheme would not have arisen, had it we spent a long period of time, probably three or four not been for the years that the COMTECHSA staff years, finding out that the vast majority of what we had been doing this kind of work. knew was of complete irrelevance to people's needs. Another point I'd like to put to this conference In the re-learning process, we gradually found that and, perhaps, you can ask yourselves this question there were a number of key points where the skills of later on today and tomorrow: how is it that the skills the artist could come into play. are going to be imparted of listening to what people The artist's skills are to do with manipulation of say they want and understanding what is really being the hands, the physical ability to do things, and most said? Are professionals themselves understood? How people can grapple with that in some way. They have is this going to be coped with? There is a temptation had some experience of it, so we found that by to impose the architect's own idea of the best solution involving ourselves as artists with people, we were or even to think that the particular projects suggest able to share this experience with them. their own solutions. I would like to show you some slides, very quickly, Finally, and I'm really concerned about this now to indicate that experience, in terms of how it's particular aspect the stability offunding. We all know worked with community groups. that you may get your money for three years, four This is working in the streets. In other words the years, two years or whatever. So the groups, the processes are very much an accessible process, to technical aid centres, spend too much of their actually be able to set up a workshop in the street, to energies trying to cope with the future, when funding adjust yourself to the needs and directions of may be withdrawn. It would be so much better if they children, to actually be able to improvise as people could get on with doing the job, instead of knowing come and participate and join in in the creation of a that the funding is for a finite period. recreation area within a part of a town; the ability to The successful rebuilding of inner city areas and come up with new uses of end walls, from imaginative the impoverished outer estates, plus developments trellis work to the solutions of instant trees for an elsewhere throughout the British Isles, will depend environmental improvement. To be able to make new not only on the provision of decent homes and use of small parts of land which have been hidden by sufficient employment opportunities but will also hoardings and turn them to community use; the require that those who are at present unwillingly creation of high-spots in community areas - estates, powerless are able to play a full and active part in the where there is a focal point, where there is a need to re-creation process and to share its benefits. Thank create some kind of identity; the creation of desire you. line paths, establishing paths where desire-line paths have existed; creating those focal points is an CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, Miss Taylor. I'm important part; the learning of techniques - the afraid I must remind the remaining speakers that they ability for people of all ages to participate in some should adhere to the 10 minute speaking limit. kind of creative process, beyond brick-laying, beyond And now, under the heading Community Arts, plastering, into the decorative techniques of plaster Martin Goodrich, Director, Free Form Arts Trust. work, into the painting skills. All of these skills are things which are immediately accessible to people, Community Arts and through them they gain the confidence to achieve the regeneration of the communities for the future: MARTIN GOODRICH, Director, Free Form Arts from laying improvised mosaics and cobbles into a Trust. wet cement area, through to planting and learning Thank you. about planting for balcony boxes, they learn to Free Form is a community arts organisation. We revitalise the environmental conditions of a bare started in 1969. Our purpose and intention was to estate. share our newly-found creative skills from the In some detail now: this is a project where we have privileged positions of being trained as artists with been asked by the Housing Department to link with a the people with whom we had grown up. The areas community in Hackney, to turn around an area, which I grew up in were council estates in parts of which has become derelict over the years. We found outer London; and I found that my education, the we spent six months trying to establish a relationship learning to be a painter, the manipulating the paint with the tenants in order to bring about a kind of 51 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES positive return, so that they would be willing to helping people to do something with your play area.' participate in its regeneration; their intention was, And we helped them to put together a scheme, which quite clearly, not to stay within it but to move out. We was successful through the GLC's community began by having and running open-air workshops funding to turn around this old play area into a new and from those workshops greater things happened. football area. At the same time, in starting with a The idea of the workshop is, essentially, like an open small issue, it became an issue about the whole market, where people come and participate; where neighbourhood and there was a debate within the each grouping that came was given a task to fulfil and community about what should happen, what should to participate with their neighbour and to make a be done with the houses at the end of the street from contribution to a whole piece and then, as the piece 'let's pull them down, they're an eye-sore' to 'can't we developed, you reach an image, which is about people use them for a community centre?', 'what about some looking out of their kitchen windows. of the young kids who are now sixteen to twenty, The people kept referring to it: 'Well, we're here in who're still living in their parents' home, isn't there an this place morning, noon and night,' so the images opportunity for them to live on some of these that we created were very much to do with morning, places?', 'Can we raise the money?' This ended with noon and night. The development from that led to the the creation of a community group to begin to put ability to work with that community group, to together the proposals. establish a small advanture play area - from small The proposals eventually were successful. After things, bigger things come. three or four years, the field was ready, the pitch was Another project, and this is in central Hackney, made. The pitch is constantly used. On a yearly basis, and it's about: what can you do with an empty space, it has a celebration and that celebration itself had led a vacant space and what can a community group do to the formation of sports clubs and a development of with that empty space? And the idea was to turn it other interests, from karate through to other into a community garden, but in doing that, it also recreational pursuits. This has created the need for an meant that you had to take on the planning issues of expanding community centre, which leads to the need the access to that space and was this particular for expanding facilities for children to play and all of pathway, the entrance into it, a restricted pathway? these are opportunities in which the people of that Did it need opening up? Which meant negotiating community can actually participate for themselves in with the Local Authority Housing Department's car building the work. The projects that we are involved parking spaces, to widen the road and the kind of with are geared towards that participation. As part of bureaucracy that one had to go to in order to achieve the scheme that I just showed we asked the GLC, who that. That was achieved. The path was widened and were the main funders, whether, in fact, instead of the project was able to go ahead. In developing the doing another community employment scheme, we project, it was very much on the basis that anybody could take the first £10,000 of the scheme and set up could make an effort within the garden. If you want our own employment initiative on the estate, to to come, you can find a means by which you can employ fourteen young lads, who would actually do participate. You can learn how to plaster. You can the preliminary works on the site. From these small learn how to brick-lay. Even on a very remedial level, beginnings come much biggers ideas and the building you will still have the opportunity and you won't be of confidence and ability for the community actually denied access to that. to take on more issues. We're very concerned, in the process of our work, This is a project in Cambridge that we're currently about the investment of the imagination of people. doing and it's about the revitalisation of the inner We believe that the artistic processes - the creative part of an estate. The idea of the project is to bring the processes - are within everybody and that it's only a area into use. To find the best use for it. We question of turning the tap slowly, to let them come experimented for long periods of time, running out. We believe that there is a tremendous capability workshops with children and teenagers, to develop for quality in people's work and their output. We the kind of recreational facilities they required and believe that there are a myriad of opportunities for then finding the means by which we could involve change in design scope; we don't have to live with the them in the building processes; by stimulating their municipal railing. We can actually have something imagination, we allowed new and different ideas to more imaginative, more in keeping with the scheme come forward - not the ideas that exist within as a whole. people's catalogues, but those within the playground A project on another housing estate, and this is industry. very much linked with a community group coming to Just as a final shot. I wanted to say that I do believe us as an artist agency and community organisation, that the area of development that needs also some and saying: 'Can you help us to do something with attention, amongst the many that have come out so our play area? We understand that you're good at far, is the requirement of our educational system to 52 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES begin to produce designers and artists, who can see the potential of working with communities as a very rich and rewarding one, as opposed to one which is very much a sort of fringe activity. I would like to see those educational institutions taking on that challenge, so that it was not a fringe activity but the first activity of people's creative endeavours. Thank you. CHAIRMAN Thank you very much Mr Goodrich. And now, the next speaker, under the heading Community Employment, David Bryan, St Matthew's Meeting Place, Brixton. Community Employment DAVID BRYAN, St Matthew's Meeting Place, Brixton. Thank you, Chairman. I think I should start off by telling everyone the story of how I happen to be here because I think it adds a sort of interest to the whole day's affairs. I'm pleased to see there's quite an audience still here at this hour of the evening, because it's been quite an intense day and I've been entertained, informed and there's a lot I've got out of it. But by way of how I happen to be here: a letter came through the post some weeks ago, saying: 'David Bryan, you've been asked to be a speaker on this event.' I thought instantly: 'A mistake Chair had a quick work with me as I came on and has been made - wrong name.' I never speak said: 'ten minutes!' so I'll do my very best; however, I anywhere at all. I keep a low profile and this is, will not guarantee anything.) clearly, out of my league. So I quickly disposed of this St Matthew's Meeting Place has been going for envelope towards our vicar, who was doing the fifteen years, from concept. Now, for the numerous rounds at the time on the Faith in the City. I thought architects here, this is something I would like you to it must be a clear mistake: it's his ball. Three weeks bear in mind: don't ever, ever talk to community later, unfortunately, he brings it back and says: 'No. I projects about a mega, mega project of our nature, already have my package. This is yours.' Un which is £2 million and talk about 'phasing in', fortunately, because of the nature of the work I was without some clear idea about what you really mean involved in, I just put it aside and hoped that by 'phasing in'. This project over 15 years was eventually it would vanish and I wouldn't give it any 'phased in'. I can only describe it as 'phased in further thought but, eventually, I thought: 'Give it a disaster'. We had discussions with the community. I try. What have I got to lose?' will not attack our architect for that. Clearly, there The story of Brixton has hardly ever been told was good rapport, good discussion. We're talking property. Brixton is an area which is unduly about fifteen years. Fifteen years of considerable condemned, slaughtered and massacred in the press change, developments and progress and that's a long and many people who live in the area of Brixton feel time to be put into a building, to adapt to a changing ashamed, to a great extent, of the fact that we live in a community. I feel somewhat guilty about talking community which we can't identify with what we read about my project in Brixton because I don't think this in the papers. is an opportunity for me to make a big plug and I I have a particular interest on the subject though don't think it's worthy of me to do so either, because not a vast expertise. I run a community centre in our project in Brixton is one of many. There are many central Brixton that is housed within the church, projects that are building, thriving, trying to re hence the current name, St Matthew's Meeting Place. generate a community which everybody either There have been many things said today about ignores, attacks or believes to be a no-go area. I was community projects -red tape, building enthusiasm, heartened, I must admit, in a very cynical fashion, etc, etc, - all those can be related to our particular when the speaker from the Housing Association scheme. I'm going to try to do it in ten minutes (the mentioned the no-go area in Liverpool which was no 53 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES good for black people - that, to me, is very ironic; are, I'm sorry to say. I don't think employers are: there are quite a few and they always seem to be in 'Come in, do your job and get out.' Who is really relation to black people only. Brixton is clearly not a concerned? Very few. The unemployed numbers no-go area for white inhabitants of Brixton, who are escalate and rise. I'm sorry, but we're getting in a very still the majority community. peculiar area of human concern, where human As I was saying, in fact, in my project, over the resources, human potential are absent - are un fifteen years, we've had to grapple with finding the concerned and especially within that a black potential. funds for this project and persuading all concerned Let me highlight the black potential, because, that it was viable. It's been a long, hard battle. We are really how could I not? The black potential is a not quite complete. As I stand here today, I am sure potential of people who have travelled as adventurers that the bricks and mortar are in their final stages. from far-distant lands, where it was sunny all the The carpet has not been laid yet. In two weeks' time time. To come to England for economic integration and an hour and a half, I shall be opening the doors let me repeat that phrase, as I think it's quite clear we for a small community opening. I have no guarantee need not to confuse anything else I'm saying - they'll be finished (by the way, the completion date economic integration. My parents and others - and was July this year, so, who knows?). this is all old hat, I'm sorry if anybody already knows But, more seriously, the project I am engaged in is this but I just want to re-emphasise - came here to embarked on a course of trying to regenerate seek employment, seek development and adventure, confidence in the community - confidence in the make a commitment, a contribution. That contribu community which has been sorely dented and tion has not been respected and, I don't want to attacked. As a person who is a Brixtonian through labour the point, it's been neglected because we've and through (and I'm never ashamed of that), I know been denied access. We came to offer our labours. We full well that people carry round a stigma when they came to develop skills. Some, against tremendous go for jobs: 'Where do you come from?' 'South West odds, have developed a range of skills, a range of 2- London, the southern region'; because 'Brixton' potential but still are blocked. will lose you the job, let alone anything else. And, I'd like to give you a small story. I give this Clearly within the area of Brixton we were talking story to a number of people I come across in private about a project that services a large number of quarters- remember, I don't speak in public. This is a community groups. We have hundreds of groups story of a very close friend of mine (in fact, my best coming through our doors per year. The total I friend) who was brought up in England, from the counted recently was 300 this year. You'll be Gambia, did his first degree at LSE, went off to the interested to know of the current diversities - let me northern heights of Lancashire and did a Masters and give you a quick picture. We have Morris men, of all while there, he wrote to a very reputable insurance people, on a regular basis in St Matthews, alongside company, whose name I'll be subtle enough not to Rastafarians who are in quiet prayer, alongside mention today, and he applied to them as a manager, Muslims, alongside black elder groups, alongside responsible for investments. I understand from him playgroups, alongside people concerned about there're only four black people in the whole country sexuality, alongside people who are trying to develop involved in that particular area of work, so he must ideas around economic regeneration -private entre have stood out quite a lot. preneurs. We have the whole gamut of the life of the It took that company a year to decide whether or community meeting in our building. Why? Because not to employ my friend, not because his academic buildings are scarce, property is scarce and a place to credentials were not up to scratch- that was not the meet is essential. criterion. They pondered - and they made this quite A place to meet is essential because a community honestly open to him, later on- on how their clients needs to be able to reflect itself. I've been around would respond to a black manager with power in the Brixton all my life. I'm not going anywhere. My organisation. parents who live in Brixton aren't going anywhere. Tell me about human potential. Tell me about The bulk of the community are not moving anywhere opportunities to make a commitment, a contribution. and that is what we're concerned with. We're Tell me where it stands in that story. For their sanity, concerned about the people who live in the they employed him and he did, as I understand, a community and who are the community- the people remarkable job. However, it was not merely the of the community. Prudential he applied to. He applied to another Much has been said about nurturing the individual organisation of international repute that said to him: talents- I love this phrase. I think it's fascinating. It's 'You're an excellent candidate, but you're too young. fascinating how absent it is in reality. Who is Come back in two years' time.' He has joined that concerned about individual talents? - let me be organisation and he is now responsible for a major slightly, slightly cynical here- I don't think schools chunk of a third world country. The organisation is 54 SESSION 3: RECENT INITIATIVES the World Bank and he's a senior officer in that down the corridors of Lambeth Town Hall, and we organisation, responsible for vast budgets and vast have the business community unsure about how their commitments. profits will turn out in Brixton. We have the That potential was nearly denied and nearly died a community, the people of the borough building death. He is not exceptional. There are many, many community projects, generating employment and other people around the streets now today, qualified some being crazy enough to pull out their hard in various degrees- because people always talk about earned surplus, to become even riskier and go into 'the unqualified' and the 'underdeveloped'; I'm not business - that's local people, not the big firms talking about them today. I'm talking about those outside who have capital to spare but local people are who have potential, who have skills, who have been beginning to re-invest in their own community. I, denied opportunities to build on those skills because personally, believe that community regeneration will they've been denied access to areas where they can happen in many of the community areas because of gain experience, gain credibility. local people investing, making a commitment, because they have nowhere to run, because they know the It's a pity Lord Scarman's not here at the moment realities of the environment they live in. Be it black because I want to make one reference to the police - communities, be it white communities in Glasgow, be and I don't ever comment on the police. The police it white communities in Wales, it is a matter of: 'We are not a problem, I think, for the black community know what we're living in. We are going to make a alone. They are a problem of the whole community of commitment to it,' and I think it's sad that external England and their accountability, their honesty, their parties with power, with money are not making that credibility is for all of us to be concerned with. commitment. All too often, mediocre funding is Lord Scarman, in his report, mentioned how black being given to projects to survive. people should join the police. I'd like to remind Lord Let me leave you on one final note. I have, as I Scarman, and I'm not making any comment on his mentioned earlier on, this vast project - because it is recommendations, that you can find it documented in quite large and I'm now apologetic that I didn't bring the Daily Telegraph that in the late sixties black a slide with me because everybody else has been done people were not allowed to join the police, even so well with slides; We've been given £2 million over though many of us came from the police force in the fifteen years. Let me tell you about how sensible Caribbean. That's a fact I think he sometimes forgets funding agencies are - and I hope •the new Trust is when we get blamed for not taking the initiative. more enlightened. But let me move on rapidly, to try and summarise a We've got £2 million which we've had to haggle number of points about the title I've been given that over, over fifteen years to complete one building, so I'd like to share with you. In Brixton (this is in the it's been incomplete at stages for long periods of its borough of Lambeth) we have suffered for many life; and we have no money to run it. I love the years, not merely with bad media coverage (that's a comments someone made earlier on about main recent occurrence in some respects) for of blight - tenance. I've now got six floors to heat. Six entrances planning blight, development blight. The local to secure. I have three staff. We open seven days a authority, which has been Labour for a considerable week, fourteen hours a day. Tell me how outside period and for a short while during that fifty years agencies can help to develop a community that is was Conservative, has vacillated between a whole making all its own efforts, all its own attempts to range of ideas about what would it do with the progress. Thank you. community. We have ring roads and then they decided not to have ring roads and they built ugly CHAIRMAN: Thank you very much, Mr David estates to put people on with sound-proof windows Bryan. that wide because the ring road would be outside. That closes the Session number 3, Recent Initiatives, They built large estates which were pits for people to The New Partnerships. We are now about to begin live in and couldn't encourage a quality of life that Session 4 - Recent Initiatives in Context. There are a anybody could be respectful of. In this quagmire of range of speakers, the first of whom is Mr Norman indecision, the business community is also being very Wakefield, Chairman and Chief Executive, Y J indecisive, so we have, on the one hand a local Lovell (Holdings), speaking on the subject Private authority with immense power, authority sleeping Enterprise and the Community. Mr Wakefield. 55 SESSION 4 Recent Initiatives in Context Private Enterprise and the Community Polarisation of society, loss of civic pride and social responsibility are all critical features amongst the NORMAN WAKEFIELD, Chairman and Chief wider problems that we find ourselves faced with in Executive, Y. J. Lovell (Holdings). society at large. The inability of the private sector to Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. provide rental housing within the present system, for I'm a representative of another minority group - the whatever reason, has frozen out major institutional businessman. I've cut off my horns to come here in investors and landlords and huge sums of private disguise today and ifl take too literally one or two of sector money, which, given a sound investment, the comments that have been made, I suspect I may could be put to work housing our people. Remember be even an endangered species; though I do believe always, at the end of the day, this money is yours and that business's true role in society is about serving mine. Invested through pension funds and insurance markets and not exploiting them and I have worked premiums and, one day, we will, quite reasonably, in major urban programmes over a number of years expect a return on it. in three countries: Japan; four marvellous years in the In the private sector, people vote with their money renaissance of Baltimore; and my company, I believe, and they buy what they can afford and this imposes a has built more housing in this country in partnership discipline which tempers and balances the desire and than any other- in partnership with local authorities, arrogance to give people what we think they should in partnership with housing associations, in partner have, in contrast to them choosing for themselves. If ship with community groups. So, I would claim to we get it wrong, we get our fingers burnt and it also have had a little bit of experience. I would say this: provides an effective control on costs. I've often that a phrase has been coined today about 'bottom compared, unfavourably in this respect, local up' and a rejection of top down. Fine. But let's, for authority building costs with the private sector goodness' sake, make sure that we meet in the middle. product- perhaps a thirty to fifty per cent difference. I think it's common ground now that so many of I've been told that it's essentially because the private the massive public sector generated and directed sector is below, or sub-standard and that in the public programmes to rebuild our country after the war sector, it is build to last. I can see little sign of that, somehow went wrong. The dreams were there. given the huge problems we face now in the public National priorities and political consensus ensured sector, and I don't just mean the system-built and continuity of planning and construction on a scale identity housing estates. never seen before and these undertakings, well Now, I'm not knocking the past- we all participated intended as they were, born of politicians and in it and none of us come with clean hands. I simply bureaucrats, working on a 'we know what is best for enter a plea to learn from it, which brings me to my you' principle within a central planning framework, second point. We pursue our affairs in this country on lacked fundamental understanding of the real product the basis and assumption that the private sector is a of development: environment and community are not sometimes useful but basically rapacious resource simply buildings. The cardinal error has been that that will exploit anything and everything, given the governments of every political persuasion, in their chance, and that it must, therefore, be relegated to, at housing policies, have divided the needs of this most, a secondary role. The public sector, on the country basically into two. Successive policies other hand (so the thinking goes), is the guardian of assumed, even decreed, that on the one hand, those the public good and must, therefore, by definition, be could afford to buy - whatever that may mean - will responsible for directing and implementing the major have their needs satisfied by the private sector; on the programmes of renewal that the country needs. This other, those who cannot - equally impossible to approach ignores the fact that most of the organising define - will be provided with housing through the capacity and its management, the development of public sector and the subsidised rent system, irrespec skills and flair and the ability to raise money in the tive of earnings of individuals or their families; and private sector are in the private sector and that this the knock-on effect of this has been profound. talent and experience will not be effectively deployed, 56 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT unless we find ways of structuring relationships and purse of managing urban deprivation; community respective contributions in more enlightened ways: in leaders, seeking help for the people they represent partnership, if you like. We should be encouraging, usually housing but other community facilities as well not discouraging, the private sector to invest these but sensible enough to realise that they will get none skills and resources, to take the considerable risks of these, unless they welcome investment, co-operate and make a reasonable profit as an appropriate with and contribute to economic revival. reward. These partnerships have some experts on board but Thirdly, I believe the only way forward for this not too many. Beware the expert with his pre country, faced as it is with major problems within our conceived ideas and narrow outlook; and these cities, housing in particular, but constrained by liaisons in the common good have the power to raise limited resources, is by enlightened partnership money, to squeeze the maximum of direct grants out between public needs and interests on the one hand of government, to utilise government guarante~s for and private investment, energy and responsibility on development loans, particularly for rental housing the other. Neither can go it alone and we must not and to raise development bonds, yielding tax-free forget, as this conference has so eloquently pointed interest on a project-by-project basis. Public sector out, in the thrill of the chase, in the midst of the search investment as the seed-corn, whilst required up-front for ways of generating a national drive for urban for land-assembly and infra-structure government, renovation, those at the receiving end. They cannot can attract five to ten times as much from the private vote with their money but they will reject solutions purse. imposed upon them, however worthy they may seem I will, ifl may, Mr Chairman, cut out a part of this to us , this means translating major urban programmes paper, because I know you're running very short in into local and human scale. The American urban time. partnerships have made major impacts on some of the But, I would just end by saying this: that the worst urban decay in their cities and, perhaps, blinkered attitudes of the construction industry have represent the best examples of this- of the state of the not helped. It has been prepared to build whatever art. These partnerships have a number of factors was asked of it, even if it knew it was wrong or features welded together in common interest. They're uneconomic: encouraged by institutions, interest r formed and manned by local enterprise: company only in gilt-edged, low-risk, high-return investments executives with major business involvement and and governments with hands-off policies, arguing investment in the area; local political leaders, worried that it must be entirely a private sector show, because, about declining economic values, or loss of jobs - in the past, governments of every kind have tried to no-go areas as far as police and investors are sort out the problem, unsuccessfully, by throwing concerned, with the increasing cost on the public money at it. The role of our cities and reversal or 57 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT urban decay in this country are the greatest challenges believe, comprise groups of people, drawn together that face us as we approach the nineties. The real by some common need, whether it be a poor issues for us are not primarily concerned with money, environment, poor housing conditions, unemploy land acquisition, planning, or, indeed, the general ment, poverty, harrassment, fear, or a combination catalogue of problems, difficult as they are. The real of these and others besides. It would be claimed that concern is whether we have the will, the courage and most people live in some form of community but to the determination, the vision and the flair to tackle get away from the definition I've just given would be our environmental needs. Urban growth and renova to dilute its purpose. tion is not our enemy. It invites us to correct the past, Professionals, on the other hand, can provide to build new places, which are productive for business services that can assist in meeting some of these and for the people who live there -places that are in needs, although it has to be said that many building scale with people and which will give strength to real associated professionals have, in the past, let the community. As each of us leaves here, struggling in community down. I am conscious that there are our own little way to make this country a better place probably many people here today from the com in which to live, may I leave you with this thought? munities who regard professionals with a great deal Whilst political differences may affect the means and of cynicism. I can understand their view. Our the priorities, they should not affect the end. The aim experiences during the sixties and seventies should of any government, as we approach the last decade of have clearly demonstrated what is not needed. We this century, should be nothing less than a renewal have witnessed what can happen when perceived need and repair programme for our built environment on by those remote from the community differs from the such a scale and of such a nature that will encourage actual need of the community itself. and allow our mixed and various society to work It is my view that every community, or small together; for wounds not to fester but to heal. To do groups of communities, need a strong grass-roots this, money will be needed but, much more than management structure and this requires the intro money, we need to equip ourselves with hope, with duction, in my view again, of a new breed of expectation and with demand for best we know how professional, who, for want of a better title, could be to do and that best must be much better than we're called a Community Manager. I recognise that this doing now. Thank you. may not be an entirely new idea. Perhaps many of the community architects here today consider that they CHAIRMAN Thank you Mr Wakefield. One or two announcements: the National Com fulfil this role but I consider that the role transcends munity Partnership announces a meeting has been any individual building professional skill. A com arranged at 9 o'clock tomorrow, Friday 28 November, munity manager would encompass management at the Architectural Association. Would all National ability, communications skills, understanding the Working Party members attending this conference needs of the community and the ability to motivate attend this meeting. and achieve results. Such a person may bear Some good news: the tea and coffee bar are now comparison with the better managers in industry or closed but the proper bar opens at 5.30. commerce and the job I propose could provide an And now, on to the next speaker, Christopher invaluable training ground for such people. Amongst Hogben, partner of a firm of chartered building other things, they may become the catalysts for action surveyors in Manchester, speaking on the subject and, as a consequence, the independent voice of the Professions and the Community. community. They could also be the providers of a one-stop service. They would also co-ordinate pro fessional services that the community requires. To Professions and the Community develop this theme any more would take more time CHRISTOPHER HOGBEN, Partner, Hogben than I have available this afternoon. Smith Barritt, Chartered Building Surveyors, I'd like to turn now to the role of the building Manchester. professionals in a community and, in particular, the Mr Chairman, ladies and gentleman. role of the chartered surveyor. Because of the fairly Has Tony McGann gone? You remember earlier high profile the community architects have now on, he gave the professions quite a slating, actually, attained, the lay-person might be forgiven for and one can't altogether disagree with some of his thinking that these are the only building professionals sentiments. that are actually working for the community. I think My first confession I have to make is that I'm not the surveyors would resist any temptation to use a an architect, not a community architect but a similar term, such as 'community surveyors', on the chartered building surveyor - a somewhat sort of grounds that this would further confuse the public. unusual breed in your midst today, I believe. However, surveyors have been working and continue Communities, in the sense of this conference, I to work for the community, in a variety of ways. My 58 .. SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT own institution, the Royal Institution of Chartered building standards, to maintain cost control and Surveyors, has enough problems in trying to inform properly to administer building contracts. If we are the public at large of the various services we can not competent in these things, then we shall let down perform and of defining the various groups of our communities, irrespective of any personal com surveyors who comprise our membership, such as: mitment. It is important for builders to perform well, building surveyors, surveying buildings and preparing to provide good building standards, to train new drawings and specifications for renovation of existing apprentices for the industry and to demonstrate their buildings and monitoring builders' performance and integrity and commitment. analysing building defects, preparing maintenance As chartered surveyors, we are conscious of the programmes, and so on; the general practice sur sometimes chronic condition of housing stock and veyors, advising on property values and managing the need for vast sums of money to be spent on estates, selling and letting properties and being primary maintenance, on repair and improvement. involved in re-development schemes; and the quantity There is a need to revise the improvement grant surveyors, advising on building costs and con structure, to allow, amongst other things, the ability struction, advising on building contracts and so to provide block grants, as opposed to individual forth; and there are the other surveyors from the household grants, in order that whole blocks of other divisions as well of the RICS. property can be put into a reasonable state of repair While chartered surveyors, like most other pro and improvement. It is only by adopting this more fessionals, whatever area they're employed in, comprehensive approach that we stand any real normally rely upon being paid for their day-to-day chance of success in maintaining established com activities, there are many surveyors who, additionally, munities, rather than returning to the days of provide their skills on a voluntary part-time basis. wholesale clearance. We recognise, of course, that One such group of chartered surveyors, who belong some housing is at the end of its useful life and, at any to the various divisions of the RICS, are those point in time, this will always be the case. It is vital engaged in the activities of the Chartered Surveyors' that all professionals should work together. They Voluntary Service. This service is run in conjunction should not be divided amongst themselves. If we are with Citizens' Advice Bureau and operates to provide really going to help the community, we have to work property advice for those who'd otherwise be unable together in this. to afford it. Many of the cases that are dealt with In conclusion, I'd just like to say that perhaps when relate to causes of distress, such as dampness in its we have learnt to manage local need locally, perhaps various forms, complaints against poor building when we are confident that, as building professionals, standards, disrepair and so forth. The job these we really can provide a truly professional service, quantity surveyors perform is invaluable and I perhaps when we harness modern technology for the consider that there is a need to extend the service but benefit of the community, then together we can build not, perhaps, on an entirely voluntary basis. There is communities to be proud of. Thank you. a need for architects and surveyors to operate a scheme similar to that of Legal Aid, whereby bona CHAIRMAN Thank you very much Mr Hogben. fide people in genuine need and hardship could be Now, under the heading Local Authorities: a provided with a full, professional service for their Changing Role, Councillor Jeremy Beecham, vice property problems. I would hope that this is one area Chairman of the Association of Metropolitan that RIBA and the RICS could both agree and Authorities and leader of the Newcastle City Council. progress. Councillor Beecham. Irrespective of whether professionals actually live and work in the communities which they serve, there Local Authorities: A Changing Role is an overriding and fundamental consideration for professionals to be competent, to be up to date, to use COUNCILLOR JEREMY BEECHAM, Chairman, r modern technology, to be aware of the social Partnership and Programme Authorities Group, consequence of their actions. In the building pro Association of Metropolitan Authorities. fessions and, in particular, architecture and building Mr Chairman, on behalf of the AMA, I am glad to be surveying, it is essential to know how buildings one of the supporting cast of thousands at this perform and to know how to construct new buildings, conference, even if my support doesn't quite extend or to renovate existing ones, in order to provide to the wholesale privatisation of council housing. durability, comfort, safety, convenience, economy in Thirty years ago, local authorities were essentially the use and harmony with the environment-also how to providers of a range of statutory services, under the design for minimum maintenance. It is also important impact of the acute pressure for re-housing that to know how to motivate builders or workforces, in generated the Buchanan and other reports. They whichever shape they come, how to achieve high became, by the 1960s, engines for the major physical 59 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT reconstruction of our towns and cities. Much was substantially undermined. Most of the inner city gained but a good deal also lost in the process of partnership and programme authorities have lost comprehensive redevelopment, wholesale slum much more in rate support gr ~ nt than they have clearance, system building and the segregation of gained in additional resources through the urban non-conforming uses. The experience not only programme. generated new problems but also new approaches. By The government has made it clear that the the mid 1970s, local authorities were becoming less programme itself begins and ends with the preoccupied with physical planning, more concerned expenditure of what has been a declining amount of with responding to emerging social and economic money in real terms, year by year. The programmes pressures. Significantly, the realisation began to themselves have been deliberately skewed by dawn that just as centralism on the national scale government towards property development and could be insensitive and inefficient in its application economic development projects, at the expense of of national nostrums to a diversity of local situations, much-needed social improvements. However, many so could local centralism frustrate the best intentions valuable projects have been developed up and down of elected representatives and officers, in attuning the country, with most authorities working with services to the needs of communities. central government agencies, the private sector and The inner city partnership programme, announced the community sector, in developing innovative by Peter Shore in 1977, therefore envisaged a schemes in such fields as energy conservation, low tripartite partnership between central government, cost home ownership, improvement of run-down local government and the community sector in council estates, the support of worker co-operatives selected localities, which would combine the mainline and a wide variety of community and social and programmes of both levels of government, support recreational schemes. innovative projects and provide modest but useful But central government seems, increasingly, to resources for local initiatives. The relatively low level regard local authorities as irrelevant. Initiatives of funding and reluctance of government depart proliferate, in which local authorities play, at best, a ments other than the Department of the Environment subsidiary role and, often, no role at all. Thus we have to take the concept seriously were already proving a had, and seem likely to get, more of urban problem before the change of government in 1979. development corporations, enterprise loans, urban Since then, the strategy for tackling the deep-seated development grants, urban renewal grants, urban economic and social problems of the most housing schemes, city action teams and MSC disadvantaged communities in our country has been initiatives, all of which seem a long way removed 60 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT from the original concept of the tripartite partnership, community's needs, which only an elected authority accountable to local communities. for the whole area can give. There is still, therefore, a The government has steadfastly refused to sit down case for an element of democratic centralism at local with representatives of the partnership authorities level, though with at least as much emphasis on the and the community sector, to review progress and democracy as the centralism. Local authorities are devise a strategy for the future, which will involve only too well aware of the limits on what they can mainline central and local government policies, achieve. However valuable their efforts to tackle combining to combat what remains a growing economic problems and experiment with enterprise problem of poverty, alienation, decay and despair. trusts, development companies, science parks and In response, local councils are trying to preserve as workshops, authorities can't, on their own, surmount much as possible of their services and have begun, in the structural problems of an inner city economy in contrast to central government's concentration of deep decline. power and functions, to experiment with de Equally, and from a different perspective, councils centralisation and devolution. Many authorities have can't hope to devise quick solutions to many facets of for some time been de-centralising housing, social social need without listening directly to the people services and other departments to area and who experience those needs; on such basic matters as neighbourhood levels, making the services and those security, privacy, heating installation in their homes, who provide them more accessible to local the needs of the disabled or homeless, the pattern of communities. community support for the elderly or the tackling of Other approaches have sought to involve people the problems of racial discrimination and dis more directly in influencing decision-making, to de advantage. Dialogue with the community is essential centralise consultative processes, as in our own and that means supporting structures in the authority, while others, still, such as Islington and community sector, which will articulate need and, Birmingham appear to be moving towards devolving often, be critical of government, central and local. actual decision-making to some form of community Authorities must show themselves to be more robust forum or parish council. The methods by which the and less defensive in dealing with such organisations representative nature of those bodies is to be and with their criticisms than central government, established remains to be fully developed. whose response has been not only to ignore but even Yet another model is that of Tower Hamlets, where to gag critics. • a newly elected Liberal Council is appointing not one Local authorities, therefore, remain, however chief executive but seven, to be responsible, in effect, crippling the restraints imposed by an un to seven mini town halls, representing parts of the recedentedly stringent central government financial borough which, apparently, other systems could not regime, the providers of desperately needed public reach; and so the spectrum of local government style services. They've an obligation to ensure that the from centralised local state to the Tower Hamlets needs of their communities are ascertained and federal model has, thus, been extended substantially articulated. They are overwhelmingly willing to work in recent years. with central government and the community sector to Obviously, most people will appreciate the greater tackle those problems at local level in a co-ordinated, accessibility of de-centralised services and, perhaps, efficient and responsive manner. Councils are and the opportunity for participation in matters of always have been providers and, increasingly, they immediate concern to them. Such appears to be the are becoming enablers, affording to local communities experience of Islington, where there's been an not merely the means of participation but also upsurge of activity in area offices; but, it is necessary directly managing their own affairs. They need to be, to be cautious before prescribing a particular model in the fullest sense, partners with government, the for general application. Islington, for example, community and business if the slide into social conceived that theirs is a relatively homogeneous area dissolution is to be halted. socially, and in terms of its ethnic mix, and is, in any Fifty years ago, in his poem, 'Spain', W. H. Auden case, part of a somewhat amorphous mega-city. In asked the rhetorical question, 'What's your proposal? other areas, there may be less homogeneity, which To build the Just City?' Local governments' answer is could result in institutionalised conflict between a firm 'Yes' but we say that that building involves areas with devolved powers, on the one hand; at the more than bricks and mortar and, in the process, it same time, in provincial cities there may be a greater must engage the whole community and not merely sense of the wider community and a greater loyalty to the professionals and those with a financial interest. the area as a whole. Thank you. Means will clearly be required to mediate conflicting social pressures and claims for resources and for there to be the sort of over-view of the whole CHAIRMAN I suspect that a certain gauntlet has been 61 • 0 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT thrown down by the last speaker, which, hopefully, obviate this nuisance, provided ideas which elected will be taken up during the period of discussion. members, rightly, deemed preferable to those put Our next speaker, unfortunately, has been taken ill: forward by the traffic engineers who, as I recall it, Paul Mugnaioni of the City of Glasgow District were more concerned about efficient circulation. Council, Director of Housing, so he cannot be with The practice of community involvement has now us. Our following speaker, then, is John Dean, been carried on since those days and is now an Planning Officer, Leicester City Council, speaking, inseparable part of every major policy area of my own again, under the broad heading 'Local Authorities: A Council and I know this applied to other cities. Time, Changing Role'. here, does not permit me to even cite a broad range of examples but I will mention two. JOHN DEAN, Planning Officer, Leicester City We are, currently, completing a Woonerf scheme, Council. or the British equivalent of one, for we do not have I think, in fact, there is a speaker coming to speak for the powers available to the Dutch and the Danish the Glasgow City Council but we'll just very quickly planners. These schemes, as some of you will know, agree that I'll carry on and then, perhaps, he can take aim to ease traffic conditions in residential streets. my spot. Thank you, Mr Chairman. The Dutch and the Scandinavian idea is to give I believe that all in local government must welcome priority by law to pedestrians before vehicles. In this the increasing interest and activity in community country, where the idea does not appear to be involvement and initiative. In many local authorities, favoured by central government, we can only attempt such activities have, for many years now, been to influence behaviour by design. The residents in a encouraged, promoted and financed. Enterprises in street where we have applied this principle have building, housing management, area policy making participated at every stage and they, using a model, and the development of land have been supported. decided the design and, in fact, they have led the While, perhaps, still a ponderous and difficult implementation of the scheme, with ourselves procedure, public participation in town planning happily acting as their agents. Working in this way is goes back to before the Skeffington report of 1969. thoroughly familiar and accepted by many of the Since then, techniques have improved considerably more progressive local authorities but I suspect that and public consultation, if not participation, is now the pattern is very uneven and I also suspect that, usually part of even development control. although some local authorities could claim to be as Another area, perhaps a better subject for real well advanced as anyone in the techniques of trying to community involvement, is in housing renewal. I build a community spirit, there are still many where refer to the rehabilitation programmes carried out so no attempt at all is made. I would hazard a guess, in successfully in some authorities since the 1974 fact, that local authorities represent the best and also Housing Act. I would, in fact, make the point here the worst, often by default, as far as this activity is that the best practices in housing rehabilitation and concerned. area improvement represent, in those authorities who But, working towards urban and community have developed such an approach, a most outstanding regeneration in this way is relatively easy, while we achievement, one which goes completely unnoticed, are concerned with smaller scale schemes. It cannot which is, perhaps, not surprising at a time when so be adapted to the wider area without some many are determined to see local government only in reservations. When we look at planning schemes and the worst possible light. I wonder why? policies over a large area, that is one far greater than Some sense of true perspective on these achieve the single street or the site, we must pause. Clearly, ments begins to emerge if we remember that we are decisions and the formulation of design becomes talking of policies in a big city, affecting tens of more complex and difficult with an increase in scale thousands of people, thousands of dwellings and but, most importantly, when you operate on a larger hundreds of acres. Certainly, I can testify to the scale, you are involved in the resolution of conflict; prominence given to community involvement in conflict between one part of the area and another; one Leicester's housing renewal schemes, where it has group in an area and another group; between been part of our strategy since 1976. For instance, I industry (jobs) and residential use; and, most remember, as we moved, under the provision of the importantly, between the interests of the small urban 1974 Act to the worst first approach to rehabilitation, area and the town as a whole. Decision making, here, the design of the first traffic management scheme, it seems to me, must, inevitably involve the drawn up as part of that programme. It was decided democratic process - that is decision by elected primarily on the advice and the recommendations of members of local authorities. I hope my illustration, the residents concerned. At that time, in the area in showing how policy was evolved for a large area of question kerb-crawling was a particular problem. Leicester, can bring out some of these points and I The residents, by their detailed knowledge of how to here go to the slides. 62 .. SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT This is a large area of derelict land, banked by two under the urban programme at a cost currently of principally residential areas. Both are within the about half a million pounds- there's. still other work housing renewal scheme and both within the inner to do. city. In both areas are industrial buildings, some Just at the righthand corner of the last one, the causing a great deal of nuisance from time to time. usual murals were designed and painted by a local Next, please. artist, to the express wishes of the residents. Next. The proposals for the area of derelict land, An oil depot, which was demolished under the formerly part of a railway depot, as they existed in scheme of things, to make an adventure playground. 1981. They show a major road reservation and land Next. allocated for industry and temporary open space. That's the adventure playground on the former oil Next. depot. We now see a general shot of the northern end. After residents in the area had made their total It's quite a very- quite a big area we're talking about opposition to the road known, the city council began here and quite a very big scheme. to press for its deletion from the county highway And this, a photograph showing this year, quite programme. At the same time, residents got together recently that area under transition as amenity works to produce their own proposals for the area, are carried to the design and specification of the producing a model- not a very good photograph but people in the area. Next. it shows the scale and the time and trouble they were And now we'll go onto the next slide, which we see willing to go to, to design it themselves via this model. here- the junction of two streets in the area, together In fact, I think they were greatly encouraged and had with some of the principal industry found there. Note help from Dr Gibson, who spoke this morning. The the effects of parking in this street. In fact, the proposals they came up with- that is, the residents residents' groups have recently put forward ideas for were for a park, an adventure playground, a football the removal and relocation of these other industrial pitch, a BMX track and other open space uses. Let me premises, so strongly do they feel about the incidence move on to the next slide. of nuisance - it's not just parking, of course, it's We see an illustration of the residents' ideas for the actually chemical emission from time to time. For area and it now became known as the Rally Park, three factories on that scale to be moved and worked up into a scheme for implementation by the relocated, preliminary estimates show a cost of City Planning Department, acting as agency. I should around £12 million, clearly, under the present order mention that this now shows - we now show some of things, an impossible scheme to contemplate. slides of the implementation of this scheme, funded Next. 63 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT But industry continues to gain access through the problems of the local authority trying to negotiate area and heavy goods vehicles have to use this street with the customers. I'm assuming that you've all read regularly. You can see here some of the benefits of the Paul's note and I'm really going to follow on from scheme because, clearly, the play areas created on the that on three points. residents schemes are now available for children such The first is the question of the nature of social as these, and they no longer have to play in the street. housing. I just don't think we should attempt to And the final photograph, and this is where I want define it in a ten minute session. We are, next year, as to emphasise that these things are by no means a major part of our city's contribution to straight forward and do involve a certain amount of International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, conflict and a great deal ofloss, as well as gain. This is hosting a week-long international conference on that the existing principal road through the area and one very question: the nature of the future of social point we must bear in mind is that, while the creation housing. We hope to involve a lot of people from of the park has been of great benefit to many people, Sweden and from Canada, who seem to us the best particullirly those immediately surrounding it, it sources for a model practice for the future leaves a serious problem unsolved with no relief to development of housing in Scotland; but as well as some residents; namely a totally inadequate highway, that, we hope to invite and involve a lot of other serving industrial premises which also functions as an people, who appreciate our problems, share our urban communications corridor. solutions or have alternative solutions to our That's the last slide and I'll just conclude by saying problems; and, as well as it being a mainstream that very formidable problems remain and a gain to conference, it could be associated with the housing one section of the community is a loss to another, yet fringe of community based housing activities and also the achievements in developing the part represent a an entertainments fringe, for those who get a bit tired creditable record, a record in collaboration, in the talking about housing or talking to other housing initiatives of local residents and the willingness of a people all of the time. I would say one thing, though, sympathetic local authority to see those wishes that in any scale changes and any moves towards fulfilled. Thank you. local management, any moves towards tenant power, can only be done properly where there is a genuine CHAIRMAN Thank you very much. demand for that power. To parachute in power from I was in error before. There is a stand-in for Paul above, paternalistically to impose a spurious Mugnaioni: John Ross, who is the Sub-convenor of community scheme, seems to me and seems to my Housing in Glasgow. colleagues in Glasgow to be disastrous and we have evidence of that in the failures of some community councils, which were set up under a scheme, where, in JOHN ROSS, Sub-Convenor of Housing in a sense an element of advisory power was devolved to Glasgow (stand-in for Paul Mugnaioni). localities. When it was devolved to the people who Thank you, Chair. didn't want it, they didn't use it and then it went to I am not a member of the Directorate of Housing in other people who didn't know what to do with it. Glasgow. I'm a councillor. Could I begin, though, by But, Paul also wished to address himself to the saying that, at times today, there have been questions question of the local authorities' roles in the housing -I remember Andy Kean saying: 'Do you do things market. Assuming the local authorities will remain from the top down or do you do them from the major providers, then most areas, certainly most bottom up and just give some credentials for saying cities, of our country will out-perform the private you can do it from both directions at once?' In the sector or the Housing Corporation or even the direct past, I've been a founder member of a community supply of houses by central government, as you get in based Housing Association, where I live in Mary Hill, Northern Ireland and Scotland, through the of its community business off-shoot, and of a local intermediaries of nationalised industries; but what community development trust. I am also sub the local authorities can do is to encourage and to convenor of the council's Housing Committee, enable very many different developments, including convenor of the council's Private Sector Housing desirable private developments. Committee, which takes responsibility for all housing If anyone wants examples, I suggest they compare in Glasgow which is not mainstream council stock, the Merchant City Project in Glasgow with work and I convene the IYSA Scotland Advisory done by other urban development corporations Committee. elsewhere in the United Kingdom and see which is You can go to these problems, I think, from both more sensitive, more humane, even; I would suggest directions. You experience the problems of the that you don't believe all you read in the New customer when you're trying to negotiate with the Statesman. There is evidence, also, in Glasgow in the local authority, but it also helps to appreciate the flowering of so many different community groups, 64 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT involved in housing and in planning: tenant the furniture? How do we get the typewriter? How do management co-operatives; tenant-owned co-opera we get an office?' In terms of the oper_ation of a major tives - tenants managing, owning their own estates; city, a grant of £2,000 to get all these questions out of community based Housing Associations- currently, the way on an approved project can have there's a stock of 15 ,000 houses (let us say 5 per cent immeasurable benefits and it does mean people can of the total housing stock of a city). get on with the job that they want to do, not the And I'll move, too, to a general political point, in boring, repetitious job of trying to raise the funds. closing. Councils can also involve at least one elected A local authority, if it is going to encourage such member in the work of each group, though the status work has, first of all, to decide to do it and once an of that member's involvement should be decided not administration has decided they are going to involve so much by the council but by the groups themselves. themselves in encouraging the devolution of power to There's obviously need for guidelines in that. Each local groups -having made that decision, they also project must be examined critically and politically have to decide to stick to that decision when things go right at the beginning. It has to be monitored closely, wrong and the very next thing they've got to do, is to because, after all, remember, any project that fails get the opposition parties on the council to agree in destroys hope, destroys confidence and can prevent principle. OK, you can have differences. You can further experimentation. So you have got to be have arguments, but there's got to be a principle careful. agreement right across the board, so that everyone Also, local authorities who want to develop such knows exactly where the council stands in theory. schemes have got to be tough, and if something is Each specific project, of course, has to be examined, really going wrong, (I don't mean you just don't like has to be evaluated, has to win its own support; but what they're doing, if you've any sense you fund your the general tenor must be agreed and it must be critics as well as your friends), but, if it is going wrong all-party. If you can, it is even good to get the on clearly stated criteria you've got to be prepared to agreement of parties which are so small they do not move in, sort things out or even close things down. have representatives elected to the council. They may The other last point is I think any council that is in the future. Things can always change. involved, or wants to be involved, in this must Councils can do- and this may sound very simple encourage the established groups to foster the new, and straightforward but it's something worth saying fledgling groups, because it's one thing to fight City - make small start-up grants for any approved Hall, it'-s another thing to agree with City Hall, but to project, just to remove the hassle of: 'How do we get have friends who have done the same sort of thing .. 65 66 .. SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT that you are hoping to do gives you an awful lot more which Monica Pigeon, who's here, was the editor in strength. its great period. She and Patrick Crooke managed to And in closing, can I say that really if you want to make good sense of odds and ends of materials we know about involvement in partnership in the sent from Peru at that time in response to a perfectly community, you shouldn't be asking the local dreadful article which a writer whom I very much authorities, you should be asking the customers, admire, Jan Morris, had written in the Sunday Times, those that have worked with them, who've been which had given an impression which I hope is enabled by them. Ask people like Frances McCall, beginning to change. Now, getting on for a quarter of and the people from Calvay Co-op, about what it's a century later, I remember very well in 1961 or 1962 like to work with a local authority, and how it can be the embassy which was annoyed almost as much as I done, or how it shouldn't be done. Learn from the was by Jan Morris's article, which was a sort of Barrowfield Community people, Barrowfield bleeding heart view of what people in Third World Community Business, the Barrowfield Community countries do. Anyway, I had the job, at the request of Project, Archie Young from Cumming Young the embassy, to take a minister of Her Majesty's Architects, Willy Murray, Voluntary Secretary of the Government to see these communities which the low project. Go and ask them what it's like, and maybe income people of Lima in Peru were and still are learn something from what they've got to tell you. building. I took him to share the inspiration and hope that I feel when I see what even very low income CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, Mr Ross. people are capable of doing when they have the Now before going on to the last subject, just one or chance. He was shocked and appalled. I do hope that two announcements. I've been asked by the by now, twenty-five years later, most of you already organisers of the conference to make the following see or can see what I saw then, and was unable to announcement: this morning His Royal Highness . communicate to the minister. How much more is The Prince of Wales announced the Inner City Aid, done by people who have so much less than we have. the campaign to raise funds for community based And how little is done for them by their government. initiatives in deprived urban areas of the United Of course we're talking about 1962, but at that time 1 Kingdom. Many have asked how can they contribute. per cent precisely of the total housing production They can do so by cash or cheque payable to Inner since the end of World War Two had been built by City Aid. We are here, the statement goes on to say, government. I don't think the proportion has because we believe in the bottom up approach. Please increased measurably since. Anyway, in this very give generously to help others follow our example. short picture show I'm not saying that these Peruvian The monies collected today will be announced community people, these Peruvian communities the tomorrow. people built, are altogether typical. This slide is of a quite similar settlement in Karachi, Pakistan. What I am showing is what people everywhere are capable of INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS when they're given a chance or when they take it. In Our first speaker, John F. C. Turner, is director of the high-income and low-income countries alike, low Associated Housing Advisory Services. I've known income people cannot afford acceptable housing at John for quite a few years, his recent work should market prices. So those who cannot get land save certainly be of great interest to all of us. John Turner. enough to build, live in appalling conditions or even on the streets. Governments of countries of low JOHN F. C. TURNER, Director, Associated income population have very low budgets, and Housing Advisory Services (AHAS) Ltd. cannot afford to house more than very small Well thank you very much Tom, but I wish you minorities. Now, in countries like our own, where hadn't drawn attention to that rather awful title. A mass housing has been supplied by government, much better one is Appropriate Habitat for Another spiralling costs and plummeting popularity demand Society, but it really stands for tools for the radical changes. Not a sadistic return to the so-called community building, in case you didn't know. Before free market which has created the problems starting my rather short read, I'm afraid I'm copping government has been trying to solve. But another way out; in so short a time, I dare not speak off the cuff. in which wasted land is properly used, and in which How do we start with the slides, do I press a button people are no longer wasted by unemployment or here? loneliness. We must learn how to build in ways that This, some of you might have seen in the past, is the build community. To build in ways that break up cover of Architectural Design for August 1963 of existing communities or which fail to build new communities in the human sense is senseless. Our own present experience shows that when buildings (OPPOSITE) The Barrowfield Project. fail to support community, they fail physically. We 67 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT have learnt that money alone cannot solve our income on food, on food alone or food and fuel, in problems. order to avoid serious malnutrition. The people of Now that the idea of material progress leading Orangi on the outskirts of Corachio are just as poor, automatically to social well-being has collapsed, although not as versed in the art of self-organisation we're beginning to look at other people's experience. and self-management as their proven counterparts. The achievements I show are from Peru and Pakistan, They have also demonstrated how much people can two particular developments Via El Salvador, the do for themselves and can be done for them by the new town near Lima and, next, the Orangifanic market or by the state with the critically important Sanitation Project in Karachi. Both are summarised help of a non-governmental organisation. These in a poster newsheet available at TCPA bookshops. I people have installed sewers serving 200,000 people in can't resist the temptation of doing a little bit of sales! five years and one fifth of the cost of municipally You can buy this beautiful poster just hot off the press installed system. In the Pakistani case their which tells you a lot more than I can tell you in a few achievement depended on a third party, a non minutes. It's the TCPA bookshop which I hope'll be governmental organisation set up by an experienced open tomorrow morning, I hope Mr Chairman you field worker. In a neighbouring settlement but it is don't mind my abusing the privilege that I have to much the same story. These are two ofthe twenty six make that announcement. But it does say, it does of the real life examples selected for the HI C project have a summary of both these cases, and a lot of other for the international year. They were selected from useful news for about the International Year of well over three hundred other cases from seventy-five Shelter for the Homeless. The newsheet-cum-poster countries, which we identified in a preliminary summarises the Habitat International Councils review. The evidence for the basic of universal lessons Project for the UN International Year of Shelter for is overwhelming. the Homeless, along with information on some ofthe There is an alternative to supplying people with key events for 1987. I should say that, as co-ordinator goods and services over which they have no control of this project, I have been sharing responsibility with and choice and for which they feel no responsibility. a small team in getting people in their own localities, You can't see very well in this rather under exposed in their own national locations, to document slide, but it is a college estate which has been totally experiences of the kinds that they have done, and I'm destroyed by the residence Aga Arka. just taking two of these to show you very briefly here, Whether in a rich country like our own or in a poor but you can read more about it in the poster. Anyway, country like Panama, not quite so disastrous but very facts speak for themselves. When people have access poorly maintained. For government, this means and are free to use their own resources in their own cutting most of the red tape out but funding people way, they do vastly more than either the market or the directly so that they can contract their own architects, state do for them. builder or manager. For architects, and other Via El Salvador was started in 1971 following an professionals, it means more but smaller jobs for organised invasion of land, which is going on in this which they are responsible: for people have to live photograph. The government of the day had the good with the decisions made so that they must work for sense to allocate an alternative area of development people as enablers not for organisations that deprive and provided some help with infrastructure and gave people of responsibility for their own lives. This its assistance. Via El Salvador, just fifteen years later, means people building through their own local has about 200,000 people living there. Many are organisations; it does not mean that people have to be working as well, employed by the hundreds of small self-moved as many wrongly suppose. Self businesses and services that have grown up as well as management is generally much more important than by the immense amount of building construction. My self-building. associates who have been working there estimate that Building community is a result of people building. the average household would have had to pay the When such good and caring relationships between equivalent of twenty years' income, twenty years' people are not established then even the physical average household income in this area, to obtain buildings will deteriorate. what they have on the so-called free market. Only a Mr Chairman, I think that's it for now. small proportion of this huge investment has been made by government, but a vitally important one, CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, John. although much of it was made unwillingly and as a Our next speaker is Ted Watkins. Some think of result of demands made forcefully, sometimes very him as the doyen of community developments in his forcefully, by the people themselves. part of the United States; he comes from Watts, Los Via El Salvador shows what people can do when Angeles, and was instrumental in founding the Watts they organise themselves. Even when they are so poor Labor Action Committee which has since then that they had to spend nearly two thirds of their engaged in a variety of projects which I hope Ted will 68 .. SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT tell us about as well as his reflections on the situations Since I have been coming here in the past five years here in this country as he has seen them in the past few there are many examples that I have not heard spoken days and months. Ted Watkins. of here today. Five years ago, after the Brixton riots, I walked the streets of Brixton, and went to places like Broadwater Farm and I saw the cement jungle there. TED WATKINS, Watts, Los Angeles. Then at Stone bridge I went into the community cellar (CHUCKLES) You don't mean to make it short? room and there was a typical example of the solution (LAUGHTER). offered by the public sector and the professionals to I've changed my presentation because I realised that I the black community; ping pong tables was the order had to make it short so I didn't even bring my ribbon of the day. And I went into that room and I talked to presentation up here. I was prepared to talk about the young people who were in there, (a little smoke problems in the urban city but I find that the speakers was in there too by the way), but I went in those before me, including The Prince of Wales, have rooms and I talked to them. At first they said, 'What already expounded on the problems of the urban is this old so and so, bald headed from the United decay. So what I wanted to try to concentrate on a States, coming in here messing with us young people little bit more was the possible solutions to some of for?' And it was an amazing thing that happened those problems. I come from a country which has had during my presentation to them about what we had major problems throughout the last century and has done in Watts; at the end of my presentation they finally realised that it cannot not isolate part of its came up, hugged me and kissed me and all kinds of population and at the same time make progress in a things began to happen and I began to worry a little positive direction. In Atlanta, Georgia we have a because they were kissing me too much. mayor by the name of Andy Young; he is the second Anyway, and I mean I am serious about this, that black mayor in the whole of the south. He runs one of night at the Russell Square Hotel where I was living, I the fastest growing cities in the United States both got in at about nine o'clock that night and there was politically, economically and environmentally. that same group sitting in the lobby of what I Atlanta, Georgia has become an example of what considered to be possibly one of the most happens when you begin to form partnerships with conservative hotels in that section of the city and they other people in urban cities that also want to be part were sitting in the lobby and the management was of the solution to the problem rather than just being upset, some squad cars were outside-the door. I came the problem. in at the right time and let them know that these were 69 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT guests of mine and that we were there for a meeting in community where we live. Everyone in our the lobby. The next day we got a trip around the organisation had to work, we had to commit community and talked about their prospects and ourselves not just to being able to raise the money or their future. That group went after an abandoned bus something like that, we never put on a fund raising in garage and today that abandoned bus garage is about twenty-one years by the way, we felt that sweat and 99 per cent complete in becoming one of the nicest blood was more important in that community than racial communities that I think is in the United the question of whether or not we got a grant or Kingdom. The youth have changed that bus garage whether or not we had a contract. We first had to get into high technology training; they have built into our people in line to do some of the things that were that old bus garage some sixty workshops that they needed, and that they said that they wanted, and are going to rent out. They have been able to get the make them part of doing it. In this scene we were public sector and private sector to put approximately putting together a Ferris that we were able to four million pounds into that development in Britain. purchase from one of the manufacturers of Ferris Now, what I would like to do is to have the projectors wheels. (Next slide please) And we transformed that turn on the slides that I have brought to show some of junk yard into what you see there. That is part of our the activities that we carried on in Watts. commercial operation today and that operation What you see here is a group of kids, and this is in basically supplies food stands, produces appliances, the summer of 1966 by the way. This is a group of kids toys and today is one of the largest privately owned who in 1965,just nine months earlier, had had bricks, black building supplier operations in the United sticks and Molotov cocktails in their hands. We had States. removed those bricks and sticks and Molotov (Next please) This shows some of the young people cocktails and put in their hands rakes, and hoes and involved in doing plumbing work. Now let me say shovels and began a campaign of cleaning up the that in some instances I have heard that in the United community, making them realise that they were part, Kingdom you can not do this kind of work in the not only of the problem, but that they were also a part public sector, you can't do it in the private sector, and of the solution to the problem and those youths were one of the reasons that you can't do it is because one working on public land under the public power lines of the labour movements won't allow you to do it. I that run through the cities of Los Angeles. 75,000 don't · know that any of the people that say these acres of land in the city of Los Angeles that is things have ever talked to the labour movement underneath powerlines is unused. And that's what about labour journeymen, craftsmen supplying they transformed that land into in the summer of supervision and training to young people in the 1966 and for the first time in the history of our community in what we call pre-apprenticeship community black youth were now producing for the training, so that, one day, a young man, after he first time some of the food that they ate (next slide). leaves school, will be able to become a craftsman This shows another part of that operation where himself. We were able to do that in the United States 1,000 kids were brought out of the city of Los Angeles and what we done with the things that we were in the place that we had called the Sagas building we did not interfere in the normal process of Rehabilitation centre and that is corn that they what workers carry on, what we were doing were raised. We also had cattle, hogs, chickens and so on. things that were not being done in our community. They are bringing back land into production that (Next please) This is another one of our they have really never been in; but at the same time endeavours. We opened this mobile station up in they are responsible for a part of their own survival, January of 1967. That station is still being operated. beginning to be a part of what we talk about when we We took the money from the station (next please, say we want to do self-help things. Self-help means a next one) and we bought this abandoned building and lot more than your handouts; it is getting that kind of then with the help of the craftsmen and the young job; it means also being self-helped in lines of survival people that we were training we would transform that and production. building into (next please) into that market in our This slide shows the scene of an old abandoned community. Now we've got the market, we've got the junk yard that was right in the heart of Watts where filling station and we also had the farm; so we now buildings had been burned. The owners of those had an outlet for the products and the produce that buildings basically turned their backs on the we were getting from our farm and didn't have to go community and said that they weren't coming back, through three or four middle men to get through the so we bought the old land there and we transformed products that we were raising. it. (Can we see the next one please?) That shows the (Next please) This is another scene where we were putting together of Ferris wheels. I am the retired building a park in our community, and what this United Automobile Workers Union International young man is doing, is laying the water pipes in order representative and we put our efforts in the to get water in the park. But that was the beginning of 70 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT involving young people in the community in doing miles across the city of Los Angeles, and then brought something more for other people than they were into a development process that we were carrying on doing for themselves, because the park was to be used in Watts. (Next one please) This is also one of those by smaller kids in the community. houses, this house did not have that front room in it. (Next please) This is another example of where we But because of our involvement in the community took the money from the grocer's store, the filling and what we were doing in the community most of us station and from the produce and bought another came from the southern part of the United States in abandoned building. (Next picture please) And the early part of 1940s when there was a great need for changed it into this restaurant. Now we were not only defence workers, and soldiers and everything else and selling the food that we grew (LAUGHTER AND all of the big jobs were on the West Coast. I keep APPLAUSE) but we cooked it and then, in order to hearing remarks from my brothers and sisters who give lots of different flavour, we set up umbrellas and have come from the West Indies that your tables like we'd seen in pictures in Paris where they experiences are much different. Let me tell you that had tables on the street. Mind you, you can't see the coming from the South is like coming from a foreign tables on the streets because in Watts you have to use country and coming from the South into California walls and stuff in order to, you know, we have was a whole new experience for those of us who have security problems in some of the areas, and so been born in the South, and we were relegated to an anyway that was the results of that project. area called Watts because it was an area that was in (Next please). That's, by the way, that's supposed transition, people were moving out faster than they to be showing what the results of the kids doing the were moving in, but wl:at was happening was that park and that is the entrance of a park that we built some of us were being trapped in that community. that took six blocks in Los Angeles and that's the This house represents a lot of things to us, the people water fountain at the entrance of it. (Next please) This at the wheel began this process of building also shows one of the complexes of apartments that apartments and multi-unit dwellings. They began to we built and this was one of our first apartment say, 'No, this is not what we want, we thought this is complexes that we built and we listened to one of the what we wanted'. Sociologists, planners and urban professionals who have played a major role in our designers had said that the complexes that you build organisation- as a matter of fact, in 1967 and 1968 we must have ground space, open space, playgrounds were able to import the services of Lord Richard and senior citizens must be a part of the complex. Llewellyn Davies from London and brought him into What we did was we set up our first multi-unit Watts and he stayed there with us for two years doing developments, with 10 per cent of it being committed what we call model city planning and at the end of to senior citizens. Today the senior citizens have a that planning process, more than $500 million flowed wall that they demand that we build around them so into the city of Los Angeles because of the kind of that they wouldn't have that pressure coming from work that we had done. His charge was to bring a the family groups who live at the complex and so we team of people from London and train young people have now changed our idea about whether or not you in Watts how to also become part of an architectural mix people who are sixty and seventy years old who at and planning team doing survey work, doing testing last think that they have escaped from the chores of of the soil, etc. and at the end of that period he left one doing for their grandchildren and their own children, of his people there who stayed with us for eighteen they think that they have escaped and then we have years. He enjoyed the United States so much and was put them back together. Now we don't have that. We beginning to enjoy the changes in Watts, so he stayed are building complexes for senior citizens where with us for eighteen years, and that person is in the senior citizens can actually enjoy each other and that audience today and a British citizen. What we were has brought about a major change in our community. able to do was to use some of the ideas that we had (Next please) This shows the building of heard expounded on by professionals and we thought apartments. Now let me say one thing about our that in a complex like this that it was ideal for families operation; we are the ones that have done all of the and for senior citizens, we don't hold that same kind work. We work with the designers and architects to of idea today. design but more than anything else the economics of (Next one please) What we found were houses that building is within the actual work that goes on on the needed to be moved from the International Airport in ground. And what has been happening in the Western the city of Los Angeles and they were bulldozing World more times than ever, than anything else, is these houses and taking them to the trash pile. So that developers and contractors have been excluding what we did was we created a house moving company the part of the community that they are building in, and started moving the houses from the airport into from being part of the economics of those buildings. Watts, and this is one of the examples of a house that What we have done is basically become the major has been lifted up off its foundations, moved eight contract developers ourselves and as a result of it we 71 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT are able to provide housing that we own, we have participation: no black faces is in that guard up there built more than six hundred houses in Watts itself. at Buckingham Palace, and I have to assume that the The city of Los Angeles has thirty-five thousand exclusion of guards at Buckingham Palace is the people that sleep on the streets not more than two trickle down effect of segregation and discrimination. blocks from City Hall every night. There are no And I think that in order to make a rounded people sleeping on the streets in Watts because what community that the day that you start seeing black we have done is taken care of them. We've even been faces at Buckingham Palace in the Changing of the able to take care of the 'have nots'. And I think if you Guards you are also going to start seeing them in the paid more attention to those people out there in the bobbies, etc. The people say that they need more from community, in the areas that we have most problems the community in that kind of police force, I know in, I think that you will find out that they can solve that we have it in the United States. their problems along with your professional backing. (Next one please) This is a sign that was turned (Next one please) This is the result of one of the around the wrong way and this was by the way 124th completed multi-units. Now this is another thing that Street, in the city. We own, by the way, 124th Street, we do not do today because we found out and learned which covers about three thousand feet long and from the professionals that they love to handle those about fifteen acres ofland and has cul-de-sacs and all thousand and two thousand unit complexes; it meant of that. We own the street because we bought the land so much money for them, it meant the big symbol, and then developed housing on it and this is the like building Imperial Courts or that Stonebridge or neighbours who are out greeting (next picture please) Broadwater Farm, (I don't think that they'd want to the coming of Prince Andrew to Watts. Prince brag about Broadwater Farm). (LAUGHTER). But Andrew (let me say this I wish his brother was here) anyway, I think that those kind of, we only allow Prince Andrew had a problem - he had been talked thirty units per acre in any development that we do, if about in all of the London press as beng out there its multi-units you cannot build more than thirty with the playgirls and whatever it was and The Queen units per acre, and half of that one acre of land is wanted to change his image. And so it was arranged dedicated and committed to open space. (Next by the British Embassy for Prince Andrew to come to please) And this shows a senior citizen's development. Watts. There is the Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, It has a water fountain and open space, barbeque pit, Tom Bradley, and that Mayor standing with the tables, and all of that. (Next one please) And this Prince, some of the security that you see he brought shows one of the units that we were just completing that with him, that was not our security. Anyway, and there you see all of the solar panels and all of that. what happened was that on that visit everything was I'm not going to talk about all of that solar panels on going beautifully, and those are our houses by the that project today- I made some remarks about it the way in the background - we own those houses. He other night and some of the people didn't like it. But was just coming from one of the houses where he'd anyway, those solar panels are not on those units had tea and cookies and we were crossing the street today. This was a government sponsored housing there and going over to another house that we were project where the government pays a subsidy for the working on and that is the day that he saw some tenants to live in. This one is a senior citizens' project youths painting the walls of the house, he took the that we are just completing. It still has the boards on paint gun and I thought that he was going to have his the windows, the government paid us $84,000 to picture taken with the paint gun spraying the wall. remove the panels for the solar head because before And low and behold he turned and put the paint gun the place was open the solar heating units were so well and opened the trigger up on the news people that internetted and they were so complicated that we had were looking at him and I think that maybe you heard to have a person twenty-four hours a day to hammer about that incident. Well, that was in Watts. the various kinds of gauges and the circulation and all Just one other thing that I wanted to say, I didn't of that, but the government said no, we're not going fly all this way just to make a ten minute speech, but to subsidise this, we've already paid to have the thing anyway (LAUGHTER) let me say one thing. The put up there, now we're paying you $84,000 to take it question has to be not what is going to happen to you down. if you do go out there in Brixton, in Stone bridge, in (Next picture please) This shows that at the end of Broadwater Farm and begin to work with the people the summer our security force in our community. I've there. The question has to be what is going to happen heard a lot of things about whether or not to you if you don't start going out there and working communities can provide their own security, and I've with those people? listened and smiled about it. I hear about the lack of participation on the part of the community in the CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, Ted, for a very United Kingdom and I go up to Buckingham Palace illuminating talk. Thank you very much. and I can understand why there's a lack of I am aware from a note sent to me from the 72 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT organisers that we are anxious that we should finish of the Ohio, so that land could be sub-divided in a on time. Can the speakers please shorten their talks. manner that would offer egalitarian opportunities to (LAUGHTER) There is a danger that there will be no settle on farms and in cities. In the nineteenth time for a discussion. I know that there are two century, in an explosion of urbanism unparalleled in speakers left, David Lewis of the Americans Institute the history of civilisations, hundreds of new towns, in of Architects and our Mr David Rodgers who is with every state (do we have the first slide?) from north to the UCDS Co-operative Housing Society. I am also south, east to west, from the Alleghenies across the quite aware that I have a sheet of questions and great plains to the Rockies, and from the Rockies statements here. I think we will press on, there is no westward to the Pacific- were laid out on the basis of doubt about that, I have asked the speakers if they rectilinear grids on which an infrastructure of streets would kindly limit their remarks, I had said five, but I described blocks; and within the blocks were sub think that I have to say three minutes actually, so that divisions into lots for individual ownership and the we can go on (NOISES IN THE BACKGROUND). construction of buildings. Well, what is your feeling? I have given to you an The grid is the dominant urban form in the United indication of what the pressure is on me, what would States from small towns like Madison, Indiana which you like? Let the speakers speak. All right, fine. you are looking at here, to huge cities like New York and Chicago. The rectilinear network of streets and DAVID LEWIS American Institute of Architects. blocks provides a geometry of unity. Within this The most crucial definition of American democracy anonymous geometry are buildings which at once is that of citizenship. A citizen in the United States is express the individual owner's self-identity and also anyone who pays his taxes, this idea that democracy his relationship to the whole. works best when those who participate in it are also In practice if we don't keep democratic processes investors in it, is at the heart of the urban form and of continually in action and responsive to issues, local government in that country. responsibilities will be exercised by others in their Let's look then at urban form in the United States own self-interest. It is up to us, the citizens, to keep as a metaphor for democracy. One of the first Acts of democratic processes continually alive and relevant. Congress in 1798, following the War oflndependence, In a real and compelling way the form of the was to order government surveyors to map a grid American city is the basic language for community across the vast and largely unknown continent west architects in an operating ·democracy. Thomas .. 73 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT Jefferson, the only president who was also an We have also developed through the American architect, once said: 'I know of no safe depository of Institute of Architects an initiative that we call the ultimate powers of society but the people 'Urban Design 'Assistance Teams.' These inter themselves, and if we think them not enlightened disciplinary teams are voluntary and they include the enough to exercise their control with a wholesome finest minds in the nation in their particular field. discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but They are available in any community that requests to inform their discretion'. Beautiful words indeed, them; typically we put about eight such teams into but note the use of the word discretion, the notion cities per year and to date about a hundred cities and that one's responsibility of the public's process is to urban communities across the nation have had urban inform the discretion. It is very much a contextual design assistance teams with rich results and word, discretion. We are all anchored in our contexts hundreds and millions of dollars in publicly approved and discretion means applying wisdom and values to development. context. Despite all his far-sighted values Jefferson Let me conclude with a couple of points. The first is himself was anchored in his late eighteenth century that no-one knows the community better than the period just as we are in ours, after all, Jefferson was people who live there: secondly, equity is the sense of himself an owner of slaves. personal investment in one's community and is the It took a civil war half a century later to free slaves critical basis of the working of democracy and and another hundred years after that for Martin citizenship. Thirdly, three dimensional design must Luther King and the civil rights movement of the be the language of all urban reclamation. Fourthly, sixties to bring minorities into the full and open arena all architecture irrespective of whether it is of the of democracy. King was not a revolutionary. He was Rogers/Stirling/Foster kind of art-object building or a traditionalist applying the principles of Jeffersonian whether it is an articulation of what we call democracy to the modern world. 'Free at last' means community architecture, must be perceived as city a full and equal place at the table of discretion for all building. We have a long way to go. But during the citizens, without prejudice and irrespective of origins. past twenty-five years a start in the United States has All of us who are involved in community been made. Edmond Bacon truly said that our cities architecture in the States work in the aftermath of the are a pitiless mirror of the societies that occupy them; civil rights movement. In my view it is the biggest let us remember that the city is the only collective art single event in the political life of my own generation. form that we have, it is an art form we all share and In the complexity of contemporary urban contexts, for which we all bear responsibility. the exercise of a wholesome discretion in the public interest is a difficult and complicated process. But it CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, Mr Lewis. can be done and with rich results. The key is to Our next speaker and final speaker is David Rodgers, identify the goals and issues of a particular context please come forward. and to focus the inputs and talents of everyone concerned in an open public process. DAVID RODGERS Director, CDS Co-operative The armature is the inherited city and the Housing Society, London and Chair, UK democratic political procedure at the local level. The Co-operative Film Steering Committee. method is to identify issues and bring to bear on those It clearly is very late and I will endeavour to be brief. issues in a public setting the inputs of specialists who We have heard a great deal today about participation, don't normally talk to each other very much: and about the success of democracy at grass root level Economists, engineers, environmentalists, public in our cities. As a means of solving some of the agency people, bankers, developers, sociologists, problems we face , what we haven't really discussed in architects and the general public, the users of cities great detail are the democratic and organisational and buildings, the citizens who have an equity mechanisms by which that can be achieved and I position in their community through property believe that one of the fundamental problems that we ownership and taxes. The vehicle for focus, face with our inner cities is the lack of power at the discussion and ultimate concensus is three grass roots level. Now, next year, as you will know, dimensional design. has been declared by the United Nations to be the In our own community practice we have a basic international year of shelter for the homeless. The time line or flow chart that progresses through three United Nations has two elements to that year, the first main phases, goals and issues; design alternatives and a challenge to member governments to look at their the examination of alternative impacts and the own housing strategies and to find ways in which they development of the third alternative. Without boring can house people in their society by the year 2,000. you with the details of this process let me say that it Now that's a challenge that applies to us in this includes public meetings in workshops as it moves country as well as to those countries in the third along, so that every step is accounted for and open. world, and what the United Nations commends 74 SESSION 4: RECENT INITIATIVES IN CONTEXT particularly are the sort of things that we have seen invest billions of pounds in Trident missiles to defend this afternoon, the sort of things that Ted Watkins in our democracy, but what I would like to see is Watts area and the people in Brixton and elsewhere government prepared to invest in democracy in are involved in. It commends those things which are housing co-operatives very much at the grass root based in community action and involve the people. level. Now one way of transferring the power particularly in housing is through the organisational mechanism of housing co-operatives; housing co-operatives that CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, Mr Rodgers. are democratically owned and controlled by the I am afraid for reasons which are beyond our member tenants who live there. Now as part of the control- mainly that the theatre has a show that does response to the international year, the international have to go on - we are going to have to stop at this co-operative movement initiated in Canada is stage, but I do want to make the following points. launching a film project to show how housing co Tomorrow there will be a great emphasis on a operatives work in ten nations across the developed public forum opening up for discussion a whole range world. I won't go into great detail about that project, of points, some of which will have come out on I intended to, but what I will do is tomorrow I will today's discussion. I am therefore handing over to the make sure that there are brochures and leaflets Chairman the written statements that have come available which I hope you will pick up. forward so that they can be made available for that We have set ourselves a target in the United public forum tomorrow. Kingdom of raising £50,000 towards that project. Secondly, tomorrow the emphasis is going to be Glasgow City Council, whom you heard from today, put on action and on resolutions for the next stages are one of our major sponsors. To date we have raised after this conference. Who knows, there might come £38,000. If there is anybody out there with the out of this a charter, the Astoria Charter. Be that as it £12,000 balance that we need, please see me may, we will start preparing now any more formal afterwards. statements that may come forward from you that The second aspect of the international year is have to do with your views about the way forward. assistance for the third world. Through Rooftops, Any statements that might give the organisers a basis Canada, the co-operative movement in the United for possibly organising a charter which states what it Kingdom will be raising funds to support two is that your interests are and what emerges from all of projects in Africa, one in Kenya which is the the discussions and deliberations over these few days Carriobangi co-operative, a settlement co-operative will be most welcome. in a squatter settlement of 100,000 people leading into With those points I would like to thank all of you the centre of Nairobi. We will be working with the for staying so long and contributing so much to our Canadian co-operators to endeavour to raise funds to discussions here today. I would now like to turn you set up a production work shop which will do some of over to Rod Hackney. the things that you heard about from John Turner in helping them to produce building blocks and roof tiles for the construction of model dwellings and the CONFERENCE PRESIDENT improvement of sanitation in the Carriobangi It only remains for me to say that we will be kicking settlement co-operative. The second project that we off sharp tomorrow morning. We have another are involved with in the international year is a similar nineteen or so speakers, chaired by Simon Jenkins construction co-operative in Messika in Mozambique. and not Laurie Taylor as per your programme. I must Now these are the two elements oflnternational year thank Dr Thomas Blair for superb second half and that is the response from the co-operative sector chairmanship today, he came in as delegate and we in the United Kingdom. seconded him onto the platform so please show, at I will finish there with one comment; we often talk this very late hour, your appreciation for our about democracy in our country, we are prepared to Chairman Dr T. Blair. .. 75 DAY TWO Introduction CONFERENCE PRESIDENT Yesterday proved to be a huge success, you will see outside we are busy putting all the cuttings up on the notice boards for those that haven't caught up with the coverage. This coverage that (maybe of course because of the Prince of Wales' speech rather than anybody else's) indicates quite unanimous support in both the tabloids and the serious press for the announcement of the inner City Trust and its fund raising arm, Inner City Aid. In The Star there is actually a complementary story when you read the text, and Today went to the trouble, all credit to the newspaper, of actually putting in some of the schemes that we highlighted yesterday, particularly Paddy Doherty's Derry project. You would have seen on television, those that saw it last night, excellent coverage and this morning we hear from John Patten that he has already congratulated us oh our efforts and we look forward to his speech today. Our Chairman for today, as I indicated yesterday, is Simon Jenkins, who is Chairman of the English Heritage Historic Towns committee. He has written a number of books, pamphlets, and publications; he BBUILDI G was formerly with The Standard and The Economist 'COMMU ITI S and he is now a free-lance journalist. Please welcome ASTORIA THEATRE as your Chairman for the second day, Simon Jenkins. Sponsored by CHAIRMAN R Well thank you very much indeed Rod, I am here strictly as your Chairman, not as one of your speakers, and I am going to adhere rigidly to the heard yourselves for ten minutes. We have received a Chairman's Hippocratic oath which is that you don't number of notes from members of the conference want to hear me speaking, you want to hear saying that there are points that they would like to yourselves speaking and I will simply operate the raise that arose in the course of yesterday. I think that boiling oil and portcullis department on anybody the best time for them to do that is right away now, who oversteps their time. You, I believe, know how before we get down to today's business, with strictly much time you have got and there is a devastating ten minutes allocated to this. array oflights and buttons up here to ensure that you I propose to ask some of the people who sent up stick to it. However, I gather that in the course of notes to the platform in the course of yesterday; there yesterday the heat which was generated under the were James Sweeney and William Murray of the kettle of the conference was sufficiently fierce for a Barrowfield Tenants Association. If one of them certain amount of steam to build up and so I thought, would like to come forward, and I emphasise that in collaboration with the organisers, that it might be there are about two minutes each for these people, helpful that rather than hear me for ten minutes, you David Gardner, Chairman of Martins Estates and 76 .. DAY TWO: INTRODUCTION Association, Tony McGann of the Eldonian Housing too top down a way of organising the conference! It is Co-operative, and Chris Shirley-Smith of Voluntary obviously important that everybody gets the chance Action in Campden. If they could make their way up to speak who wants to speak, and that no-one here now, I will call them in that order. actually hogs the limelight. That's enough from me, I Could I just say while they are coming forward, would now like to ask if anyone from the Barrowfield that there are going to be a number of opportunities Tenants Association wants to say something. Is in the course of today for the conference to make its someone here? If not I would move on to David views felt. There is a session later this morning for the Gardner, is he here? He probably has let off steam in many people who want to make simple announce the course of the night. Is Tony McGann here? Is ments of the work that they are engaged in. There is Chris Shirley-Smith here? You are a very peacable lot another session before lunch in the public forum this morning. Would anyone who submitted a note where there will be a more general discussion and, as yesterday like to come forward and speak very you see from your programme, there's a conference briefly? That is a great success. In that case I would resolution session at the end of the day. like to call on the Reverend Barry Thorley of Brixton I do emphasise that it is easiest for the sake of to speak on a subject which has been much in the conference discipline if people put their request to news lately and has been the subject of a very speak on the various notes that are around the hall, controversial report from the Church of England, and hand them to the girls in red bow ties. We can 'Faith in the Cities.' Barry Thorley. then impose some sort of order on that, if that is not .. 77 SESSION 5 Future Strategies Faith in the Cities REV BARRY THORLEY, Brixton The Church of England's record in the inner cities is dismal. A contemporary comment on the 1851 census was that we were a middle-class church dominated by men and a hundred and fifty years on things are much the same. Twenty-two per cent of the people went to an Anglican church in Kensington and Chelsea, whilst only 4 per cent were in one of our churches in West Ham, that is in the 1982, 1983 census. Currently, although we look like the national church at the Garter ceremony or at a royal wedding, only 1 per cent of the population of this country goes to an Anglican church on a Sunday morning; 0.85 per cent in the cities and 1.25 per cent elsewhere. Our record is dismal. And if you take into account our well documented exclusion of black people then you might fairly say that we are a marginal, middle class, male dominated and white ghetto. Nevertheless, we are there. The clergy are there on roughly £8,000 a year and a freebie house which we do not own. Community architects being there in response to local initiatives on salaries protected by the Community Aid Fund can only be there as gents or dames. Gentrified, or gentrifying, damified or damifying, your wealth in relation to over a third of the people living below, on or near to supplementary benefit; below, on or near to poverty, is bound to appear insulting just as our wealth as clergy appears insulting to many of those among whom we live and work. But we are there, not only as clergy, but as anglican communities centred on anglican buildings. is there. It has been there from the community We rattle around in all the major conurbations and in programme (serious capital investment) and yet we the suburbs and villages too. are still rubbing around for revenue. Pretty buildings Yesterday, my colleague David Bryan spoke about in themselves are useless, designed to fail unless there a £2 million scheme to convert St Matthew's church are the resources to make them work. In this respect I in Brixton, one of the great Waterloo churches, into a hope that Inner City Aid keeps its eye very firmly on community-owned cultural arts centre with an the need to generate local work in local communities emphasis on the undoubted contribution to be made or the renaissance will be short lived. by black people in that field. The scheme incidentally Just under a year ago the Church of England has been rubbished by architectural purists in the published 'Faith iri the City', the report of the Church in Crisis. What do they know about the needs Archbishop of Canterbury's commission on urban ofBrixton? Nothing, nothing at all. But the point here priority areas. It was leaked and smeared, but no-one is that it is costing just over £2 million and the money has seriously challenged the statistical basis upon 78 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES which our sixty-one recommendations are based. We A Ten Point Plan for the Inner Cities also took the trouble to go to the five major conurbations in this country and listen and listen and DR ROD HACKNEY listen again to what our people are saying. Of course Thank you very much, Simon. there isn't the time here to unfold the evidence, or to Well, after the Rev. Barry Thorley my speech is on the share the anecdotes, suffice it to say that we live in a 'Ten Point Plan' for the inner cities which somebody divided nation with a third of our people below, on or has just said is simply called the Ten Commandments. near to poverty, and it is getting worse; there is 1. The inner city riots of 1985 were for many a cry increased poverty in this country today, growing from the heart, but the problems that people are inequality, stark polarisation, all amounting to what facing are not being tackled effectively and what is we describe in 'Faith in the City' as a state of grey and needed is an approach which unites everybody fundamental injustice in British society today. concerned in a common programme of renewal The Archbishop's commission were not remotely which harnesses people's creative energy. Marxist in their analysis. We mentioned the word Marx once and the word class, I think, twice. It would 2. The central and local government ministers and be absurd to call the executive director of BiC, who the private sector and the professions must, before it's signed the report unanimously along with all the rest too late, stop bickering and attack the problems of of us a Marxist. No, no, our analysis is rooted in the the social degradation connected with housing and Bible. In the Old Testament every seven years (and unemployment which are at the root of urban unrest. every fifty years it was called Jubilee) the people of 3. This week's conference and keynote address God evened out differences, letting slaves go free, for which highlighted The Prince of Wales' concern for example, so the rich just couldn't go on getting richer the inner cities has already brought to this conference or the poor poorer, and the New Testament is full of offers of support, some of them in kind and some of concern for the poor. Inner City Aid is therefore far them in cash. The Inner City Trust and the fund set up from new. St Paul raised a collection for the poor in called Inner City Aid which are modelled on the Jerusalem nearly two thousand years ago, it was this successful Bob Geldof Band Aid Appeal, are one and only this, that motivated the Archbishop's way, but only one way, of helping the people find commission to recommend the setting up of a church themselves in this plight of blighted inner cities. This urban fund. God Aid if you like. The Church Urban fund will allow people to draw upon resources to set Fund is one of sixty-one recommendations in Faith in up street-corner projects, provide surgeries for the the City. Money is being set aside by the Church repair of social, economic and environmental Commissioners and we intend to launch an appeal to conditions. match that money pound for pound. This central money will also be matched pound for 4. An immediate and complete re-appraisal is pound by the local church in the diocese. It will be needed of the legislation affecting inner cities. Rules geared to work bottom up with what is already there, and regulations need to be relaxed. Private sector and the communities, the clergy, the buildings. We intend government institutions need to take risks. A minister to work with other Christian denominations and I to the inner cities would be very useful to co-ordinate hope we shall find the grace to work with people with the policies for the inner cities, and in particular other faiths too. There is much to do. Imaginatively certain rules such as planning need to be overhauled restoring and converting an enormous number of key to do away with still current zoning policies. For landmark buildings in the cities, as well as pouring in example, areas designated for housing should not and drawing out people, power, administrators, preclude small workshops, business advisory centres, youth and community workers and alike. It would be offices for the inner city task forces that we are going absurd if our two initiatives, your Inner City Aid and to need, and a whole range of other things that go our God Aid did not move forward together in towards making places better to live in. It shouldn't tandem. Thank you very much. be necessary to commute from one sector to another; from a housing area to an office area, to a work area, CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed. to a play area. And councils in particular, although There may be some questions to some of the speakers set up into departments of the old fashioned types, this morning. We have left a little bit of air in the shouldn't be frightened to mix these activities up. programme. If you would like to think what 5. Problems must be tackled locally, those involved questions you would like to ask I propose to have a should work from offices in the very areas in which brief question session after the first three speakers the work is situated. Only by tackling problems at this have spoken. I would now like to ask Dr Rod grass root level will they be solved. Hackney to say his piece; to put it mildly he needs no introduction to you. Rod. 6. Every town and city should in the next twelve .. 79 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES months identify two or three areas for immediate building homes they should be allowed to set up their action. A task force group should be charged with the own companies and the tax incentive provisions responsibility of getting some immediate results, after should be relaxed to facilitate this. all, if the inner city aid fund is to be successful, it 10. Money must be made available, as capitalised would need to spend its money somewhere. Lord receipts perhaps, for the maintenance and repair of Scarman as President of the British committee for the whatever is done in the inner cities. New buildings 1987 International Year for Shelter and the Homeless and improvement of buildings and improvement of may well have projects highlighted through their environments are not an end to themselves. Much of researches and endeavours and, after all, home this goes back to the way we certify building activity lessness is with us and must be a prime target for in this country. Many people including those in the remedial action in 1987. architectural and surveying profession, for example, 7. A national retraining programme for ordinary say that the completion of the building is the end of people to go back to school and learn the the builder's work, that is the wrong statement: it responsibilities of looking after the needs of their isn't, it is the start at best; the cost of maintaining it is areas is a must. Human endeavour is our greatest an ongoing thing. To highlight this point, if we had resource and people must be encouraged to take a taken on what we built in the sixties, then maybe lead. They must be able to articulate their case and much of the demolition that is going on nowadays their views and they themselves must be encouraged might not have happened. to take the positive action which others can follow in helping alleviate decay in urban environments. And finally it is worth recalling the closing words of The Prince of Wales, not in his speech at this 8. The financial institutions and in particular the conference yesterday, but in the ones at the Institute banks, the building societies, the pension funds and of Directors in February 1985 when he said that the insurance companies must be encouraged to totally possibilities in the field of regeneration are immense. abandon their red lining of areas which still goes on. The challenge is awesome but the rewards I feel will It is no use the Inner City Aid Fund promoting wealth be nothing less than a GREAT Britain once again. He in these areas if the major institutions then don't thinks that this can be brought about by the energy come in to take on from where this fund leads off. created by this new force which we are now calling, to And a major part of their funds must be devoted to take his words, the third force and I think the message stabilising the inner city, greater social awareness from this conference - in addition to those must lead to greater social responsibility on their tremendously supporting words from The Prince of part. The bottom line of all this is the possible Wales yesterday- is 'let's hope that this force takes reluctance of foreign investors to put their money off. May the force be with you.' Thank you. into Britain whose social unrest in the inner city areas continues. With so many people on the dole, building CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed, Rod. societies, initially, and banks should consider dole as I would now like to ask David Hall to address us an income for obtaining loans and mortgages. Dole again. He is someone who is well known to most money is a long term source of income at the moment; people here and there is no point in my reading out it is collateral like any other form of income and I am the biographical details which are in the programme. pleased to say that building societies are the first to I would like to say that David has always seemed to lead in acknowledging this. The Abbey National for me to be an absolute model of a traditional pressure example and the Scottish Building Society now group organiser, he has been battling away at the consider Supplementary Benefit and the dole as bona Town and Country Planning Association for almost fide capital when calculating additional money from twenty years now, never afraid of controversy, always themselves to ordinary people. outspoken and it is a remarkable achievement and I am sure that he is going to be as controversial as ever 9. Building activity has to be locally based. Schemes now. David. should be supported by outside funds only if the local people themselves are involved in the direct labour and the management of these schemes. Self help and Planning from the Bottom Up self build projects have to be encouraged; community DAVID HALL Director, Town and Country associations have a tremendous responsibility here to Planning Association and President, Habitat take far more on than they are now expected to carry. International Council They should widen their scope to include the Well, thank you very much indeed, Simon. I only provision of local work spaces, the creation of new wish that the Chairman of my Finance and General employment, the creation of new industry, shops, Purposes Committee could have heard that intro environmental and leisure facilities. As well as duction. It would, I am sure, tend to offset some of 80 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES what planning from the bottom up is about is to make sure that these failures do not happen again. The planning from the bottom up is not just about leaving communities to stew in their own juice, with no money or help from anyone. It is about enabling (that word that must have been said a thousand times already in this conference) people to improve, create and live in the kind of environment that they want, this means that there must be powers to free communities from excessively restrictive limitations on what they can do for themselves. More of the wealth generated in any locality should be available for reinvestment and improvement of that area and the financial resources available from central and local government, should be available on a more discretionary basis for communities to spend how they want. The environmental professionals must be advisers to local communities and be even employed by them so that local communities have the necessary technical expertise to make decisions for themselves. Planning from the bottom up is also about releasing BlUILDI G resources of all kinds that would otherwise be wasted; peoples' time, spare equipment, spare accommoda CO NITIES tion and land, unused skill, not just money. And ASTORIA THEATRE finally planning from the bottom up is what it says, planning from the bottom up, not just architecture or the flack that one frequently gets in running design from the bottom up. It is about health and voluntary bodies when somehow the ends never meet. community services, education, transport, social However, to my topic, I have drawn fairly heavily for services, recreation, employment and living, not just these remarks, as many of you imagine, on some bricks and mortar. recent TCPA work and in particular the book that we Nor should it be assumed that planning from the co-authored with Tony Gibson, 'Us and Them, A bottom up is just about communities planning their community handbook' and our inner cities document own neighbourhood; just as important is making sure 'Who's Responsibility? Reclaiming the Inner Cities'. that people's wishes and needs are taken account of in That's my commercial, ladies and gentlemen, and I the big decisions. Planning policies for the big cities, hope that you will buy them all from the book shop. the urban regions, the countryside areas, and indeed But if anybody needed perhaps a more visual the country as a whole, should all start from explanation as to why there should be more planning consideration of the kind of environment that people from the bottom up they need only pop over to actually want at the local level; and then the Carlton House Terrace to the TCPA offices and look assessment of what peoples' requirements are at the at the Divis exhibition entitled 'Divis, the dreadful neighbourhood level should form a key input to all enclosure'. A classic example of what could go wrong strategic planning policy. Not that this approach will in the planning and building of a neighbourhood produce big decisions that please everyone. A new when you don't involve the people who are going to motorway is bound to disrupt someone's neighbour live there. These disastrously designed, incompetently hood. But it is clear that the national housing policies managed and atrociously expensive buildings would and mechanisms for financing local authority housing never have been designed and built by the people in the 1950s, 1960s and the early 1970s would have themselves. Very few people live in a flat or slab block been completely different if they had been framed so more than three blocks above the ground if they can as to provide the kind of living environment that have a dwelling with a front door on the ground and a people want. And of course even where disruption of bit of garden and open space. Yet the neighbourhood a community cannot be avoided, the bottom up of Britain's cities and towns, the edges, as well as their approach would bring out the kind of measures that inner areas, are cluttered with hundreds of blocks are needed to minimise that disruption by amending which, though perhaps not as bad as Divis, would not the basic designs, by landscaping, or of course have been designed or planned by their inhabitants if through various forms of financial compensation. they had had a choice. Government, the politicians Now how should all this be done? There are two and the professionals have failed these people and major requirements, and one even more important 81 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES which I will come to at the end, but the first is to relax trained to enable, that word again, local communities controls at the top or the centre, all the way down the to do more for themselves in those particular areas of line. Thus central government should allow local skill. authorities more freedom to raise rates, generate Local authorities should introduce area resource income, and spend money how they themselves see management schemes so that expenditure that is fit. And the local authorities in turn should allow and exclusive to the needs of the neighbourhood, should encourage local communities in their area to do much be managed at the neighbourhood level. This means more for themselves if they want. that local authorities must draw up budgets for small The second requirement is for new community parts of their districts, in particular the deprived or powers to be drawn up. There needs to be a much run-down areas, covering the full range of their more extensive network of urban parishes where the functional responsibilities and drawing not only on initiative for setting up such parishes would come revenue from the rates but relevant grant money as from local people. Neighbourhood councils are well. It would have the advantage of enabling funds another model. Such bodies would then negotiate to be better targeted to the areas most in need and with their district councils on the responsibilities to make for better co-ordination at the local level. The be devolved to them, but I believe that they should at private sector in its many different forms could have a least include the ability to provide their own very important role in all this. New ways must be community services, to levy a rate, and to acquire and found of getting more of the big financial institutional develop land. Community Planning Zones should be money into the inner city areas; I am echoing what designated where a local community wishes to Rod Hackney has just been saying. And this is where undertake its own planning and development in Prince Charles' influence could carry enormous accordance with criteria agreed with the local weight. planning authority. These would be a modified form Is it impossible for the local branches of big banks of Simplified Planning Zones, the SPZ's that have and insurance companies to be able to invest in local been recently introduced by the Housing and Planning projects. Could not some of the big house building Act. A SPZ designation should also make an area companies be contracted directly to local communi eligible for the acquisition of land by the local ties working with them to assess their needs and authority on behalf of the community planning helping them to secure an affordable mortgage agency, the urban parish councils, or the neighbour finance? The possibilities are endle"ss and the imagina hood council and with that agency being eligible to tion of the private sector must be brought to bear on collect not less than half of any development value all of this. that was eventually created. Imagine what could have But in conclusion I do not want to claim too much been done if half of the development value that has for bottom up planning. It cannot be the universal been generated in the London Docklands had been panacea and there is no doubt that in the wurst areas made available to the local communities. of Britain's towns and cities, bottom up planning will That leads also to the much more widespread not succeed unless substantially more resources are provision of independent advice to communities injected into them and not just from the private through planning and technical aids centres. These sector. The Prince of Wales' fund will undoubtedly should provide advisory and consultancy services to help and I believe his admirable initiative will communities on the full range of community require stimulate further philanthropy from the private ments. The TCPA's Community Technical Aids sector, but that philanthropy is limited and already Centre, CTAC, in Manchester has now provided stretched, and there are many other competing claims technical aid to hundreds of community groups of all for it. Surely the responsibility for providing the kinds in the Greater Manchester area, helping them necessary resources must rest with government, to articulate their needs, draw up detailed schemes for central government. If the estimate is true, then bids for urban programme money and supervising thousands of millions of pounds per year are needed the projects. This is a well-established model and simply to deal with the back log of local authority there are some others, but quite literally hundreds housing repairs. If Manchester alone needs £600 more are needed. million to tackle the problems of its system-built and The training of professionals needs a drastic re traditional housing stock and ifliterally thousands of orientation so that they can think themselves into millions more are needed to repair urban sewage and helping communities to meet their own needs. The water systems and to replace the one-fifth of primary planning schools, the architecture schools, the schools schools built in the last century and so on and so on, of financial and public administration and all higher there is no way that private philanthropy or even the education courses relating to the training of profes local authorities under present financial restraints sionals in the diverse range of skills required all need can conceivably do the job. Moreover, the limited to shift emphasis so that many more people are amount of funding that central government has made 82 .. SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES available has had a negative cash value because the The first reality which all city planners must take reduction in funds for main programmes has been into consideration is that Britain is now a multi caused by a decline in public expenditure, and if cultural nation, with visible minorities, most of government says that more funds cannot be made whom reside in our inner cities. The second reality is available then its economic policy is wrong. that these citizens are demanding a say in all planning Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, unless more which will affect their daily lives, and they will not be resources are made available in these run down areas shut up about their demands, and the evidence so far in Britain's inner cities and with much more help for is that they are prepared to go at length to ensure that people to provide for themselves, then the deprivation their voices are heard. And the third reality is that our and dereliction will continue and there will be more present inner, cities are not conducive to the general explosions of community frustration like those that well-being of a significant number of inner cities' we have already seen in Toxteth, Handsworth, residents, and they want a radical change. With these Brixton, and Broadwater Farm. Let us do our best, realities firmly in our minds, we can set about looking ladies and gentlemen, to shift the emphasis away for solutions to existing problems in architecture, from this tragic possibility. There is much that can be planning and design. done and all sectors must be devoted and mobilised to Britain's has been steadily declining in wealth, with the ends that I have mentioned. Thank you very rising unemployment and associated problems. What much. we have plenty of is human resources. NFSHO believes that if people are properly motivated, giving CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed, David. them a stake in their own well-being, there will be I think it would be very helpful maybe later in today's light and hope in our inner cities. Self-Help is the key proceedings if anybody present with some experience to that motivation. Our definition of self-help is 'The of American practice on the inter-relationship of the Black Community (and others) through its initiatives, various forces, private sector, public sector, and its ideas, and organisations, attacking jointly multiple voluntary sector might be able to say something to us. stresses affecting that community, leading to social, The next speaker this morning was to have been Dr cultural, economic and political development of that Vince Hines. He is extremely sorry that he could not community for the benefit of the Nation as a whole'. make it at the last minute. He was very keen to speak Britain's self-help movement began to take signi and he has asked me to read out what it was he was ficant shape during the late 1960s. Most of its energies going to say. I don't think I could possibly do justice and leadership came from the poor and disadvantaged to his eloquence or to what he wanted to say and in residents of our inner cities, setting up hostels for the the way that he wanted to say it. homeless, providing information and advice for the uninformed, introducing and implementing new The Chairman then read out Dr Hines' speech. ideas in youth and community development, setting up housing associations and housing co-ops, training workshops, community business ventures, self-help child minding programmes, self-help health groups, Self-help in the Inner Cities naming only a few of the successful initiatives by the DR VINCE HINES ordinary people. These initiatives must be encouraged It seems a progressive step for organisers of a and expanded. They are important assets to our Conference of this type to invite the variety of community. The evidence of community motivation speakers from various levels of our communities. One is there. As such, there is no excuse by the planners to is fully aware of the continued controversies suggest that ordinary inner cities' residents have no surrounding this conference but if there is good-will interest in their environmental well-being. and commitment to work together in building a NFSHO hopes that this Conference will help to lay better environment in our inner cities, we all have a the foundation for a general programme of extensive duty to grasp that opportunity, at least test its intent. consultations by our inner cities' planners (and I am the National Director of the National 'planners' is here used in the general sense) assisting Federation of Self-Help Organisations (NFSHO) them to keep their minds on the realities of living in which was formed by the Black Community in 1975, our decaying inner cities. Every major planning now Britain's largest Black-managed independent organisation dealing with the regeneration of our voluntary umbrella group with over eight hundred inner cities must have voting representatives from self-help and community groups within its network. black and ethnic minorities self-help and community Most of NFSHO members are self-help and com organisations on their decision-making committees. munity groups operating in the most difficult parts of Without this, there is a danger that city planners will our inner cities. So we have first-hand daily forget the realities. It cannot be over emphasised that experiences of the problems of our inner cities. ordinary inner cities' residents are motivated to take .. 83 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES an active part in the development of their local communities as shown earlier. Regenerating our inner cities is beyond party politics and entrenched ideologies. It may be a question of the very survival of our nation. A nation, who finds it necessary to use, as a matter of routine, repressive measures to maintain law and order in a civilised society, is a nation heading for serious trouble. Our inner cities are real tests to the substance of Britain's claim to being a modern civilization, resting on the foundation of a fair and just system of democracy. What could be more appropriate to that test than the above concept of Self-Help for Com munity Development which should create a suitable psychological framework for the poor and dis advantaged in our inner cities, to motivate them further to organise among themselves, influencing their own lives based on their perceptions of needs. Finally, NFSHO believes that without the signi ficant structural involvement of residents of Britain's inner cities in all strategies for urban regeneration, talks of 'building communities' are only expensive past-times. Let us use this Conference as an historic BS UILDI pointer to the way forward, creating the basis for a change in our thinking in the way we build our cities COMMUNIT ES and other urban complexes for our fellow human beings. If we don't, posterity will not thank us to have lack of co-ordination and has been very, very made them prisoners of their environment. LET US fragmented. Many companies have entered this arena BUILD TOGETHER. without the knowledge of how to work with local communities and very often need assistance to CHAIRMAN I would now like to move on to the next interpret the local scene and to understand the local speaker on the agenda, Sam Springer of Business in language. Communities are very often readily the Community. Again, Sam Springer is very well identified and have identified courses of action for known to many of us. He is a Freeman of the City of dealing with the problems. But very often what is London, he was Mayor of Hackney, and was recently practical in the local community is alien to the appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London. business sector. Some businesses want to get involved With much more significance for us today, he is with the local community because they have accepted Director of Business in the Community. Sam Springer. that they are part of the urban situation. They see this investment as a means of survival and they realise that increased competitiveness has contributed to urban decay. What Business can do for the It is now time for the private sector to play a bigger role in the exercise of regeneration of our inner cities. Community The government has encouraged this. But large SAM SPRINGER Business in the Community. companies need the process skills; the lack of these Can I say that I was down in the paper to do a double has put them at a disadvantage. With the assistance of act but I am certainly not here intending to do one, Business in the Community we can assist in matching simply that Stephen O'Brien and I decided that it business skills and resources to projects in would be right for me to address the conference on employment, enterprise housing and environmental the issues of what businesses could do in the improvement, and the refurbishment necessary to community. boost economic regeneration. Business and local community each have a part to Business in the Community was set up in 1981 by play in the effort to improve the quality of life for companies, government, trade unions and voluntary inner cities. If the business community is to realise its organisations to act as a fortress and a catalyst for the needs it must forge an ongoing relationship with local greater involvement of industry and commerce in communities. Some have entered into partnerships local communities. Business in the Community has but this has not had any significant impact due to the now some two hundred corporate members and a 84 .. SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES board under the presidency of His Royal Highness have been sponsoring projects and an example of that The Prince of Wales. It is committed to increasing the is what we call the 'Wings of Fellowship'. That is contribution of industry to the communities and to where we have been able to provide sixteen fellows community economic development. .. . supported by ten companies who provide for them management training right through their university Some material has been lost at this point. careers. They are supporting these youngsters (and these youngsters are from the minority communities) ... from companies in the design, the development, in order that they can make sure that their work force the view of their corporate responsibility policies and actually represent the kind of community in which community involvement activity. In short we have they are operating. So that is another example of the developed the expertise of bringing the corporate way in which companies will be able to provide sector in to the community. One of the mechanisms resources within the local communities and I must we have invented to enable the business community say that the idea came from not we would always to become involved with the local community in the hope, a British company, but an American company. enterprise agency movement. That is the development Citibank was the company that actually thought up of resource centres by the private sector to provide the whole question of the Wings of Fellowship. They technical assistance for local businesses and entre are now supported by the Project Full Employ and preneurs. The staff of these centres get involved with Business in the Community in this particular effort local communities to help them to develop their and I would want to say now publicly to those ten expertise to support the development of the local companies which have actually cut out something community. More than three thousand companies of like one thousand pounds per fellow to enable that all sizes have since become engaged in supporting fellow to succeed that they will be able to compete on local initiatives providing resources in cash, personnel equal terms once they come out, once they have got and kind. their university degree. There are three principal ways in which companies Thirdly, in the course of mainstream business can help, firstly by charitable giving. Many activity, many companies can do a lot more through companies have a long tradition of providing support their purchasing policies. They can have a significant for charitable activity in education, employment, effect on the local and regional economy of the areas training, social services, social welfare, cultural in which they are based. Through 1ocal purchasing heritage and research in the form of cash, equipment, and sub-contracting with a tendency to work dual premises, management, advice and personnel alone. sourcing policies to ensure continuity of supply, Some companies give a percentage of their profits. reduction of dependence and flexibility and provision, For example the Imperial Group assisted Project Full local purchasing and sub-contracting can be a good ,- Employ to undertake a feasibility study of self commercial practice. Local purchasing from my employment opportunities for young blacks in experience can profit companies, they can save Bristol resulting in the proposal for the Coach House money by local purchasing. This is done much more Small Business Centre. Save and Prosper, British commonly in the United States, but some British Airways, Lucas and BAT Industries are among companies have embarked on this particular exercise, companies who sponsor the youth business initiative British Airways, for example, have sub-contracted to provide small bursaries and advice to young people production of special Concorde inflight paths to an setting up in business. Another company sponsored a employment project for ex-psychiatric patients in self employment course for inner city and ethnic inner London. British Aerospace reviewed their minority youngsters in Bristol. Boots have assisted purchasing procedures and list at Walton and invited the inner city voluntary groups in many ways local firms to bid, resulting in almost three quarters of including equipment, material and merchandise. a million pounds in new orders and contracts for local Secondly as a trustee and I know that some firms. And I am certain that British Aerospace will statements were made yesterday about the composi tell you that that was a profitable exercise. Austin tion of the trustees. I live in a Housing Association Rover has organised an exhibition of products flat and not so long ago I worked for London brought from abroad and invited local firms to see if Transport. I am one of the people pushing from the they could supply. And I am certain that from what bottom and as a trustee of that trust which was we have heard not so long ago that many of those launched yesterday I believe that we would hope that firms have come forward and have been able to that particular trust would benefit in many ways from compete. ICI on Teeside sub-contracted some of their the experience the trustees can bring to it. business to new firms set up by former employees. Secondly, as far as sponsorship of projects is There is one other area that companies can play a concerned I believe that companies have to date been significant role in assisting regenerating our inner doing quite an enormous job but can do more. They cities and that is by spreading the burden of 85 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES unemployment. They can do this by developing the cities and give us quality of life for young people. within their own companies situations whereby their Thank you very much. purchasing policies can be developed in a way to create business within the inner cities. I have just CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed, Sam. come back from Dallas and the interesting thing I think that one of the things that everyone now about that particular community is that the business recognises is that the planning process has to develop community has taken the lead in actually developing a language with which to address both local that particular city. The Chambers of Commerce play government and the business community and it is a leading role in dealing with education, transporta very encouraging to see how much progress has been tion, and alike, and they have put on their agenda made in at least the latter respect in getting the very high, minority purchasing, minority business businesses to involve themselves in community development. Companies can do a lot more in this planning movements. country, taking the lead from those countries which I think I am not alone in the hall feeling a little cold. are based here and are doing the same sort of thing in I have asked if we could possibly have the heat turned the United States. Developing small businesses up a bit, is that the agreement of the hall? within the inner city is a unique way of spreading (APPLAUSE) Right, it doesn't necessarily mean that employment because once we begin to generate our it will happen but I have at least asked. Right, I would inner cities, creating more jobs, I am certain that the now like to ask Christine Bailey to address us on the burden on the state services will certainly decrease. launching of Britain's National Community Partner And there should be more money in the central ship. She is from the Association of Community reserves for starting new projects. Technical Aid Centres and she is going to be talking The building societies have got a significant role to about this most important and exciting project. play here as investors and I would want to touch very Christine Bailey. lightly on the ways that the building societies can join in the regeneration of our inner cities. Many building societies are based with offices within many of our Launching Britain's National inner city areas. One borough, which has the highest level of social deprivation within the United Community Partnership Kingdom, has got something like about five building CHRISTINE BAILEY Association of Community society offices in one of its narrow streets. I am Technical Aid Centres, Representative of the certain that in joint ventures with local authorities National Community Partnership. and community groups, building societies can Mr Chairman, ladies and gentlemen. There is a provide the resources necessary to enable com particular phrase associated with a well known brand munities to build an environment which will lead the of lager that I want to remind you of. It gets to the community back to the kind of situation where there parts others cannot reach. That is precisely the is good quality of life. The Prince yesterday gave an concept behind the National Community Aid's fund example of what transpired in Swindon and those of to provide an additional source of monies for revenue you who were here would certainly take that away as purposes to go where others have failed to reach one of the things that can be achieved through the because present funding for community professional building societies. support services is too inadequate, too short term and The Stirling Project, which is a build-for-yourself too inconsistent to properly develop the range and project, is another one where the building society scale of services required. The National Community actually came good at the end of the day. So as Aid Fund was announced yesterday as an initiative investors, yes, the building societies can play an with the patronage of His Royal Highness The Prince extremely important role. of Wales. Many people are rightly asking, what the In conclusion, can I say that the regeneration of difference is between the National Community Aid our inner cities is dependent on all groups playing Fund and the Inner City Trust? The National their part, contributing in their own way through a Community Aid Fund is a joint venture from the partnership mechanism: a partnership mechanism voluntary sector, both nationally and locally, it is a made up of central and local government, the local grass root initiative. If offers a genuine mechanism, community and the business community which has a already established, which can effectively distribute very significant part to play within that partnership. I any monies from the inner city trusts for community think they have recognised that, but I think that the groups at the local level. As I understand it, Mr local community can only but give support and call Chairman, the Inner City Aid Fund will be a money on those agencies which are available within the earning vehicle for the Inner City Trust. National community to demand the sort of services which can Community Aid Fund as one of the first recipients of but only be good for the quality of life regenerating the Inner City Trust's monies will pay for the revenue 86 .. SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES you to obtain this booklet to find out more details than I am able to give you here today. What's wrong with the system? The built environment is designed and constructed by a process which excludes most of the people who actually use it. In the 1970s Community Progress began to record some of the worst excesses, the destruction of neighbourhoods and communities. At the same time a small number of professionals began to change their client/professional relationships and to work directly with the future occupants or users of the building and not for the statutory bodies or funding agencies. More recently still there has been a rapid increase in a number of community groups and voluntary organisations that have fought and struggled to obtain money for the design and construction of their own facilities (this conference has clearly shown their experiences). Their achievements set a new pattern and show how people of low income without any previous knowledge of the development process can gain control over and take responsibilities for their lives and their environment. What we are pleading for here today is the recognition of recent experience, the skills of the community, the strengths of the community. There is a lot of talk about partnership. What I am talking costs needed to successfully get community projects about is a genuine partnership with the community to off the ground. The Inner City Trust will pay for harness the will to make regeneration initiatives capital costs. The two initiatives can then run in work. Much more money has to go" into community parallel. It was described yesterday as paying regeneration but what matters most is how it is enablers the local rate for the job. Good trade union directed. Communities know what they want. It is the principles were not the motivation of the members of lengthy, technical, complex, departmentalised and the National Community Partnership; rather it was a bureaucratic nature of this development process that firm belief in the need to realise the potential of the hinders their own self-expression in their environment. ,- communities through a genuine bottom up approach, Communities need financial resources to cover the to address the points raised yesterday by the speakers capital cost of buying and utilising land and representing the voluntary and community sectors. buildings. What they also need, and this is what is The National Community Aid Fund is about being neglected, is the know-how, the nuts and bolts people's choice, people's control. If architects in the to develop these resources properly. More com private sector aren't able to give the long-term munities are asking for their own professional commitment necessary to supporting communities support and why not? It is the environmental on land, building and environmental issues by equivalent of Legal Aid. Central government and working on a fee-paying basis, then it supports the local authorities rely on their technical advisors, Association of Community Technical Aid Centres private companies buying architectural planning, from public sources. I just want to add that in 1985 landscape, financial and management services when ACTAC carried out a survey of the sources of income required. Likewise, communities must have access to received by its fifty-two members. Only 14 per cent of a similar range of professional support services to be monies derived were under the category of an equal and effective partner in the regeneration professional fees and most of this 14 per cent was not process. Top priority must be given to enabling directly paid for by the client group but was received initiatives in providing this vital professional back from grants paid to the group which carried an up: the National Community Aid Fund is an enabling allowance for professional fees. initiative. What I am here today to talk about though is the So, what is the National Community Aid Fund? National Community Aid Fund; how it will operate, The National Community Aid Fund is to assist how communities will benefit from it. There is a community groups and voluntary organisations to .- booklet produced by the National Community affect physical improvements to the buildings and the Partnership that is available here in the theatre. I ask environment that comprise their neighbourhood and 87 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES to improve the quality of life for the community. It is want it to be dynamic, a force for change. Today is the about place, but equally it is about people. first public appeal for finance and resources for the Accommodating people's activities in their neighbour fund. The fund will operate throughout England, hood in the way that works for them because it is their Scotland, Ireland and Wales. Initially the National needs that are being met. People's choice. The fund Community Partnership will direct monies received will be an additional source of monies, private sector to the community groups within a number of pilot led with five objectives. To enable local community schemes which will be known as Pilot Local groups and voluntary organisations, initiate, fund Community Partnerships. These will be located in raise, undertake, maintain, manage and run through both urban and rural areas, and as funding permits, self-help action, successful community projects that National Community Aid Funds monies will be made wouldn't otherwise have happened. more widely available. The fund will increase learning, confidence and These are the organisations that have been skills in communities in deprived areas, setting up involved and aware of what we are trying to do, and I appropriate local education and training initiatives. am sorry if it is not too legible, but they are all listed in Such initiatives will include developing skills in the publication that I referred you to before. building, landscaping repair and maintenance, Local Community Partnerships will be constituted administration, book keeping, accountancy, all the in the following areas. The urban-based ones will be skills that might be needed to run the completed · in Liverpool, Manchester, Northern Ireland, Sheffield, project. Employment of staff, ways of developing Strathclyde, West Glamorgan. The rural-based ones facilities to reduce dependence on outside sources for will be in Humberside, Wiltshire, Yorkshire. The revenue funding. All are unfamiliar roles that the National Community Partnership is already assessing community might have to take upon itself to make community needs in these areas. A Liverpool local sure that their project can operate once capital works community partnership will be led by local black and have been completed. The fund will establish local ethnic minority organisations. The Local Community accountability for the promotion, administration, Partnerships will be constituted as satellite agencies distribution and monitoring of National Community of the National Community Partnership. Each will be Aid Funds monies. made of a steering committee of representatives of The decisions on how National Community Aid local community, voluntary, professional and Funds monies will be spent will be made at the local statutory agencies and the private sector. A steering level not by a remote national body, but by people's hcommittee will be responsible for the promotion, control. The fund will positively discriminate in liaison, administration and distribution of National favour of disadvantaged sections of the community, Community Aid Fund monies to community groups in particular black and ethnic minority groups, to meet community needs of their area. The local women and the disabled. The fund will develop and steering committee will be accountable to the steering extend networking both nationally and locally committee of the National Committee Partnership amongst professionals and the community. It will who will also monitor progress. The fund will encourage the philosophy of working together, and supplement and extend existing sources of finance raise awareness of the techniques of participation and resources available locally for community amongst professionals. regeneration and initiative, it will not replace them. It ·, How has the fund been established? The National will lubricate the parts of the system existing Community Aid Fund is an unique initiative which resources fail to reach. Discretion will remain with has been put together during the last twelve months the steering committee of each local partnership on by the recently established National Community the appropriate use of its funds. The local community Partnership, the NCP. A partnership of national partnerships might also raise additional funds of their voluntary organisations and professional bodies own from local firms and trusts. committed to pooling their experience of working So what will the community groups get from the with communities. David Howell, Deputy Director fund? Whether a community group lives in the inner of the National Federation of Community Organisa city or outer council estate, on the urban fringe or in a tions, is its Chairman. Pravin Kapadia of the rural area, multi-disciplinary, community support National Council for Voluntary Organisations is services are essential to cope with the range of issues treasurer. The National Community Partnership is facing local groups wishing to tackle self-help, registered as a company limited by guarantees to building or environmental projects. To be successful, operate on a non-profit-making basis, and is seeking community groups have to tackle all aspects of charitable status. The National Community Partner assessing feasibility, undertaking capital works, ship members will make their expertise available on a fund-raising, management and maintenance. This voluntary basis to develop the fund. Other requires integration of a wide range of technical, organisations are invited to join this partnership. We financial, organisational, educational, legal and 88 .. SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES professional support. The professional support CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed, Christine. services required will come from various sources Now, I think almost everyone in the hall has sent me a within the voluntary and professional sectors. piece of paper and I must plead with people as they National Community Aid Fund monies will not go make contributions to be aware of that fact. The directly into their development and extension but objective now is to get the views of everyone in the they will go through the steering committee to local hall in so far as we can, and not to hog the limelight. community groups for them to choose the most First however, I would like to ask Pravin Kapadia to appropriate services for their needs, whether they are add something to what Christine has just said. Could from their local Community Technical Aid Centre or you be very brief please. other voluntary aid agency, or advisory services, or from professionals in the private sector. Obviously the steering committees of the local community PRAVIN KAPADIA partnerships will have a role to play in passing on My name is Pravin Kapadia. I am the honorary information on appropriate local support services. treasurer of the National Community Partnership National Community Aid Fund monies will however that Christine was talking about. I will look after the stimulate the development and integration of this money. I have a cheque book, please give me the network. money: I will give you credit for helping. Please note How much is needed? This is the real crunch of the that Christine talked about half a million pounds for matter. The National Community Partnership is about nine projects which have been costed out in appealing for half a million pounds to channel detail; there is no up-in-the-air unreality about it. It is monies into the pilot local community partnerships sealed, concretely sealed on a piece of paper and we during the first twelve months of operations. have evaluated it; we have been working for twelve Thereafter an income of a minimum of three and a months. We did not have a meeting this week to start half million pounds per annum will be needed to a major initiative; we have been working at it for support and develop the community and initiatives in more than a year and we have got the infrastructure these areas. It is proposed that each local partnership ready. (APPLAUSE) will run for three years; more will be set up as funding We are not asking for big money. I am trying to permits. redress the balance. The Prince himself, the big I am asking you for your support to ensure this people, the private sector people aU talk of the big source of funding for community support services: to money, we are talking to you about your petty cash. pave the way for a more radical overhaul of the way We want that money. If you give us three billion that our environment is shared and resources pounds we don't know how to cope with it. But we distributed. We need financial support, secondment will cope responsibly with your petty cash. ,- of staff from commerce and industry, secretarial, (LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE). administrative, marketing, fund-raising and promo tional tasks. We need office space for a small ,- headquarters in London, and perhaps for the steering committees in the local community partnership ,- areas. We need sponsorship. Other voluntary and professional organisations are invited to join the members of the National Community Partnership to widen and strengthen the interest in concern of the fund. Does this approach work? Yes, it does. The conference has shown that there is a new generation of community projects commissioned by, not for, local residents which proves what can be achieved when resources and control are handed over to the community. It is a long-term process; it is an educational process. But so much more could be done if more resources were available to channel positively the ideas, enthusiasm and energies of community groups into lasting survival projects. The National Community of Partnerships asks the Prince's Inner City Trust, other private companies and charitable trusts for support to give communities this opportunity. Thank you. 89 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES Just one more thing. I do not want to compete with God or Bob Geldof or any of you people. We are simple and we will throw out the financial infrastructure without which many schemes fail. We will look after your money, we will have it audited and we will give you work with the communities identified by the Pilot Local Community Partner ships. And another thing, we are rulers in our own cities, inner cities. We are rulers as well. Please, please listen to us. And if anybody wants to contact any of us please look at the booklet and please fill in one of those cards. Please. CHAIRMAN Thank you very much, and very good luck. (LAUGHTER) Now, what I propose to do for roughly the next twenty minutes is to call people from the floor who have sent up pieces of paper. I will call first one person and say who the next couple of people are going to be so that they can move up to the front of the hall to speed things up. I would like people to speak for two minutes. They may speak for three minutes, but after three minutes I will cut them off. So please, please be disciplined. First I would like to ask Susan Fox to come forward, near the front of the hall. She has been working for thirteen years with the Watts Labour Community Action Committee and has a lot of experience, I think, of the relationships and the strains that can develop in those sorts of I learned the hard way that you have to get communities. After that I will ask Sam Webb and involved in the community from the bottom up and a then Basil Clarke to speak. lot of all my academic training (degrees coming out of my ears), had to go right out of the window because I SUSAN FOX had to relearn everything that I had been taught at Good morning. I worked for thirteen years in Watts school. And what I had to relearn was that you have with Ted Watkins and what I would like to do is, from to be pragmatic, you have to adjust, you have to a different slant, complement his wonderful speech respond to a situation and I found myself becoming yesterday. When I went to work for Ted in 1968 I was an expert over night on subjects that I knew nothing a college professor and doing some part-time about. If funding happened to be available, I had to consulting work. I was teaching at Berkeley and that twrite a proposal within the next couple of days and was the time that Berkeley was in a state of unrest and that is what I did. And I think that what we managed I found myself getting tear-gassed almost every day to do, and I'm proud of it, was to provide Ted with and decided in 1970 to go to the relatively calmer area some very sophisticated analysis on reports and of Watts and set up an office for Ted. proposals, so the whole fund-raising aspect, writing Now, a lot of the conversation that I have been proposals, getting projects funded, was a very, very hearing here has been 'who is a community architect important part of my work. and what is a community architect?' I suppose in Another aspect that I would just like to mention: retrospect I was a community architect although I Ted showed you on the slides yesterday, many, many didn't call myself that. We set up an office comprising projects, a tremendous array. Was there a plan architects, planners, sociologists and so on and behind what we were doing? The answer is yes. One of managed to hire the brightest and best students out of the first things I did for Ted was prepare, what UCLA and USC to complement what Ted was doing amounted to a proposal, for some money that the on the organisational level. And I think that one of federal government was going to be providing, and the things that I have heard from a number of this was in 1968 and it was called Special Impact speakers during this conference has been the Funding and we were going after $10 million to set up emphasis from working from the bottom up and the on a whole array of programmes in one. And we did problems that many architects have of being too this report, and in it we outlined basically the divorced from the real situation. philosophy behind the projects that we wanted to do 90 .. SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES and they ranged from housing to shopping centres, to parks, a whole array of things, and we wrote this report and sent it in. We didn't get our money but what came out of it was that report - even though it gathered dust on a shelf, and hardly any of us read it became a kind of framework for all the projects that we subsequently developed. In subsequent years we did work on real physical plans and I feel personally that good planning is terribly important. We laid out a plan for one of the most important projects that we did in Watts which is the area around what became the Martin Luther King hospital. And we targeted it, we did drawings showing conceps of what could be done and over the years as funding became available we managed to put them into the effect with the bell ringing. Let me just finally summarize by saying that I think if you are going to be a community architect the first thing that you have got to do is leave your ego behind. There is no way you can carry it. You can't carry that through the door. You have just got to learn to do that. Thank you. CHAIRMAN Sam Webb, and after, Basil Clarke and David Gardner. SAM WEBB Well, I'm an architect and in 1979 there was no building and so I decided that I would change my role that the polythene in the window dicln't melt and the and I went into creative demolition. Now I believe in fire brigade and the building research establishment creative demolition you have got to work from the had to throw petrol through a broken piece of glass top down. (LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE). Near into this flat and there were dials and it looked like the here, about a hundred yards away, there is a graphic control panel of the Concorde. Now from the top of illustration of the housing problem outside the those blocks you can see a lot of money being spent in Dominion Cinema; there is a British Telecom box full Docklands and that's like a golden necklace except of cardboard boxes and a man lives in it. He sells it's strangling the people of East and South London, chestnuts. That's the scale of the problem. it's like a tourniquet. And what can they see from the In 1983 I met two remarkable women, Sue top of their blocks, except the places where they used MacDowell, of the Newham Tower Tenants to work and the jobs have disappeared. At the same Campaign, and Francis Clarke, from Community time smart young men, well-heeled, a hundred Links. We got together at a conference and at that thousand pounds a year, are shuffling paper money conference I made some comments about system around the City of London. They are sending .- building in this country. We had about two hundred aeroplanes full of bombs and guns to Iran people turn up and I met Fred Jones who was (APPLAUSE). They go power-boat racing and skiing Chairman of Housing and Jean Reeves who was Vice in the Alps. Have you ever seen anyone in East Ham Chair of Housing and the tenants asked me to do a on skis? (LAUGHTER). Heseltine came .. . survey about Ronan Point because I had made Some material has been lost at this point predictions about the behaviour of the structure and they said it happened. In August we opened up Ronan Point. Twenty years Now I heard a new phrase yesterday, a man came it's taken me. Alan Thompson from Building Design up here and he said, I'm not an architect, I don't think came and Charles Knevitt. I invited them. What did he was a hippy and he talked about a cocktail of we find when the first panels came off? Not concrete. finance, so I suppose he must be a Yuppie. Anyway, Not Blue Circle cement but Blue Circle cement bags, we haven't had much money down there but the newspapers. The most sensible comment I have ever Building Research Establishment, if Mr Patten is heard on Ronan Point came from a caretaker where I listening, spent £200,000 on three fire tests. The last teach at Canterbury School of Architecture. He one in Merith point was on Tuesday. It was so cold looked at the photograph last week and said, 'I know 91 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES what that is, that's piece work'. Think about it. That scheme was a partnership between Newham and Taylor Woodrow Anglian. In fact through the court case, even the insurance was a partnership except Taylor Woodrow wouldn't pay the subscription and Newham had to pay it. We don't want that again. When Ronan Point fell down the Evening Standard had a headline - three words - Why? Why? Why? Why has it taken so long and that's a question as much addressed to Margaret Thatcher as it is to Kinnock- it must be addressed to Heath, Wilson and Callaghan. We got a letter from John Patten. He said to the local MP, 'Don't know what all the fuss is about. We knew about this in 1968.' They've had a public enquiry, they've had a high court-fifteen year court case. People have become very very rich. Ted spoke yesterday about Broadwater Farm. I went to see it in '68. Same system as Ronan. Exactly the same. In Glasgow I inspected some REEMA blocks. They're 67 per cent over-stressed in wind. That letter, those calculations were done in December 1968. What happened? What advice was given to Glasgow? Vandalism is causing so much damage to those blocks that you'd better move the people in. They're still there. We've found blocks of flats in Waltham Forest should have had the gas taken out. Still got us or trying to push us further down into the ground them in. Three in Norman Tebbit's constituency. and something that I found that was missing from There's a picture there taken in Canning Town 1937, this conference was the insurance implication. When the year that I was born. It shows a finger pointing at we rebuild in Lazells Road and as the shops get back a hole in a building. You can see that in tower blocks, into being, we find that you can't insure them. A system-built blocks throughout this country. This typical case is that we have some traders, 20 per cent country has got to change. The riots in Broadwater of them who operate without insurance. One trader Farm and Brixton don't surprise me, don't surprise who last year, before the riots, paid a premium of anyone who's actually gone and walked round and £1250 for insurance cover, no excess and no co spent time in those places. I've got a photograph at insurance. He is now being asked £7500,£5000 excess home. It shows two Heinkel bombers. They're over and 10 per cent co-insurance. That means he has to the Royal Docks. I've even got the Luftwaffe map. pay 10 per cent of any claim he makes. They're dropping bombs and the site below them is The question that I would like to ask the where Ronan Point stands. Look at the LDDC plans conference is how are we going to regenerate the inner and they bear an uncanny resemblance. There's one city areas if we can't get insurance cover for the and you can see Canary Wharf, higher than the Eiffel buildings that we put up and the wares that we put in Tower. Not many people know what is going to them to sell? In Birmingham we have a street called happen when that comes. We don't want that again. Hope Street and the sad thing is that at the bottom of this street there is a no entry sign. Prior to the 25th of BASIL CLARKE June we had a lot of problems in Handsworth and I My name is Basil Clarke and I'm from the Local can say if it wasn't for the intervention of the Prince Traders Association and as you know we have some coming into Handsworth and seeing the problem, riots in Lazellsland on the 9th and lOth September things wouldn't have speeded up one little bit. So we 1985 when we lost some forty-four buildings and know that the Prince's intervention does work and eighty million pounds worth of damage. Yesterday when I go back to Handsworth, Mr Chairman, I will morning, as I left, I ran into one trader who has be telling my traders that I told Sid and I saw the traded in Lazells for thirty-five years. I normally say Prince as well. (APPLAUSE). I'm going to tell Sid, so he says, 'tell the Prince as well'. So's that's why I'm here today. CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed. Next One of our problems in Birmingham is that whilst David Gardener who is Chairman of the St Martins we are trying to build from the bottom up we find also Estate Tenants' and Residents' Association in South that there is somebody either trying to throw a slab at London. 92 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES The aim of architects must be to dissolve the grim outlines of estates, to dissolve the ghetto perception which people who live on estates and people who bypass the estates on the way to the leafy suburbs of Surrey and Kent have of them; it's very important that the ultimate objective of architect's work is to break down this division between inner city estates and the neighbourhoods of which they form part. The people of the estates, of the inner cities, have the same aspirations and hopes for themselves and their children as the people who live in the surrounding community. I would say also to architects, please let people have an opportunity to express their individuality with things like colouring their own doors in their own bright colours, having window boxes, what I call 'vertical landscaping' as well as 'horizontal landscaping'. Regard blocks not as a uniform collection of identical units but really as an aggregate of people's homes which express the tastes and hobbies of the people who actually live in them. I'd also put in a word for security which I haven't heard really mentioned at this conference so far. It is a fact of life on inner city estates that security is a tremendous problem these days; it bears very heavily DA\VID GARDENER on the old, and on young people with small children Conference, I would like first to congratulate the and I would urge architects always to bear in mind the organisers on this much needed and excellent importance of security for tenants and residents on conference. I speak as Chairman ofSt Martins Estate estates. which is one of the biggest estates in South London, To housing officers and planners 1 would say this. indeed in the whole of London. It's an ex-GLC estate. The social fabric of estates is every bit as important as Two years ago we decided, as a Tenants' Association, the physical fabric. The body of tenants is a vast that the estate was at the crossroads and could either mosaic of people, of ages, of experience, of improve or it could go further downhill into a state of minorities, of hopes, of skills, of advantages, of terminal decline. We decided it was important to disadvantages. Not all people on estates are saints work with members of the council, to work with the and not all of them are shiftless scroungers. The mix officers of the council, with community bodies, to has to be considered with enormous sensitivity and involve them, as I put it, 'at the coal face', to bring discretion. To an estate like St Martins, new tenants them out of their offices onto the estate, to work with who come who are prepared to put down roots, to us and we've achieved wonders since we adopted this decorate their homes, to make neighbourly contact policy. with the people who live round. They're like maron The officers and members of Lambeth Council are grass; they bind the estate together like a shifting not the ogres they're sometimes painted as, they're as sandback and they're like gold to a place like St much a resource within the community as other Martins. So I urge housing officers and planners skilled people and we believe it's important to everywhere to consider this when they're allocating acknowledge this. I would say, therefore, to other flats and homes on estates. tenants' associations: please address the substance of To the city I would say this. We're often told that the problem on inner city estates, don't get involved this city is awash with money. I think the City must in theory or confrontation with members, it's sterile, consider its own interest at least, and the long-term it's not constructive. implications are very evident and almost grotesque in And I'll address ifl may, quickly, these suggestions balance between the prosperity and prospects to other bodies who are involved in the inner city between it and the ring of decay, deprivation and debate. To architects I would say, people who live on disadvantage which surrounds it. I want to see the estates are a central resource on which communities day when on an estate like St Martins, as we renew are built as much as the bricks and mortars. They and rebuild the blocks, a sign on the scaffolding on contain the hopes and aspirations of people who are the blocks, proclaims, 'This is an inner city no different from people who live in surrounding partnership project funded by the London Borough neighbourhoods, often gentrified neighbourhoods. of Lambeth, The Department of Environment and .. 93 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES Midland Bank or Prudential Insurance or GEC or Sainsbury,' and that way it seems to me that's where the money should go. Not on sponsoring horse races and snooker. Thank you. RICHARD ALEXANDER Thanks. I'm here on behalf of the Bingham Tenants' Association which is a local group in Edinburgh. So I'm speaking for them at the same time. I want to talk about private developers. The first scheme in Scotland was handed over to private developers by the previous Tory administration. We've heard a lot of good things about private money going in. But we've not heard good things or had good experiences with private money because they bought these houses for next to nothing, they were good, solid brick houses. They then got 95 per cent local authority grants and then they were making £10,000-£15,000 a house. I can hear the developers, if there are any in here, licking their lips and wishing they were up there making that sort of money. And we all know that local authorities can renovate the schemes, we've done that in Edinburgh ourselves with what little funds we have available, much better, much cheaper than that. and the joiners. The government isn't taking this The truth is, in Edinburgh the houses are falling common-sense course for the simple reason it's got a down faster than we can put them up. The policy for maintaining high unemployment. And we government funds have been cut, we can't raise rates all know that. And it's not been articulated here so and the Rate Support Grant has been cut by over 20 far. Scotland is an industrial wasteland purely per cent. The first building that's been taking place in because of government policy. It's written Scotland six years is now underway: And it's not being done off, and of course the Scots have written the with government money. We've had to raise it by government off. Which is more important. hawking our future and raising money through a Now we're here with the Bingham Tenants because covenant scheme we've got from our traditional they themselves, along with the local authority, have allies, the Japanese. planned and are building their own community. They Rod Hackney says that people should go back to are fully involved in it. But yesterday afternoon, school. Well I tell you, Mr Hackney, we've got instead of staying on in here, because it's a bit tatty plumbers, we've got brickies, we've got joiners, we've and it was a lousy lunch, it wasn't worth five pounds. got carpenters. They don't want to go back to school, (APPLAUSE). If you don't want to pay £5 today, go they want to go back to work. back and see the organisers because I got £40 back And I'll you something. I mean we could stand from them. (CHEERS). So we took a red city bus and shoulder to shoulder from Solway Firth along went round the town, because that was more Hadrian's Wall to Newcastle, and they don't want to enlightening. We saw Garrards, the Royal Jewellers. get on their bikes and come and work down in the We saw the City, where all the 'get rich quick boys' Pizza Hut in Soho. (APPLAUSE). Or become a are working for a hundred thousand a year. And they butler for some Lady Muck in Buckinghamshire. wouldn't need a hundred thousand a year filling in They want real jobs. They don't want to do the sort British Airways flight bags, I can tell you that much. the jobs that have been suggested they do by the Then we went south of the river and saw flats made government. Lord Scarman mentioned these two from warehouses - the cheapest were two hundred hundred pounds a week families living in single thousand pounds. And they had a feeling of outrage, rooms. They've got them in Edinburgh as well. And anger, disgust and obscenity at the tasteless display of the private Rachmans up in Edinburgh, there are wealth. And the only tasteless display we were spared many of them. And yet what we have are there was seeing Margaret Thatcher's £500,000 house and because the government would rather pay these it must be tasteless because she's got Barratt to build Rachmans as blood money than to give the local it for her. authorities and private housing associations the The Bingham Tenants of Edinburgh and all the freedom to build houses, to employ all the brickies other tenants, they want some structural change to 94 .. SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES city. They live at the margins, their marginal existence, there's a danger about aid as a concept of patronising people who cannot compete. These people can compete. You people can compete. You don't need community architects. Get up off your backsides and do it. CHAIRMAN We now have the, we won't say the star of this morning's show because we are all stars, but the Minister of Housing. I don't think it would be uncontroversial to say the Ministers of Housing have, perhaps they share with the Ministers for the Arts, the title of most unpopular job in most governments. Housing policy has never been a strong suit of most governments, and I think I wouldn't be too controversial in saying it hasn't been the strongest suit of this government. However, I would say by way of politeness to our guest, that I think John Patten has begun to grapple with some of the problems thrown up by housing policy in the course of this administration and we haven't seen yet the full outcome of that titanic grappling, but maybe he'll give us some progress come about. And they've yet to hear (because we report on it today. He is a very determined Housing missed it yesterday afternoon), they've yet to hear Minister and we're very keen to know what he's got to anything here which will bring this about. Anything say to us. John Patten. that will bring about a fundamental change in the real, actual living conditions. And I heard somebody JOHN PATTEN Minister of State for Housing, this morning say something to us which was about, Urban Affairs and Construction. you can go to the bank and get loans and do all sorts Thank you very much. of things, that is to completely misunderstand and Nothing like being introduced by an old friend to get not be aware of how people are living today. A bank the truth spoken. Well, as Simon obviously meant to is as alien to us unemployed people in Scotland as the say, I'm from the government and I'm here to help in moon is to most of us here. Thank you. every way. I hope that most people here today are here because they share the stated aim of one of the MIKE FRANKS stated aims of the organisers, and I quote that 'the Lord Scarman said we had a fairy prince here. We're environment works better if the people who live, in danger in dreamland. The Rev. Dr Hackney is in work and play in it are actively involved in its creation danger of keeping everything on fairyland level. and management instead of being treated as passive What inner city? What's actually happening to cities? consumers' and that's certainly a belief which I share. People are racing cities towards the twenty-first It's a belief which underpins the many initiatives century and abandoning the nineteenth century bits which successive governments have launched to try to that don't fit . The new walled cities will have nothing help field communities, particularly in the inner cities to do with the people who are here, and what's left and some of you will have seen our exhibition, the .- over they can play with. That's fine, you can have Government's Urban Programme, Action for Cities, self-management there. What's at stake is taking during this conference. back ordinary people's involvement in the every-day But there's a huge community of interest between life of cities and while we talk about the inner city and all the agencies involved in the regeneration of urban don't talk about cities, we're finished. areas, and time and time again we've seen the impact I have had the privilege of going around America that local residents, locally based industry and on a Churchill Scholarship. I'm very pleased I didn't voluntary groups can actually have when they get have the time to look properly. If you look there you together through individual projects which respond see levels of abandonment not in the inner city, not in to local needs, through a bottoms up approach, I the central but at the perimeter. Those are the places understand it's fashionably known as now. The there where the Puerto Ricans in the South Bronx and influence I think which these can have on local and Skid Row, the Hispanics, in Detroit and Louisville central government programmes and initiatives is and the blacks no longer have a serious stake in their very important, so lots of different approaches to lots 95 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES of different problems, no one solution, no magic ment, the Department of the Environment, must take solutions, that's why we certainly welcome very much its share of the blame and, in an all-party spirit, I'll the new Inner City Trust. say both Conservative and Labour governments with I think that the Trust is going to operate, in any local authorities for the creation of these estates. And event, on fertile ground because the DOE's urban for too long the dominating motif of successive programme at the moment, spending more than £300 housing ministers and of chairmen of Tory and million a year, £40 million more coming next year, Labour local authorities has been the numbers motif; has already got 3,500 projects directly involving local the ability, the desire to build a record number of communities on the ground at the moment. That homes, the national numbers game, you know - doesn't mean that everything has got to be locally 'we're going to have so many hundred thousand community based. We've obviously got to regenerate homes built this year'. What we all too often urban economies as well on a much larger scale, overlooked collectively over about the last thirty particularly in areas of massive dereliction, hence our years, was that none of these so-called dwelling units, four new urban development corporations. The and there's a phrase to think about, were any use approaches don't conflict, they're complementary, unless people actually enjoyed living in them. We they're part of the jigsaw, and the one leads into the didn't need dwelling units, we needed homes and we other and leads back into the other. needed communities, so many of you will know that But what I want to concentrate on today is our own our major response to this problem of the inner and government approach to building communities, outer city estates in our big, built-up urban areas was particularly on local authority housing estates in to launch the Urban Housing Renewal Unit to help England where some four million people live at the local authorities to actually get to grips with the moment. I think in recent years most of you would problems of some of these estates, to try to rebuild recognise that in many of our bigger council estates in confidence in them and indeed to start from the the inner city, but the last speaker in the debate before bottom and try to rebuild the communities in some this session started, said, 'we shouldn't talk all the run-down estates. It made a very promising start. It time about the inner city because there are lots of was set up under George Young's lead, and it really problems in the outer city as well on some of the has done a lot, I think, in its first year. bigger estates there'. I've now taken personal responsibility for the unit We have to tackle those and I think, in many of the and I want to try and build on its progress so far. I inner and outer housing estates, we have reached a certainly want more people and particular tenants to 'crisis of confidence'. But that's what I think. I think know about this rather inaccessible sounding unit, an awful lot of people, not only living in those estates, 'The Urban Housing Renewal Unit' - what it can but people who are well-informed not living in those actually do, why it exists in the first place and most of estates, no longer believe that those estates can all I want people to know that its solutions can work actually ever provide a decent home to live in or a even on very unpopular estates full of hard-to-let community in which they'd like to live or they'd like houses, voids and all the rest of it. And probably quite their children to live in and we know all about the a good thing to do to make it more accessible would graffiti and the heroin and the litter-strewn be to change its name because Urban Housing environment and all the rest of it. I really have to say Renewal Unit, or UHRU as it's known to civil that I do think it was wrong of all of us to put so much servants, is an extremely inaccessible kind of name, so money into building the last twenty or thirty years' we'll keep its formal title but we're going know the worth of large estates, although I'm sure if I'd been units from now on as 'Estate Action'. around as one of those despairing housing ministers So Estate Action is going to help develop, I think, twenty or thirty years ago that Simon Jenkins much more appropriate local solutions. How can it referred to, I would probably have been part of the do that? How can it ensure that it keeps its sights consensus which thought at the time that it was a firmly fixed and how can our civil servants, with the good thing to do. I'm speaking with the benefit of money that they've got, keep their sights firmly fixed hindsight. on the ultimate objective to make estates decent I think those estates were really wrong because they places within which people can live, where provided the wrong sort of environment. They didn't communities can grow and thrive? give people the homes in which they could feel pride Well, in the first year, we've actually got some in living in and I think they were designed and built results. We've actually done some things in the first and, very often since then, they've actually been twelve months with quite large amounts of public managed without proper regard for the desires and money and perhaps I could just run through these for the preferences of the most important group, the very quickly. On Merseyside, first of all, we've got people who actually live in those homes. And I really community refurbishment schemes. That's one very recognise that central government and my depart- important thing that we are trying to do supported by 96 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES has actually been with the co-operation between the public and private sector, revitalised, producing sheltered homes in public housing stock for elderly people and starter homes for people who want to own their own homes for the first time in the private sector. And the sort of messages that I want very much to promote in the next year or so through Estate Actions endeavours is that the simple message to tenants that their plight is not forever, the situation's not hopeless, they are not helpless, if they would take the opportunity which should be there if local authorities, central government and others will let them, to play a bigger part in improving and running their own estates. Now, in order to do this we have produced a video and the world premier of this video will be taking place up the road at 12.30 today in the YMCA in the Queen Mary Hall and it looks at the kind of things that I've just been talking about in the Wirral and in Liverpool and in Rochdale and other parts of the country where there's been marked tenant involve ment, and it's simply called' A Change for the Better' and we are going to send that to every local authority in the country. If anyone wants to have copies of that the MSC and by the Urban Programme to enable when they've seen it, they can obtain the copies from residents without a job actually to carry out us to show to their own tenants' organisations and improvements on their own estate where they live, in groups around the country. It's going today to every order to improve their own particular environment. local authority in England too, with a request that it And there's a very good example going on at the should be made widely available to offices and to moment that we are funding, on the Four Acres tenant groups and to others. Estate in St Helens. What Estate Action has done, I think, in its first Secondly, I think there's a more radical solution year then, is to have made a pretty good start in that we can do and that's to encourage and promote tackling the problems of our run-down estates and more non-profit distributing trusts to run their own the great thing is that it has been warmly received by communities where there's the desire by the authorities of all political colours. Some local community and it's not obviously an easy thing to do. authorities haven't wanted to have anything to do Thamesmead, I suppose, is really the only example with it at all but there have been authorities under all we've got of this on any scale in South London, and forms of political control who have been working the Thamesmead Trust is going to own as well as with it and I think that's a very good augury for the manage the whole area and it's going to be run by the future. It's visited a hundred and thirty local local community on an elected basis. authority areas so far and we are actually funding Then I suppose, thirdly, where some kind of schemes already in eighty-five local authority areas transfer of ownership is not actually involved, we can up and down the country. Some forty million pounds do very much more to get tenant management co is pledged already and that's actually going to help operatives actually to take over the running of the forty-five thousand homes in different estates up and estates in which they live. A good example of one we down the country. And we've been trying to get more funded in the first year of the Urban Housing money into the system. We have given local Renewal Unit is at Cloverhall in Rochdale. And here authorities additional resources through the Urban the local authority is given a budget from the local Housing Renewal Unit earlier this year, in particular authority money to the tenants and then they're to try to help the homelessness problem, and we've budgeting the running of their own affairs. put a lot of money out in the London area. Some And fourthly, we can get the simple renovation of London Boroughs have accepted this money very an estate in partnership with a private builder. One warmly and only yesterday I announced quite a lot of very good example we've helped with here is in the money for Newham Borough who wanted to make Wirral where at the Woodchurch Estate in the use of specifically targeted money that we are making Wirral, the core of an estate, extremely unpopular, available through Estate Action to bring back into totally run down, full of empty and vacant properties, use flats and houses which are empty at the moment, 97 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES for housing the homeless- which is one way of getting into rebuilding some sort of community in those areas. Alas, some London Boroughs haven't been so keen on the idea and we've had a raspberry from Brent, Camden and Lambeth in particular. I think it's a terrible shame, when other London Boroughs - Newham, Greenwich, Tower Hamlets- have been co-operating. What we're going to do is to build on the success of the Urban Housing Renewal Unit the newly renamed Estate Action, in order to, in its second year, spend more public money in co-operation with local authorities to try to work with local authorities and with the communities, wherever the initiative comes from, in order to try to transform some of our estates in the inner and outer city areas. We're going to have more financial assistance and we've decided in the coming financial year we're going to increase the amount of money that can be spent in the next financial year from fifty million to seventy-five million pounds. I think that if local authorities continue to receive the unit as warmly as they have done to date, and if they continue to give the tenants, the most important success. You can imagine what life is like for them, group of all, the say in what they should be doing - because Tower Hamlets has the highest proportion of and there are some very paternalistic authorities of tower blocks and flats to houses in the country. And both political colours up and down the country who these people have been hoping for years to move back simply don't want to give tenants more of a say and into the small houses that were traditional in the East more of an input - then I think we can begin to see End. And then comes Docklanos and there is the confidence restored, if only we can get that very fertile hope of new housing. And the new houses begin and working relationship that we've seen in some areas they run down the road and they find they're ten or between local communities, between local authorities twenty thousand pounds more than they can afford. and also between central government. And three years ago when not a single member of the Isle of Dogs had been able to afford a house, other ·· CHAIRMAN The Minister has got to flee the lions den than a few very small starter homes of six hundred to before the lions have a chance to draw their claws, but seven hundred square feet, when the real requirement thank you very much indeed for coming, John Patten. of course is for family houses for people with kids, Housing policy is becoming more 'user friendly' at when in fact there was no family housing available, last. The video I gather is being shown at 12.30 up the we decided that we would start our own local road as announced. community self-build before 'community self-build' Now I propose to take just a few more of the people was an in-word. And we went to the LDDC and after who asked to speak earlier in the day and then at a year and a halfs procrastination they have actually 12.00 we'll have some announcement about the provided us with a site. International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. The price of land at that time was a hundred and I'd like to start, ifl may with, Michael Barraclough seventy-five thousand pounds an acre. There was a from the Isle of Dogs. tremendous local response. The Isle of Dogs, like most East End communities, has a lot of artisans, MICHAEL BARRACLOUGH bricklayers, carpenters, so you could build a balanced The availability of cheap land is crucial for the building team. But the number that we could get onto regeneration, by their own efforts, of many our first site of forty-six was totally inadequate. We communities in the inner city. The real problem is went to the LDDC and we immediately asked them, that in the inner city land is actually often the most and this was actually in November of last year, for expensive and in order to do anything they have to another site to take on another thirty-five. They use publicly owned land. Now I come from the Isle of procrastinated because like all big organisations Dogs, from that part of Docklands which is often they're distrustful of people generating their own thought of as a great success by the Government. But housing. We badgered them and badgered them for the local community there it is anything but a because we knew that the price of land was rising. 98 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES Seven months later in May, they gave the go-ahead. commissions, going to be cautious about identifying The price of land had then moved from the rear land with community groups? off the river, from one hundred and seventy-five thousand to five hundred and fifty thousand. Land DAVID HALL on the river had moved from £350,000 to £1.25 I think the answer to Bill's question in a sense is no. It million an acre. It was very difficult to manage that is a co-incidence that our grant for the planning aid sort of land price but eventually we thought we would unit was stopped round about the same time as the just about be able to do it. And then the planners held Divis victory was achieved. However, it is no less things up and we missed the time of the District deplorable for all that because our planning aid unit, Valuer. He gave a three month deadline. So once our national planning aid unit, has been building up again the land price had risen. And here you have a an extensive network of voluntary planning aid situation in which local communities who can get on groups throughout the country and there are still with things (and the first Associations are in fact enormous gaps in the national network and further building their houses magnificently- at under half of funding for these initiatives is desperately needed, as I · what a developer would charge) are now actually said in my paper. prevented because of the District Valuer's valuation. As for the second part of the question. I would have ' We have to, somehow or the other, bring down the thought that any consultant architect or planner price ofland so it can be socially used. (APPLAUSE). worth his salt is not going to be put off by a threat of In the case of Docklands, the situation actually is this kind, or indeed a risk of this kind, and I would as follows on the Isle of Dogs. Docklands was meant hope that no government worth its salt would indeed to bring housing, it was meant to bring jobs. All the withdraw support on those grounds. sites in which the people worked on the river, the Nantans Timber Yards, Newcal Pine Furniture CHAIRMAN There's another question from Michael Manufacturers, Borrills Paint Factory, firm after Burton of ABK Architects. Could David Hall fill out firm have closed down because the land price is so how he sees urban parishes being developed, since high that they can get a lot more by just selling up and they're certainly essential? · getting out. There will be no local industry left on the Isle of Dogs. This magnificant idea has actually DAVID HALL effectively resulted in greater unemployment. The It's a big and complex subject. In a nutshell, I would one thing that they might have hoped for was that say that there should be a revival of the Bill which was they would get some housing - now even that is put forward in 1984, I think by Lord Mackintosh, the denied them. Urban Parishes Bill, the essential ingredient of which We have got to redress the land price to give these was that the initiative for the creation of an urban people the opportunity to house themselves in an parish could come from the local people themselves exciting and interesting manner. rather than have to depend upon the initiative of the District Council. I would say one additional thing, CHAIRMAN There are a number of questions for the though, and that is that District Councils must Minister already and he's gone. I can only say to those somehow relieve themselves of this panic, this year people who've sent questions to the Minister that I they have of the idea of urban parishes, as though will forward them on to him, including the question somehow this is going to take power from them and from Claudia Bloom, 'Why did the Government not reduce their role. The word 'partnership' has been see fit to send Nicholas Ridley to speak to us rather echoed time and again and that's what it should be than a housing minister?' He is, in fairness, the partnerships between the district councils and new Housing Minister, however, and we'll get an answer urban parishes and neighbourhood councils operating to that as well. But there have been lots of questions at the local level through the local councillors and to David. Very briefly, David, can you just give a with the area resource budgets that I referred to in my reply to a couple of them? paper. Thank you. I'd better say what the questions were first though. There's one from Desmond Loffrage of the Northern CHAIRMAN I'd now like to ask Leighton Andrews, Ireland Housing Executive. who's Director of the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless, to say a few words briefly about Is it true that government grant for the Town and that. After that I'm going to ask Hannah Boweth and Country Planning Association has been terminated James Lethon if they want to make a contribution. as a result of the Association's efforts in having the Thank you. Divis Flats Complex in Belfast demolished and if so, are consultant architects, planners, etc. who depend LEIGHTON ANDREWS to some extent on government and local government This is an international conference and part of this .. 99 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES conference's programme has been to act as a curtain Now we feel quite regardless of, in contradiction of raiser for next year's United Nations International what the Minister has said, that the Government is Year of Shelter for the Homeless which Lord about to abolish council housing if it can. It will never Scarman launches in this country on January 5th. be able to do it completely but it's going in that Across the world, a hundred million people are direction. " homeless. There are thirty million children on the Now the tenants' movement is totally under streets of Third World countries. Half the population resourced or not resourced at all. Our organisation of Third World cities live in slum and squat has been under-resourced for the last eighteen settlements. Fifty thousand people a day die from months, the National Tenants' Organisation is totally slum related illness. unresourced and is living at the moment on the proceeds of hats that have been passed around by the Some material has been lost at this point Swedish Tenants' Organisation in Sweden. If we had, at any time, a powerful and effective HANNAH BOWETH tenants' organisation in this country, a lot of the . . . as one of its sponsors, I understand its main housing problems we are facing now would never sponsors, is acting both as gamekeeper and poacher have come about in the first place. I don't think there all in one because that particular private developer is a single local authority I can think of which really has collaborated with local authorities, in advance of wants an independent tenants' movement. They do the present legislation which allows things like that to fund federations but they get very upset if the go even further in purchasing council estates which federations criticise them. The tenants' movement the tenants were promised actually that they could go tried to fund itself through a rent levy and hasn't back to because some investors and what have you found real supporters for it, except perhaps for had to be removed from it and this has been done up Sheffield where they had once. . . . It was actually nicely and sold, I think, between seventy and eighty voluntary and has had its teething trouble but it's thousand pounds per two bedroom dwelling. Now certainly better than nothing. the tenants were standing outside at the time. I think I want to say something about training. There are a some of them were also standing outside this lot of training facilities available for housing officers. conference and saying 'where are our homes?'. The I want to tell you actually what we are up against. alternative suitable accommodation available is not Nobody really wants the people who everybody here very good. It is very often worse than where they are talking so blandly about, the communities and all came from and there is hardly any building done in these people at the bottom. The Department of the London at the moment and some councils actually Environment does fund training courses for the don't want to do any. Institute of Housing and the tenants have approached 100 .. SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES the Department of the Environment and asked Brighton are among the two authorities which whether they could not pay the expenses of tenants already have decided to commit themselves to it. going there, that means the fares. They blandly Thank you. refused, bluntly refused, yet all these housing officers from local authorities, there's many of you here, go to CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed. these conferences financed with our rents and our James Latham from Chester. Can I just say before rates. We tenants pay for it. you start. A number of people want to make Yet the tenants themselves cannot go to these announcements. I propose to take that at the end of things. I wanted you to think about it because when the morning session. Please don't use it just as a way they all want to turn around this trend, and I'm all for of advertising your wares. There's a notice board and all these magnificent things that have been said here, a desk outside. So just one or two people who want to how are we going to go about it? say something very particular. I'll take them at the The next thing is training. Tenants need, I don't end of this session. There are still some places on the want to repeat what anybody, what everybody else three workshops, that is 'Architects as Advocates', has said, training, training, training. I think the first 'Rural Communities and the RIBA' and 'The thing that is desperately needed is free, free awareness Problem of Inner Cities'. If you want to attend any of information. There has to be a lot of information these workshops, leave a message with Stella Yarrow going round for all these splendid bodies which we at the notice board or come along to the RIBA at 9.45 have heard about here, all these trusts that are being tomorrow morning. Also, more important, is that formed, to know. They must tell tenants and the there are still some tickets for the party this evening. community at the bottom what is available. The market economy is working and they are now Next you want to train people from this five pounds, so anyone who wants a ticket, please get community because tenants very often feel more one at the enquiries desk. That five pounds includes comfortable when other tenants come and speak to buffet and disco entertainment. them. Even in London, which has much better James Latham from Chester. resources than other places in this country, there is a terrible lack of information, a terrible lack of JAMES LATHAM knowledge about what people can do and what Thank you, Chairman. I have the presumption of people should strike for and I think it's deliberate. speaking again after speaking yesteraay, but I will be What we need most is 'how we did it' literature. In very brief. I want to bring you news of 'The Homes in simple language and a brief language. the City Conference' which we held in Chester, the The last thing I want to say before I cut off, is to tell last day of which was taken up with visits to Housing you about the Tenants' Advisory Service which has Schemes in Manchester and I think some reference to been operating in Scotland and Northern Ireland and that is needed to redress the balance between the we are trying to set something up like that in England. London picture and the provincial one, because It is again the much-used word an 'enabling body' to fundamentally London and the South East are .- get the tenants and local authorities together, not as economically viable. We've heard about the land them and us, but to harmonise their mutual needs and values that are occurring. it will, and it does, help both sides to exchange views. Fundamentally, many of the big industrial cities in It changes the attitude of local officers and helps the north of England are not economically viable tenants with their rights. It is effective and we have under present conditions and with their existing applied to the Department of the Environment for populations. One of the sites we visited was being funding and they have put the blue pencil on so much developed by a private builder and they showed us .· of it that we can only now open a central office four-storey maisonette blocks that had been outside London and cannot actually do much about impossible to let before they took them over. They the regional offices until this develops. were given the benefit of certain Urban Renewal Now if the Government really, as the Minister has Grants and they got all those blocks full of people and said, wants to do something, why are they cutting, they were selling the flats from £16,000 a flat cutting and cutting? Why are they passing legislation upwards. A small flat was up to £30,000 a flat. And which, for the first time, allows local authorities to they gave us full information on the incomes and evict tenants, council tenants and relocate them as an occupations of all the people that had taken those act of law? I leave this for your consideration and dwellings. Now those dwellings could not be let please, when the tenth participation advisory service before the private builder took them over; I asked comes your way, please support it because the where the people had gone - they had all voted with management of it will be local authorities, willing and their feet and just disappeared. They were all vacant, sympathetic local authorities with tenants on a boarded up, four storey blocks built in the fifties and fifty/fifty basis. So far I think Birmingham and sixties. That's the reality in many provincial cities. 101 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES And the point I want to make is this. That it is right unless local planning authorities or the communities and proper to help existing communities, to make themselves do something about it (that unless they those communities viable within the cities. It is not have discretion to say 'no') some traders or young necessarily right and proper to bribe private builders people will lose even more workshops in Covent to fill up the vacant sites in the cities. If those cities are Garden, more dwellings around city centres will be not viable at their original population levels, and lost to commercial offices. Covent Garden was nearly David Hall's point and my point yesterday about destroyed by bad town planning but it was also saved wanting to the city restructured into smaller by good town planning. Thank you. government levels, smaller levels of self-government perhaps, is relevant here because if we leave some of ALEX HARTWELL those areas vacant and make urban farms of them or My question is really directed at the first set of find uses for them, we can better identify the viable speakers we had this morning and it was - 'does the areas between. architect's pride in the building end at handover?' A So that is the message for many of the cities in the great number of community projects have failed, not north of England where population levels have through lack of capital funding but through lack of already dropped by a quarter. Glasgow's gone down revenue funding. If we are aiming to create jobs then from one million to three quarters of a million, this aspect of funding must be tackled and how can Liverpool has gone down from two thirds to half a the Inner City Aid Trust or NCP address this million. Now they're still not viable at those levels so problem'. Admittedly Christine Bailey has expressed we have to be constructive and realistic within that my problem far more eloquently than I am able to do general picture. Thank you. and the NCP does seem to have recognised the plight of voluntary organisations, although I'm a little bit CHAIRMAN concerned that London was omitted from the list. Max Dixon wants to take issues on the Emerald Poplar Play Association are now the proud owners Hatton? I'd then like Alex Hartwell from Poplar to of a beautiful community building, play centre, and speak. letter after letter is sent out from this building requesting revenue aid to keep the centre warm, lit MAX DIXON and insured and a new building in the East End inner Just one quick point on Rod Hackney's ten point city area is not cheap to insure. Nearly every reply we plan. I think it's very important to pick this up get says 'sorry we can't do, but have a couple of because this plan will have a lot of momentum behind thousand pounds instead to buy more equipment to it. In point four, he referred to doing away with insure'. Please change this long-standing tradition, current zoning restrictions. Does he not agree that traditional policy on giving capital money only. We 102 .. SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES need revenue money to survive. I know the argument involved in and we got the City Council to adopt the is that you can't give revenue money because you community, buy some technical aid and last year we don't want our unemployment in subsequent years sent eighty thousand pounds to help that small on your conscience. That's nonsense; City Parochial community build some houses, build a community did help this year and we will try somewhere else next centre. year if only the policy on company giving changes to So if you can apply it in the Third World how much allow revenue money. more necessary is it to apply where we are at this It's all very well having jumble sales for new toys. moment in time? I'm here because I believe in It's very tangible and it's fun, but a jumble sale for community development, I believe in the right of rates is neither fun nor inspiring for all the volunteers every person to achieve their full potential and one of from community groups that help. We should know: the things that would worry me about this conference we are constantly having jumble sales, raffles, etc., is that many of the people who had made that leap and as the Rev. Barry Thorley said earlier on, and I from being totally dependent to some form of think that as we are in Docklands than in an inner city independence may leave everybody else behind. That area, we can be described as a group feeling grave in our anxiety to paint the door the right colour and fundamental injustice and we just do not have the get our window boxes placed in position, we may resources to give generously in these areas. We give forget about the people who are down in the Isle of our help, we give our support. Can you please help us Dogs and who have been ripped off by the politicians when you build these buildings and help us to and their exploiters and by the capitalists down there. preserve the ideas that we discussed in the planning So what I'm saying to you is that technical aid is process. Thank you. absolutely necessary for those people who have not made that leap from total dependence upon a system, CHAIRMAN Well thank you very much. Now Cedric whether it be totally helpless and powerless into that Morrison from Communities Technical Aid wanted position where you and I are at this moment in time to ask a question of Paddy Doherty which really who can come to a conference like this and articulate concerns the extent to which the National Community our needs and who can express ourselves so that we Partnership can use its money to employ experts in its can achieve some kind of impact on the problem. work. Paddy, do you want to answer that? So I'm saying, technical aid, ansi in particular I speak for Northern Ireland, technical aid is an PADDY DOHERTY important element in the development of people Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen. On the because it gives them that tremendous push out of the question of technical aid, I had one amazing example cocoon that they find themselves in of hopelessness of how money can really help communities. During and helplessness, and I say, please help technical aid the course of the famine in Ethiopia, I was filled with wherever you can. Thank you. the horror at it and I decided to use the Christmas period to go there and work. And when I went there CHAIRMAN Nancy Thomas wants to ask a very and worked among the famine victims it was a pertinent question of whether there aren't just too horrifying experience. We were invited to Addis many agencies now milling around in the inner city? r Ababa to meet a small community which was living in such conditions that I have never seen anywhere else NANCY THOMAS in the world in my whole life. There was a programme I hope you will forgive a promotion, but we are which had been drawn up by the University of Addis actually making four films for Channel 4 about the Ababa. It was there, sitting there a package, and we interaction of industrial activity and we hope we will looked at it and we said, okay, let's adopt it and be able to title them 'Industrial Regeneration'. And despite the fact that I'd come from an area where my experience in my research has been that I have there are 80 per cent of the heads of households fallen over so many acronyms of small agencies all unemployed, where if you're over thirty years of age sponsored by government, local authorities, some and you haven't worked during the last twelve times private developers, all of which fall over in ,- months, you may never work in your whole lifetime, trying to do the same thing. That is put money into where youngsters are being reared who have never industry or into enterprise or into housing or into seen their fathers work. We then thought that this was neighbourhood councils, and I just feel that although an ideal opportunity for us who were overpowered, in centralisation is dangerous, some more information a way by the problems that we had, to reach out and about what is available is very important. help someone else, and because we did have some technical expertise, were able to assess the problem. GEORGE CLARK We went back to our local community and we said to Thirty years ago a West Indian who had lived in this the City Council, this is what we have got to get country for twelve years was homeless because of a .- 103 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES man called Rachman. The embryonic community for a few more weeks and talked to them about road organisation said to her 'we will help'. Her reply six safety and drugs and not taking sweets from strangers weeks later was 'how long, 0 Lord, how long?'. That and then after a few weeks he asked them to write a same West Indian woman had three sons. Last week page on the police, and this girl wrote 'coppers is one of those sons was made homeless because of the cunning bastards'. (LAUGHTER). gentrification which is still galloping in North It seems to me that professionals is cunning Kensington. And now his mother again said to me - bastards and one of the things that one has to be very "George, thirty years ago I said to you" and her plea wary of is old dogs learning new tricks and learning today is the same. I welcome the initiative that has language and dressing up things that they are doing been launched at this conference. I welcome the very and continuing to control the power of knowledge many schemes that have come forward. I do not hear and access through sources and so on. the voice of that West Indian mother, I do not hear That was in a personal capacity. I would like to the voice of the homeless, I do not hear the voice of make that quite clear. the powerless who must be empowered, and if this If I can now quote from the New World Health new initiative is launched without not merely giving Organisation Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion. them a voice but bringing those people into the very I quote, 'People cannot achieve their fullest health centre of the decision-making process it will be potential unless they are able to take control of those another hollow fraud. I don't believe it will be things which determine their health. At the heart of because, Ladies and Gentlemen, we have reached a this process is the empowerment of communities, stage where the questions will not be asked, 'how their ownership and control of their own endeavours long, 0 Lord?' Where Broadwater Farm, where and destinies.' I think you can see the link over into Toxteth, where Brixton are mere symptoms of the fire what we've been trying to talk about over the last two that is to come. days and I think it is worth reminding ourselves that The challenge here is not to articulate, not to until after the war in this country the Ministry of define, not to reply, so that the middle classes can rip Health and Housing were one ministry. One of the off the poor from the aid. The question is to get that things that worries me a bit about current aid right down to the roots so that these people are rediscoveries of communities is that professionals are empowered to take action for themselves and I feel redefining things in their own narrow terms and most passionately that after the thirty years of they're not making the linkages between the different struggle some of us have been engaged in, suddenly sectors that need to be made. that voice has reached the national agenda. I do not Now the World Health Organisation Strategy of hear yet from the floor a response to that voice which Health for All by the year 2000 is based on a will actually give power to the people. Ladies and fundamental commitment to equity and on the. Gentlemen, if you won't move aside, if you won't principles of participation by the people in their move over to the side of the people, then the people achieving health for themselves and in breaking down will take action for themselves. That is the message to the barriers between the different sectors to enable Inner City Aid, that is the message that must that to happen. The Healthy Cities Project is a reinforce the desperate plea that Rod Hackney is concrete manifestation of that and it involves the making but most of all, it is the plea of that West collaboration of really quite a large number of cities Indian mother. "How long, oh Lord, how long?" and now from around Europe in developing city-based if you don't answer it they will then begin to take health plans, bypassing the national level in a sense, power for themselves. city-based health plans which take account of the effects of health, of health policy in all the different DR JOHN ASHTON of the World Health areas for which local government is responsible and Organisation. the things that it can achieve at thatlevel. The project If I could just say a few words first in a personal has now spilled over and has become much wider capacity before I speak as co-ordinator of the World than Europe, but the project is there, there is some Health Organisation, Healthy Cities Project. Sitting information in the foyer for people. I want to through the conference over the last twenty-four announce the first United Kingdom Healthy Cities hours, it strikes me from time to time coming back Conference which will be held in Liverpool on the this story about the police response after the riots, the 11-15 May 1987. It's very much in keeping with the need to break down the barriers between the philosophy of Prince Charles yesterday when he said, community and the police. And the story about how 'we've been led by the noses long enough down a path this policeman began to go into one of the schools to which totally ignores the principles of harmony and talk to the kids and he went in the first time and he the well calculated relationship of the parts to the asked the kids to write a page on the police and this whole, rhythm, balance and equilibrium have been girl wrote 'coppers are bastards'. So he was going in missing for too long.' 104 ' SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES It's partly that way oflooking at health, the social of homelessness in the Netherlands. In our country it definition of health as well as medical definition of is more the quality of the housing, the quality of the health, that would be focusing on coming up with environment that is the big item to discuss and not really practical city-based health plans in Liverpool only to discuss, also to fight, even on the streets during that period. There are leaflets available. I hope about. We have, for example, a very important that people from housing and environmental squatter movement trying to take "over abandoned background will see this as an opportunity to join buildings, factory buildings, for example. These together with other professionals from a wide variety groups are developing skills based on this self-help of backgrounds in a combined synthesis of coming to way to do things and our official housing rule, rules take part in the renaissance of public health in this for social housing and subsidising houses don't fit to country. Thank you very much. this movement. The Government is unable, when conflicts arise, to respond directly to these things and CHAIRMAN Thank you. things are smoothed over. In the opinion of some Mr Deelstra from the Netherlands. Mr Deelstra had groups in society, this process of smoothing and the mortifying experience of losing his slides at coming to compromises is dangerous because it's Heathrow yesterday. He has all our sympathies. I'm massaging away the real conflicts underneath, the very sorry about that. real options, what you have to do and what you want with society. MR T. DEELSTRA Well I was impressed by what was shown and I would like to give a very short statement about the talked about these days. It is very moving. I think I situation in the Netherlands; maybe somewhere else would like also to make a critical remark from our on the continent, too, in relation to community Dutch experience that it might be too concentrated architecture and planning and design. I've been active on housing, on the roof above your head and on the in this field since the late 'sixties and, as you might community, the social community you live in. Of know, a lot of projects were realised in the course, it is of primary importance to be able to Netherlands. But I realise, listening these two days develop yourself as a person and to do this, you need about experience here in the United Kingdom, that a good place, a good territory, you need a good social there might be also a big difference; maybe, for community to live in and work in; you need good example, in the Netherlands the contrast between economic opportunities. poor and rich people is not so big, maybe we also have But there may be a great danger, I think, that our a tradition of co-producing more in planning and cities will develop only in terms of these communities. f architecture. So because it is somehow a little bit For example, we have now district administration difficult for me to understand mentally, socially what systems in the Netherlands and neighbourhood is really going on here. We don't have a real problem organisations, but the danger in this decentralisation 105 , ,., SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES •• and labour-orientated planning is that the city could become a sort of organism where only the particles are developed and which will lose the cohesiveness of the whole. What's very important in my opinion is to try to work in the future on two other dimensions, that is the ecological and the visual as related to social and cultural aspects of the environment. In the Netherlands, for example, there is great awareness of ecological problems. People are ready to co-operate with and to work with recuperation systems. This might seem to be quite another item but I think it is very important that everybody in the city system participates in a close examination of the materials to be used and considers the problems of disposal which will eventually occur. Our urban system is very inefficient and dangerous environments can be, and have been, created. For example, there have been problems in the Netherlands with soil; some neighbourhoods have even had to be broken down and people have to move out because these new neighbourhoods were built on soils that were intoxicated very heavily. But the problem with this ecological aspect is that problems build up during a I S long time from little, little components and then only when it is a disaster, people become aware of it. ASTORIA THEATRE To turn to the visual dimension. This, used Sponsored by properly, creates a cohesive and organic whole. We also need to pay attention to information and to education, and to be concerned with the long-term can be done with the big money which has got to consequences of what we are doing at the moment. come from government. I am sure we were all waiting to hear John Patten offer us lots more money. It CHAIRMAN In announcing the details of the RIBA didn't happen. My forecast says, however, looking workshops at the weekend, I inadvertently forgot to ahead to a few years time, that lots more money will announce the Architectural Association have also got be made available by whichever government is in workshops. They are also in the programme. Please power because the mood of the country and the tide do note that they are as stimulating as the RIBA ones, of opinion is running that way. I further forecast that I am sure in no sense competitive. if we don't pool our resources and pull together and show that money should be directed into community DUDLEY LEIGH action that they'll make the same mistakes all over I am a surveyor involved in the development for the again. Though that money will go through in a National Community Partnership. I'd like to pick up centralised way, spent quickly in large sums in the on some of the points which have been raised this wrong places. morning and also make some forecasts. Please go away, pool your resources, form local When you leave this conference, the impressions community partnerships, get together and make it you are going to take away with you are that happen. community initiatives work. You know a lot more about what was going on than you did before and that SHEILA TRIBE there are new and exciting initiatives which are going Chairman, I can say this in one minute. It's just a to make an impact in getting resources for the city. good news spot because I heard the private One of the points made was that we don't know developers getting rather a beating from time to time enough about what each group is doing and we don't this morning. You might like to know that in pool resources and information enough to show Westminster we had a programme of selling sites that other people what's happened and how it can be aren't on housing estates to private developers who done. finance and build smallish flats. We haven't managed One of the points David Hall made earlier on is more than two bedrooms yet, but they sell them to that the Inner City Trust will help show how things our tenants at a totally unsubsidised price for 106 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES by other peoples' failures or by other weakness. Every single category is up by 30 per cent. The only category creating homelessness that hasn't increased by 30 per cent is fire and flood, acts of God. In homelessness in the west of Scotland, God is neutral, everyone else is making it worse. Right, but we still have to look at the wider world and we must remember that, bad as things are, these are bad things happening to people living in a rich country in world terms. People who in world terms are well off even when they are very poor. We must, I think, and this I address to my fellow members of local authorities, concentrate our minds on what we can do given the failure of central government to enable IYSH to do the job as properly as it can. To encourage local groups. To encourage and help local industry and commerce to contribute money. Can I just say, in Scotland, our first instalment on a quick whip round the local authorites to get the stuff off the ground raised almost twelve thousand pounds. That was for an office and to hire someone to start organising. Our second instalment was going to commerce and industry and promising to match what they gave and this doesn't cost a penny on the rents if you've got a clever treasurer. We raised £60,000 and we haven't even started on the third instalment. BARRY FINEBERG I'd like to speak about the very urgent need for something that's varied over the last four years from changing structures of government starting at the £17,000 and the highest they've paid is £24,000. We local or neighbourhood level and about ways in sell these sites at market price, we've bought some which one can see the connections there with levels of land to sell on again, the market price has been five government higher up. Seems to me that most of the problems we have to deal with, whether they're in ,- hundred thousand pounds an acre for years, it's two million pounds an acre now. We still manage to pay housing or in health, or in social welfare, are all that amount for the land to get the works done, interconnected and the interconnections that have to superb designs, by lovely architects, I'm glad to say. be approached are very complex and very difficult to We've won a few awards, and we sell them on to our cope with. The problems which are being dealt with own tenants, first-time buyers, for between £17,000 are multi-faceted and there is a lack of connection and £25,000. And we then, this the best of it I think, between the various specialisms which are available we then have the flat they've vacated, let again, and to deal with them. This lack of coherence is very, very get two for the price of one. It is a carefully put damaging. The expertise which has been made together package. If any of you want to know how it's available is in large measure a duplication of the ,' done, write to me, Sheila Tribe, Westminster City existing resources which lie within our institutions. r Council, Housing Department. All the measures to call for partnerships and to effect partnerships between the various parts of the system JOHN ROSS are contrivances, very necessary contrivances and Thank God I'm from Scotland! Someone put my city unavoidable, unhappily, but it must be recognised for in England earlier but I hope some of you realise the the time being that we have no alternative but to delegations down here from Edinburgh and Glasgow contrive to make connections. But beyond that, the have done much to make this conference international. real effort must be to make better sense of the way in In the west of Scotland, in the last five years, there which our institutions work and can work more has been an increase in homelessness of 30 per cent. effectively and together across the disciplinary Now we analysed all the reasons for this and every. boundaries. category you can think of, architectural - like This is to me so obvious that I wonder why it hasn't dampness, family breakdown, evictions, all of the been said during the course of the conference until it things that happen to people by other people, either struck me this morning that it is such a difficult .. 107 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES problem, such a prickly problem that nobody dare say it. Now the connection with the issues in this community architecture conference are with the question of neighbourhood, how we can continue to focus and release the energies at the neighbourhood level and make it seem relevant to all the issues. Now the disintegrated system within which we work clearly must change and, despite my articulating my thoughts, I've no doubt that everybody either knows it or has sensed that this is the problem. The issue is how to make the change. The different departments, all with good intentions, are often working in sometimes not quite parallel directions and very often working in opposite directions. A great deal of effort by different agencies can cancel itself out as so much of the effort which is being discussed at this conference is in fact duplicated, and is in fact using up an awful lot of energy which we would rather was not the case. The point I would wish to come to is that we must start by identifying the neighbourhoods which have demonstrated their ability to cope with their affairs. We should identify the territories, we should aggregate those neighbourhoods at a higher level of need and service around the districts, and so on up the scale, and that those that are natural communities of interest should then demand a response from the system which must then accord to their boundaries, and that by working in this incremental way that we would in time be able to adjust and modify the boundaries in this gradual approach. Sorry it wasn't sense of urgency about this problem. Our experience more coherent. is that there's been an enormous amount of apathy and ignorance and it's not on the part of the people CHAIRMAN Helen Crane from Bayswater. This will who live in this situation, it's on the part of the people be last contribution before we break for lunch. who are responsible for putting them there. If you imagine what's it like for a young family at HELEN CRANE the moment who might be living with their parents in I work for a project in Bayswater which was started overcrowded situations. Quite often they're living in by health visitors and homeless families themselves, council accommodation, they themselves get married social workers, local tenants' organisations, members and have their first child. Where in London are they of local churches and other people who were going to find somewhere that they can live? To buy a desperately worried about what is happening in our place at the moment, for first-time buyers, the city to people who can't afford to buy and who can't average loan is £40,000. For that you need an income find anything in the private rented sector that they of£ 13,600. How is someone who is unemployed or on can afford. a very low income, or an erratic income, going to We came here today with some of the families who afford that? In the private rented sector it was are living in bed and breakfast, hoping that the forum recently said that the average rent for new lets is over would be an opportunity where they could speak, but £200 a month, I think it is more in the region of £300. unfortunately this is so intimidating as a way to relate And the experience of most families is that private to anybody that they wouldn't do it, so I'm having to landlords don't want to take people with children. do it. Most of these families put their names on the waiting All I want to say is, as far as our experience has lists for council housing, but the waiting lists are now been, representatives of families have been to see static; very, very few people are being housed off the Nicholas Ridley, they've been to see councillors from waiting list. And the reason for this is that public various authorities, they've seen Sir George Younger sector housing has been cut so drastically since the at the Department of the Environment, they've been end of the 1970s that the stock is so massively everywhere to talk to everybody. What's missing is a depleted that there is nowhere for these people to go. 108 SESSION 5: FUTURE STRATEGIES So the message from our group is that we feel that here as it is for your friends as well. We'll end there this is a national scandal, it's getting rapidly out of and go and thaw out for an hour before Michael control, the politicians don't seem to care, and we ask Heseltine warms us up again. every organisation that's present to press in every way One quick announcement. The assiduous publicists that they can think, to make this issue be taken of the ACTAC want to announce that they have a seriously. series of workshops tomorrow, the Nottingdale Urban Studies Centre. A coach will leave the CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed. We are Architectural Association at 10.00 a.m. tomorrow honoured to have you address us in that way. I can morning to take delegates to the Nottingdale Urban assure you it's almost as intimidating for me sitting Studies Centre for this workshop. 109 SESSION 6 The Political Framework for Action: A Manifesto for Building Communities CONFERENCE PRESIDENT Anyway, he's going to talk to us this afternoon Through your Chairman for the day, I'd like to about inner cities. Michael Heseltine. announce some good news. We have a privileged guest with us today. Brian Barnes from the Brag THE RT HON MICHAEL HESELTINE, MP people who have been standing outside in the warmth Former Environment Secretary in the Conservative compared with our cold inside temperature here. Government. Brian is down here, that's one of our guests, to hear Mr Chairman, at no time has the interest in the stress the politicians and he's asked to address the audience areas of our inner cities been more intense. It fell to which we have kindly agreed to. me in 1979, as the Secretary of State then for the Now I hand over to Simon Jenkins. Environment, to inherit the fledgling urban pro gramme that Peter Shore had launched a few years earlier. I determined to build on what was there by SIMON JENKINS way of partnership with local government, rather Thank you very much Rod. than indulge in any root and branch onslaught, which What I propose to do this afternoon is to have a is all too easy for a new government. solid slew of politicians, or whatever a collective noun But to that framework of partnership, of course, is for politicians, for the next hour or so. And then we brought what was hopefully a Conservative, I once again we'll go into open session and I hope some would say Tory, experience and philosophy. There of the people who have submitted questions who were are two dimensions that we need to understand. unable to speak this morning will get an opportunity First, the inner city cycle of deprivation is a then. product of economic, fiscal, industrial and social First, I would like to welcome Michael Heseltine policies that embrace a total political judgement. who's going to address us. The programme suggests Second, the forces at work that drive down or keep that these are contributions for and from four of the down these stress areas must be seen in historic five major parties. I don't really think that is the right perspective. We're dealing with long-term trends and way of seeing it; we've invited these people along with long-term problems. There's no simple set of because of their individual standing and status and statistics to define multiple deprivation. It is about because of what we want to hear them saying as concentration of unskilled, ill-educated, low income individuals. people, too high a proportion of whom live on public I think it is true to say that many of the great provision. They are pensioner societies, with little political battles, that most of us as outsiders to expectation in an environment which by design, or by politics tend to see taking place, we assume are age, is at the wrong end of everyday expectations. The between governments and the community, the educational standards are low, the job opportunities outside world, the cities and so on. One of the things are limited, the housing standards are inadequate, the that Michael Heseltine brought home to many of us environment is dirty and daunting. It is a human was the extent to which many of the great battles of condition, self-evident at a glance. And the glance is politics are actually within government. When he was all that it gets from that section of society which is at the Department of the Environment, we know that able to choose- choose where it wants to live, choose he fought a long and, at times, very difficult struggle where it's going to invest, choose where it will educate for the things that most of the people here are its children. But that section of society is of course the concerned with, against many of his colleagues. vast majority of the members of society who have the Certainly, Michael Heseltine, in the manner of his resources with which to exercise choice and, of departure from government, played a major role in course, they do choose. They choose suburban home promoting what I can only call 'more open ownership, suburban comprehensives, green field government'. For that we're all very grateful as well. investment sites for factories and for offices, and not 110 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION only do they choose today, but they have been exercising precisely those choices for decades. The bus and the car have freed people from inner city locations. The property-earning democracy is perhaps the single greatest social revolution of the twentieth century. The property owning democrats left the urban areas with the incentive and encouragement of tax subsidies to help them. The destruction of grammar schools destroyed choice and with it much of the quality of inner urban education; parents reacted predictably. They sought the best for their children. But the best wasn't any longer to be found in the inner urban areas. A tax regime of punitive severity for individuals and, worse, huge incentives for publicly quoted companies turned local family businesses into branch offices in a single generation. No-one supports more than I do the creation of the property-owning democracy and all the subsidies that encouraged it. But as we look forward, we must recognise that in solving tomorrow's problems the scale of taxpayers' support that went into the creation of that most desirable achievement of property-ownership. It was very much helped and encouraged by taxpayers' government, in my view, has shown, in London and support. in Liverpool and in a score of other cities, how that I don't believe that there is a solution to urban process can begin, and if begun, how it can work. deprivation unless the analysis embraces the Secondly: an understanding that to gain commit perspectives that I have set out. It is to miss the point ment from the communities we wish to encourage, we to concentrate solely on the problem of those who live must create an atmosphere of ·local decision, in the stress areas. It is to perpetuate the trends simply individual enterprise and initiative supported by a to help those who are today's deprived to help high quality of public service. Single tenure housing themselves. The moment they achieve success they as a concept has rightly been removed from the will do what all previous generations have done, they political vocabulary by the enfranchisement of the will leave, and they will leave behind them the council tenant and by the Bill for creating council unbalanced and dependent society hardly richer or house sales. The enterprise agency movement, the more self-reliant than before. incentives for the small company creation, the much And so there are, Mr Chairman, two audiences that more competitive tax regimes are a vital dimension in one has to address. The urban community that we the creation of choice in inner cities. The creation of seek to help is the first. But equally important is the the new technical colleges addresses a key need in audience that have gone and will continue to go. In those areas. The central recognition for progress is order to create communities that are a mix of talent, that the incentive must come from government. The age, independence, it is essential to make the cities nature of existing dereliction, the inhibiting element places where the strong, the more prosperous, the of negative land values and the scale that is necessary skilled worker, the entrepreneur or the vocationally to instil confidence in the private sector can only be dedicated will choose to live, choose to work and addressed by a combination of central and local choose to invest. Good doctors, good teachers, good government processes. But one of the most exciting ,- priests, skilled managers, successful entrepreneurs, developments that has emerged in the past two years they all have a role to play in a balanced society and is the scale of the gearing that properly targeted we have to create an urban environment that public support can achieve. Urban development competes with the attractions of suburban, rural and grants, urban regeneration grants, derelict land southern England. The political approach that grants are vital instruments of public policy which emerges from this analysis is clear. First: a national produce multiples of four, six and sometimes more in recognition that we must build again an urban terms of added private investment. environment that attracts and does not repel, that is If we accept the scale of the problem, both in range competitive in the market place of human choice, that and in time, if we recognise the vital role of the private is relevant not just for those with no choice but is sector, the individuals with choice and the value of equally relevant for those with real choice. This adding private cash to public investment, then we can Ill SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION move to the issues of framework and finance. Now impossible to overstate the impact of that movement I'm convinced that the urban policy implementation in helping individuals to become entrepreneurs. And of the Department of the Environment should be I cannot believe that it is right for short-term carried out by an English Development Agency as it considerations about immediate share values, is in Scotland and in Wales. We must create a calculated remotely by institutions with no commit structure that brings the managerial thrust and ment to the local community where the wealth is decision-making experience of the private sector into made, to be the dominant factor. partnership with the civil servants involved in urban We must be preoccupied about the dispersal of policy execution. The New Towns would never have power to our regions, not its centralisation. We must been built without such a single-purpose authority to be aware that capitalism depends on a democratic drive each one of them. And we now need to rebuild consent and that the more remote that capitalist the old towns and the same disciplines are needed and power becomes, the harder it is for capitalism's most the same partnership between the public and the dedicated advocates, of which I would claim myself private sector skills. to be one, to secure that consent. The essence of the An English Development Agency would be able to Government's invigorating programme of privatisa promote Urban Development Corporations, private tion is to move power closer to the people. The very sector trusts or simply enter into specific contracts self-same philosophy argues that the burden of proof with local government. In one way or another, must be on those who seek to concentrate power preferably with local authority co-operation, areas of away from our provincial and industrial heart. our cities could be rebuilt or restored on a scale that So, Mr Chairman, I thank you for listening to what gave confidence, and with the physical and fiscal is a short speech, a summary of a speech, about what incentives to attract and not to repel. The present undoubtedly is at the heart of much of the political government now has such a record of experience and challenge of the rest of this century. I can think of no such a range of successful experiments that no longer subject which will more dominate domestic politics do we need to ask what we should do. It is now only a than the rebirth of Britain's cities and I can think of question of the scale on which the experiments should no subject closer to the problems of creating a wealth be done. creating society than that. It all depends on bringing a . I unhesitatingly argue that in the midst of an new sense of light and a new sense of purpose to industrial revolution with profound, long-term social Britain's industrial and provincial heritage. implications, the rebirth of our cities has to be at the forefront of political priority. It is imperative for CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed, Mr those that live there, but it is also imperative for those Heseltine. who everyday see the increasing pressure on and I think your message of the significance of the destruction of the environment in Britain's more relationship, or establishing good relationships, prosperous south. It is as much in the interests of the between the public and the private sectors particularly electors who expect us to defend the beauties of the at the local level is very pertinent to many of the Thames Valley or the Chiltern Hills as it is with my things we've been discussing at this conference. I parliamentary colleagues coping with the casework think often there is a feeling that when one party gives of human deprivation in our declining cities. I believe way to another party the public and the private sector that this government has within its grasp the most merely change places. I think this concept of a exciting rebirth of our cities since those cities were partnership between the two really is very important first built a hundred or more years ago. and your remarks about the dispersal of power as And I want to conclude, Mr Chairman, with a against the centralisation of power clearly got a contemporary example of the sort of decision that we response from the audience. It is sad in one sense that should not take. A decision which I believe we have the message that you brought today, which is the often faced before and often got wrong under message that you used to say in private within governments of all parties. Pilkingtons are one of the government, is no longer being said in private within few powerful local companies left on Merseyside. The government, but at least the government's loss was family, the enterprise, have invested and been our gain today. Thank you very much indeed. concerned for St. Helens conspicuously and Shirley Williams has been a fixed point in politics successfully. The company has pioneered to world as long as any of us have been in journalism and she class the technologies of its industry. But just as manages to seem as young, and fresh, as ever. She important, for Pilkingtons themselves have been in masterminded, twenty years ago, I think, the major the forefront of the resurgence of industrial and reorganisation of secondary education in this commercial awareness, that business must be country. One of the great post-war reforms, she involved in the community. Arguably, the Enterprise subsequently tried to mastermind the reorganisation Agency concept was borne in Pilkington and it is of the left of British politics. That doubtless she 112 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION regards is still in progress. But throughout it all I commitment of a company like Pilkington but cares think she's managed to retain a sense of her own only about the value of its shares. sincerity in what she believes in politics and, also very It seems to me that like the nuclei in an atom, important, her own evident enthusiasm for it. It's that architecture and society and politics interact, enthusiasm that we welcome today. Shirley Williams. sometimes constructively, sometimes destructively. The architecture of our towns at present reflects our SHIRLEY WILLIAMS, President of the SDP. historic class system: architecture is now caught up in Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen. the battle between privatisation and municipalisation I'm glad that you see me, Mr Chairman, as a fixed and the role in each that is played by individuals and point, that's my view of myself as well. by families. The Liverpool Left's municipal housing May I say first of all that I think it would be is part of a concept of society completely at odds with appropriate for me to pay a word of tribute to the the concept implied in the private redevelopment of previous speaker. Michael Heseltine was, as well as part of London's Dockland. Each is at an imposing being Secretary of State for the Environment, end of the spectrum of community development. Minister for Merseyside, and I must say in all fairness Each in my view is dominated by too narrow a vision to him that when he took up that job he went and of society: a tram-line image of two classes that can fought for that depressed part of the United have nothing in common and that never meet. Kingdom. The sad thing is he fought with a The Salaried Architects Group, SAG, in its report government of which he was part and in the end that to the Shadow Environment Minister, Dr John government wasn't listening. And so Michael Cunningham, referred to 'healing the divisions in our Heseltine would be bringing, to my mind, a much society'. I do not believe that architecture can itself happier message if Mrs Thatcher was prepared to say heal those divisions, but it can signify and even 'come back Michael, all is forgiven'. I somehow don't celebrate the fact that they have been overcome. The think she's about to say that. I also believe, and I've report's vision of an integrated block of separate got to express my difference with him about this dwellings as well as housing estates combining every matter, that it isn't true to talk about choice in possible form of ownership including co-operatives, education if what you mean by choice is that 80 per part-ownership, starter homes and different kinds of cent go to a secondary modern school and 20 per cent tenancy, is to me a very exciting idea. I think also the go to a grammar school. That isn't choice at all. And idea of shells of housing, which enable people to meet finally while I share his concern about the Pilkington their own personal needs, is part of the flexibility of company being subject to a takeover bid, that is the housing as we will need it in the future. It is the ruthless outcome of the market which in the end concept of building which is just as bespoke and as doesn't give tuppence about the community personalised as clothes themselves are. And I believe 113 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION that the potential for participation in management ability in all sectors and frankly to tell ideology to and maintenance are both exciting and stimulating. It take a running jump. isn't entirely new. I think it would be appropriate at The Scottish Development Agency has brought this particular conference to pay, for a moment, Scotland from being ninth of eleven regions in 1971 - tribute to the work of Walter Segal which far precedes I'll repeat that, it's so hard to believe- the ninth out of the discussion that we're having here today, and eleven in terms of output per head, to the second out which was I believe the harbinger of the self-build of eleven in only fifteen years and that is a staggering movement. achievement and shows what can indeed be done by But I myself don't believe that for one moment we partnership. But the partnership has got to be one in can expect to see such a vision realised by which central government is willing to be humble, is communities that represent one side in an ideological willing to listen, is willing not to destroy local battle; that embody the divisions of society within initiative by always believing that it knows better. It itself. The Islingtons and the Liverpools cannot doesn't know better and the record of the last twenty accept the contribution the private sector can make, years could not say that loudly or more clearly than it such as variety, innovation, responsiveness to has. individual requirements, but equally let me say, that Let me give you one other instance of the point at the once-Tory shires who sought to hide their public which I part company with what Michael has said, housing in the pockets around the edges of the town, and I part company with him over the concept of the are in no position to talk about an integrated English Development Agency, not because I part approach either, and the dramatic cuts in the company over the concept of development agencies, resources made available for public housing while indeed I think there is everything to be said for them many of our fellow citizens still need public housing instead of the chaos of new schemes and new agencies because, as the demonstrators shouted outside, 'they and new bits and pieces that constitutes what happens cannot afford to buy'. It is equally ludicrous to in the south and in the north of England today. But suggest that public housing has no part to play in a frankly, Michael, it's just too big. An English genuine integrated approach to the problems of our Development Agency would be dominated by society at the present time. It seems to me that an Whitehall, would be grasped by the stoney hands of integrated community is the product of a cohesive the Treasury and of Whitehall civil servants. In my society. That is why SAG's vision is realisable only view it is regional development agencies we need, the through a partnership between the private and public West Midlands, the North West, the North East and sectors. Despite Mr Heseltine's personal testimony, I not another round of centralising government. Now do not believe for one moment that the government's there's one significant fact about the regions of approach to inner cities is largely characterised by England, along with Scotland and Wales, and that that partnership. It is not. It is characterised by the significant fact which is now clear is that one of the belief that the private sector should flourish and that major sources, agents if you like, of innovation and there may be partnership only where the private growth of a high technology society, are institutions sector is unwilling or uninterested in providing of higher education. I can't accept the way in which housing. they have been starved of cash and I believe it to be In my view there can be no escape from partnership very short-sighted policy by the present government. combining local authorities on the one hand and the But the M4, the Mll and even today, the M6, have private sector on the other. And I would point to the sprung up high technology new companies primarily enterprise agencies and boards that now scatter the because of the link with a major centre of excellence country, over 300 of them, as an example of the way in research, in training and in innovation. Local that partnership can work. I would point to the single districts and even county councils rarely can boast most exciting example of that partnership to be found such a centre of higher education, research and anywhere in the United Kingdom, and that in my excellence. And that is why the region is the right level view has been the rebuilding of Glasgow, which until in my opinion, for theN orth West has its Manchester, ten years ago was regarded as the worst slum city in its Liverpool, its Salford, centres which can begin, I Western Europe with the single exception of Naples. believe, to inspire a new wave of new technology What has happened in Glasgow has been the industry as indeed some of England has. investment of very substantial sums of public money, But all the experience I believe of both the United under the Scottish Development Agency (on which States and of our neighbours in Western Europe the private sector rode piggy back to provide its own shows that this centre of ideas and innovation of private housing for sale) and what we now see is, I research is quite central to the regeneration of the believe, the single outstanding example of the way in wider community. which Britain could turn itself round, if only it Let me turn from that to just two other things. The adopted the willingness to work together, to harness first principle I've already stressed is partnership 114 .. SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION between the public and the private sector with a mix the same public expenditure as you get from depending upon the particular community and how centralised regional policy. I conclude by saying this. far it has deteriorated to the point where the private I'm delighted to be at this conference. I think it's sector isn't very interested. The second principle is the about the most lively and important aspect of Britain regional agency, not the national agency but the today. I think it's not just about recreating regional agency, and the third principle which I shall communities, it's about raising the aspirations of conclude on is the principle of doing everything that many of our people whose aspirations are hopelessly one can to involve the people of the community which low, who have given up believing that they will every one is endeavouring to reconstruct. That's the fulfil the talent that they were given when they were obvious thing to say at a conference ofthis kind, but I born. It is in reversing that, it is in combining plead guilty to the fact that it's something that employment with the rebuilding of the urban politicians in central government have been remark community that I believe a major contribution can be ably bad about. Bluntly, I believe the old parties have made, not just to those cities themselves but to the created different cultures of dependence. The whole recreation of some kind of vision by which the traditional Labour approach created a culture of people of this country can live. tenant dependency where the tenants were served but did not participate in the management of their CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed, Shirley. estates; the town hall knew what was good for them, You told ideology to take a running jump and got a and too many town halls still think they know what is ready response to that. I think the problem is that the good for them. The governorships of schools were subject of this conference, the inner cities, is clearly run from the town hall, the estates were run from the going to be a major election issue. One of the town hall, the National Health Service was run from problems when subjects become major election issues the centre. Nobody listened to the patients, the is there is a vested interest in polarising them, in parents, the tenants. I believe the Conservative highlighting ideological distinctions rather eliding government has created a different culture of them. Hence I think the welcome given to the many dependence and if you want to see, walk two doors pleas yesterday for a greater sense of consensus. I'm down the road to the YMCA and have a look at the not sure I personally agree with that, I think there are homeless situation, the bed and breakfast culture, times when, by projecting an issue politically, you can that's a culture of dependency in which you are never in fact raise the consciousness of it and make the allowed long enough to put down your roots and do public aware of its importance. I think that the anything at all. You are a dependent, you are a difficulty in the coming election campaign is going to creature which lives on the back of the state because be to see whether the debate about the inner cities nobody gives you a chance to do anything else. does indeed raise consciousness, or whether it merely So how can we involve participation? It cannot end polarises and produces yet another set of stop-go simply with the management. In my view it is inner city policies. We've been assidious at this essential that the estates themselves, through the conference in making it as non-partisan, should I say, redevelopment of the inner city, must provide jobs, multi-partisan, as we possibly can and it's for that responsibility and permanent positions for those who reason that we're very glad to welcome John Fraser live in the inner city. And this has been the magic of MP, who is the Opposition Shadow Front Bench St. Louis in the United Staes, of Watts and some of Spokesman on Housing. the other major examples; that those who live in the inner city become maintenance men, become JOHN FRASER MP Shadow Front Bench engineers, become janitors, become managers of the Spokesman on Housing. very reconstruction which intended to benefit their Chair, Ladies and Gentlemen. community. It is in the marriage between local job Let me say at the beginning when I use the phrase generation and the reconstruction of the community 'inner city' it will be shorthand phrase. Secondly, that the answers lie, not only to housing but also to there's obviously no time to deal with the history of the problem of how we create new jobs. And I will where we've got where we have, but I think one has give one illustration before I sit down. got to say a little bit about the analysis of the problem The cost of a job created by traditional, regional to understand what needs to be done. policy run from the centre (of course, this is in First of all, as I see it, there isn't a single factor Britain) is broadly forty thousand pounds a job. Not which has created the problems we are here to my figure, the official figure of the Auditor General, discuss. Far from it. There is a multiplicity of £40,000. The cost of a job, a permanent job created by elements, a complexity which interacts and which is a local enterprise trust, let's take the example of sometimes explosive, and those elements are headed Lancashire Enterprises Ltd, is £2,800 a job. In other by poverty and high unemployment, which are the words, twenty or nearly twenty times as many jobs for most debilitating elements of all. They are followed 115 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION by inadequate and badly designed housing, family breakdown, and the absence of personal family support. There's poor health, a population which is both diminishing and rapidly changing although with another sector of the population which is immobile and tenure trapped, low levels of appropriate skills in education and achievement, high levels of crime and anti-social behaviour and often drug and alcohol abuse. There's a polarisation of tenure, the polarisation between rich and poor, the polarisation between highly skilled professions and the unskilled, there's industrial decline and a blight and an inflexibility that masquarades as planning. Some times, though not always, a mixture, an ethnic mixture, of class and race discrimination. Sometimes there are sharply conflicting sets of values and traditions. Relations between the police and communities have often been abysmal and a seed bed for riots as there have been in my own constituency. And size, the sheer size of the city, always appears to be a multiplying part of the problem, although I ought to warn that every element is always present. For instance, as Jeff Rooker often reminds me, one talks about anonymous estates and yet in Handsworth revenue debt of owner-occupiers is now almost four and often in parts of my constituency as well, the seed times as high as the capital expenditure which is going bed of the riots was very often owner-occupied on public sector housing. Cuts in rate support grants housing with very high levels of unemployment and have far outweighed inner city partnership. For deprivation. instance in my own borough, Lambeth, for some Secondly, and it's got to be said, the problem is years the amount of rate penalty has actually getting worse. Typically, in inner city areas, exceeded the net value of inner city partnership funds. unemployment has doubled since the riots of 1981. In And whilst I agree you can't always solve problems my own constituency Lord Scarman found that by throwing money at them (although I must say in economic deprivation and unemployment were the case of poverty, throwing money at poverty isn't a connected with the essential preconditions to riot, bad way of solving the problem) but if some people and yet since 1981 and the publication of his report, say you can't solve problems by throwing money at unemployment has arisen from around fourteen them, you can certainly make them worse by taking thousand to about twenty-eight thousand despite the money away. eighteen changes in the way in which the statistics are My third observation is that the compound of the collected, and that's despite schemes, community elements in the inner city could not only be explosive programmes, job creation schemes and youth and combustible but it can create its own negative training- and over half those people have been out of momentum and alternative lifestyle. You see this as work for over a year. And in small compact areas, an extreme example when you get the heroin culture typically again, unemployment is often over 50 per and the drug economy taking place on some of our cent. Expenditure on housing has been slashed by two large anonymous estates. You see it in a more thirds since 1979, since when homelessness ... has practical way where anti-social behaviour and crime doubled; as have the number in bed and breakfast. push up insurance rates; business men with small People have become refugees in their own neighbour businesses or business persons with small businesses hoods. I hope that in the year of the IYSH, the British can't get insurance. That lessens the opportunity for Government will realise that they must do something creating jobs, it lessens the opportunity to keep a about the poeple in our back yard. Of course it's business in the inner city and therefore there is a international and of course we've got to have a regard further turn in this self-destructive, self-propelling to homelessness throughout the world, but it's no corrosive process. good ignoring the fact that it exists in a very But fourthly, having lifted some of the debit side, debilitating and depressing form in our back yard. besides the debits and the doom, there is a vigour and Housing subsidies have been slashed while there is an excitement about it. Of course, in some mortgage interest relief has grown so much that the inner city locations, house prices are actually revenue total of mortgage interest relief to fund the rocketing, which although it creates the most 116 .. SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION enormous housing problems, I'm not saying it's city funding and rate support grant has to recognise necessarily a credit, it does indicate that there is a the depths and the complexity which local councils vigour and an excitement about parts of our inner face in rebuilding and regenerating the community. cities that people want to grab hold of and want to And the allocation of capital for building to rent, improve. There's a talent for training and transition if which everybody agrees is crucial, allocation of our vision is big enough and our detailed application capital for improvements, very often for poorer is thought out. And if we can put together the vision owner-occupiers, the capital repairs and even and the zeal of a William Blake looking on beyond demolition has got to match the scale ofthe problem. the dark, satanic mills, if we put that visionary zeal Bed and breakfast homelessness is an expensive and together with the analytical care of the webbs, if we disruptive bandage on the wounds of housing combine it most crucially with the hopes and the investment programme cuts and I'm bound to tell views and control, and I use the word control as you that despite the trick of the figures for next year's vitally as those who actually live there, then we can housing investment progamme, the money it is turn the trends. I'm sceptical that you can build allocated in net terms is actually going to be a further communities in that sense, but I'm optimistic that cut because it's no good talking about capital receipts you can help communities build for themselves. Now of Guildford and Godalming and Haslemere as part there's no longer any disagreement about the of the housing programme of the inner city. That is a existence or the challenge or the multi-faceted fraud on the hopes of those that want to put some approach which is needed and has got to be by way of guts back into the centres of our conurbations. partnership. It has got to be a partnership where the And main stream, not just main stream housing, partners recognise their strengths as well as their it's main stream health and education and weaknesses and where they recognise the size and community care. Their own, the government's timescale of the challenge. There's got to be some programmes need to remain sensitive to inner city broad agreement and continuity about the response. demands. For instance, the government has got a Violent shifts in policy only serve to disorientate and main stream programme about universities, what destabilise the inner city, we can't afford to have a does it do? It cuts back on technologically and bonanza of public expenditure on homes to rent one business based universities like Aston which is on the year and then to have a moratorium on public very edge of the corroding inner city area. It's not expenditure, on housing the next. We can't afford to always easy, Shirley Williams, when we were both have a grant bonus one year and a rate cap and a ministers together, I know, closed a teacher training penalty the next. Plans for housing, for rate support college on the edge of Brixton when it would have grant, from industrial incentives have to be certain, been possible I suppose to close a teacher training beneficial and continuous and this government college in the leafy suburbs, but that's another policy, which I believe in my own constituency, inner example of the way in which you've got to try and city consituency, is one of punishing and stigmatising steer government expenditure and government r the poor, because they are poor, it's got to stop. The decisions in favour of the inner city. Government policy of central government as well can't be shaped muscle has got to be flexed for the inner city just as it by its perception of the personality of the leaders of was on the decentralisation of government an inner city, or borough or district. Those people departments. were elected in exactly the same way as their critics in Now I want to turn to efficiency and value for Whitehall. money. Main stream spending on innovative Now I want to turn to the size ofthe challenge and experimentation through the partnership and urban what a Labour government should do. And I want to programmes needs to be thought through with clearly start with mainstream programmes because inner city defined objectives, value for money, and above all, policy isn't just about partnership programmes and customer satisfaction. Of course we have to take about small attempts. It's about first of all, in my chances. Caution is the enemy of innovation and I've view, main stream programmes. We believe these are seen many initiatives in the inner city which were fundamental. Funding and main stream programmes exciting and imaginative and have got clear are fundamental to the inner city and additions to objectives. I think, for instance, of a print village in special programmes can never be an excuse for short Southwark where you are beginning to get a growing changing on the basics, or you finish up in Gateshead interactive set of firms, or the Lambeth Black and Lambeth with pink paving stones under the inner Business Initiatives creating opportunities, creating city partnership and frozen bank balances from the employment and raising the esteem of the participants. sales of council houses which it can't spend on But I've seen other projects and I'm thinking of a improvements and repairs which are very badly community centre in Bristol in particular where the needed. The loss of rate support grant in many community has been treated with condescention and districts is ten times greater than the amount of inner not involvement, and where actually massive .. 117 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION expenditure has created not satisfaction in the and their own social capital, it might be a club or a bar consumer but sheer resentment. The complexity of or a domino club or a sports centre or a church or a the problem and the need to foster and learn by good mosque or other institutions, they bolster the practice demands something like an institute of urban communities' commitment where they live. Of course renewal, as a store house for excellence and some people yearn for what I call the right to escape, populariser of good practice where the experiences of and we shouldn't deny it to them. After all we are not local councils, central government, and those who constructing urban cages, but regeneration for the work in the professions can be exchanged, and such a inner city isn't going to build on people moving out: storehouse needs to include overseas experience as it's going to be built on people wanting to stay. I want well. to add this message in some inner city areas, not all of I turn to partnership because that's in my view one them of course, which are homogenous of their of the keys to regeneration, but it's a partnership as I nature. There's the essential need for a black say where parties recognise their weaknesses as well dimension in inner city policy. Where the black as their strengths and learn from their failures as well community knows and participates in policies which as their successes. Development Corporations are have a black dimension: in employment, housing, very popular at the moment and Michael Heseltine entry to professions, going on the bench, into referred to them, and of course Development business, forms of self-expression, then you get a Corporations like Machinery Industrial Estates reinforcement of the commitment which in some should be seen as a form of co-operative machinery to areas is already very strong and proud and deeply supplement and supplant the efforts of the local routed. So inner city policy isn't just about resources authorities. I like to think of private industry and although they're very important. It should be about commerce contracting its skills to local authorities things to help people to behave proudly and kindly to and the people in the inner city; for instance, in their own area. One of the ways in which you can help banking facilities, start-up advice, development of people as well is by education and training and, I industrial estates and the marketing of products. It is believe, in a form of training which helps people get no good building an industrial estate if nobody is out of the inner city to, say, the City of London. A actually occupying the factory units and the form of training which doesn't help people get one marketing and occupation of industrial estates and step up the ladder, which helps us leap up about ten the provision of management skills do need to be rungs because that's the great quantum leap that we extraordinarily high. I must say, in my own borough, need. But commitment and equal opportunity we had experienced the difficulty of getting people policies and supportive contract compliance are not who are prepared to take on a very demanding job. I just desirable but indispensable elements which must know we've been advertising for a housing manager, include positive action and imaginative recruitment an architect, possibly director of social services, head and local employment. The single greatest gulf of planning. We do need to have the right quality between the powers and the people is mainly between management skills allocated to the inner city and if the police and black people and the fact that the necessary contracted in. composition of the police force differs markedly from But if partnership is one key then commitment is the population of the composition of the population the other. Local councillors, by their nature, are that they serve, without trying to apportion blame on committed to their areas and government ought to be this occasion, but that very fact is indicative of what committed as well. But we want to see private capital goes wrong when there is this marked division committed to wealth creation alongside the essential between the powers and the people. activities which are wealth consuming like the Democracy implies that people don't just have supplementing of income support. When investment things done for them, they are able to do things has been levered into the inner city then it does bring a themselves. What the Labour party looks forward to vested interest in the future success of an area, but let is creating those economic and social structures me give one warning, the leverage of money for which reinforce the natural and spontaneous private housing schemes doesn't mean the leverage of flowering of the community so that we replace the people in: it does mean a co-operation with a local twentieth century version of dark satanic mills in authority and a co-operation with a community, and which people sit and organise Jerusalem themselves. not antagonism. An inner city policy has got to be about nurturing commitment in a community in CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed. personal terms as well as investment. When people Well we have had representatives of two old parties take a pride in their community, when they've got a and one representative of a new one. Lastly, this greater control of the management of the design of afternoon before we break at three thirty, we have a their homes, then you get commitment. When member of a very new one- the Ecology Party, now minority groups have got their own social institutions known as Green Movement, although he is not here 118 .. SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION as an official representative of that Party. Paul Ekins has been General Secretary of the Ecology Party. He is now Director of The Other Economic Summit, that's a mouthful to face, he is also, I see from his curriculum vitae, a professional singer and entertainer and, I'm sure I can say on behalf of all of us, we welcome him in all his many roles. PAUL EKINS, Director, The Other Economic Summit, Green Movement. Thank you Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen. You ain't going to get me in that last role I'm afraid. It's been a fantastic privilege to be here for the last two days and to see what's been going on. I've had this sort of feeling, without wanting to be over dramatic about it, there's been a little bit of history in the making here. It's not just all these fabulous, single projects that we've been hearing about from Paddy Doherty, Francis McCall, James Turner, Ted Watkins; it's not just the global and the local, the fact that everyone who seems to have their eyes so firmly fixed on their own bricks and mortar, also is aware of the world outside. It's also that the whole seems to be more than the sum of its parts, and all those things are happening by what I would call a process of greening, November, but of course the human spirit is not and it's that process that I think the Green Movement bound by earthly seasons, it can blossom at any time. is here to set in motion. It's a good feeling. I should perhaps clarify after the introduction, I'm To the business of this session. Building certainly not here from the Green Party, I'm certainly Communities. There are four elements which, out of not here for the Green Movement - the Green the great wealth that we've already heard, I would Movement is far too diverse a body for one person to like very briefly to touch on. The first, which hasn't speak for it - but I do come from the Green really had much of a profile, is that of fighting the Movement. It's an intensely political movement, but continuing destruction of our communities. The one with great difference and variety, I think. It has second is to try to develop a coherent rigorous its own party, the Green Party, which is small but concept of social wealth without which I don't think significant in this country and very significant in communities can ever win against the dictatorship of other countries. It's an all party-movement. There are the bottom line. The third is how to motivate people Greens, I think, in all our major parties although I in communities, how to help them achieve their first must say with regret, it's a long time since I successes where success has seemed a long way away, recognised a Green in the Conservative Party. And and how to enable them to build on that, to sustain it's a non-party movement in the sense that there are a their own develoment and to get off the dependency lot of people in it who believe that politics is best done treadmill, whatever sort of dependency we may be at home, through their own communities and their talking about. And the fourth is how positively to own organisations outside the party political process. encourage them to take power into their own hands And as I understand it again, the business of these and not wait for it to be given up; for it will not be Greens is to enable and to encourage people to take given up. power into their own hands to better their own lives To come back to the destruction of communities. and that of their community, to do good work, paid As I understand communities, they are identity, and unpaid, and to enhance and maintain the shared interests based on strong relationships in a environment, in the broadest sense, on which their particular locality, local communities, and I think own prosperity and on which the prosperity of future one has to admit that virtually all the powerful forces generations depends. And I note all these elements in in our society, the powerful institutional forces, this conference today, so I can conclude that what militate against that sort of community. I've listed a we've been witnessing is a greening of architecture few in the synopsis of my speech so I won't repeat which may perhaps lead to a greening of them here. I can just think back over the last few years communities. It's a strange place to find such a spring to these forces in action: rate capping, the abolition of time, in the Charing Cross Road at the end of the Metropolitan Authorities, the London Develop- .. 119 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION ment Dockland Corporation, Channel Tunnel, were to go ahead on private money, they would dumping of radioactive waste in communities' back pledge themselves to comparable expenditure in the yards, innumerable roads and closures of local areas of public policy that they perceived to be more economies, closures of pits, and factories. These are in the interests of Great Britain. actions and policies conceived by people very often It's funny to me: social wealth is obviously far more living in other cities in other countries, to whom a real than money. There are innumerable examples of community is often little more than an obstacle to people who have lots of money who don't have any their own grandiose schemes of industrial develop sort of real wealth at all- and I'm reminded of John ment or redevelopment. Our communities are Turner yesterday talking about those communities in coming down all round us like the rain forest and I Peru who had a quality of life which they built with think the first task of us has to be to try to fight that their own hands without money which economists process. advised them were the equivalent to an investment of The second point, the question of social wealth, is twenty years income. And then I read the figures for something that The Other Economic Summit (TOES) the sort of investment that we need just in housing, were very interested in theoretically as well as (the Guardian put it at £40 billion, while yesterday it practically. It seems a truism, it seems common sense, was put at £80 billion); it's obviously a large sum of that all economic activity has social impact as well as money and I don't think one needs to be pessimistic economic financial impact. We're very clever at to doubt that governments of any complexion are not working out the financial costs of economic activities going to find that sort of money in the sort of time but we haven't begun to start to work out the social scale that it needs to be found. But if we could find costs and benefits. So that many projects which show £20 billion extra money over ten years and if it could a financial surplus, reek social havoc, which then be invested in the sort of ways that we've been talking costs much more to put right; and on the other hand, about, it could generate such social wealth as could many projects that could show an enormous\ social more than outweight that£ 80 billion. I do not see the surplus are discarded because of marginal financial process of rehousing Britain happening in any other lack of viability. Rod Hackney spoke of a need in this way and I do not see any alternative to us going into new trust to make a massive social investment in the the next century with a satisfactory state of housing as renaissance of Britain and I ask myself as an opposed to its present shameful condition. economist, how are we to know what return that On to the encouragement of social entrepreneur investment is yielding, what accounting systems will ship: we've heard so much about this and you we use to evaluate that return? How will we know obviously know much more about it than I do from how much social wealth has been created? And I the sharp, practical end, that I'm not going to say very would like to come back to the Channel Tunnel much at all. But it seems to me that social briefly on this. Perhaps the Channel Tunnel will entrepreneurs need first of all precisely the same create financial wealth, perhaps it will create a little resources as financial entrepreneurs: they need bit of social wealth in the sense that those fortunate decision making and control so they need proper people in the South East with the money to do so will decentralisation. They need information and advice, be able to get to France and Belgium a little quicker so they need freedom of information and enabling than they can currently do. But the social havoc it will experts. They need capital, they need buildings and cause and the environmental havoc it will cause finance, they need land above all (and we've heard wasn't even given the dignity of a public enquiry. many eloquent pleas for that). They need skills, they That's the sort of consultation I've come to expect need training, but they also need, and these are from this government and we know, too, that that peculiar to social entrepreneurs, they need access to project will suck more wealth and investment down the political process because they are social from the regions of this country into the ever entrepreneurs. But they need further decentralisation, prosperous south east. And I ask myself: hundreds of they need a fair electoral system where they know that millions of pounds will be mobilised for this project a significant proportion of them can be represented at which to me seems absolutely irrelevant to the the local level; to me that means proportional problems of this country and I think what relevance representation. They need popular planning, and has this to the people living in those regional cities more over they need income because social who will see the magnet at work. And I think the very entrepreneurs don't get an income out of their least that politicians who are interested in this sort of entrepreneurship - they are generating social wealth thing should do is to guarantee that they will call that so they need something like a basic income guarantee. scheme in for proper public enquiry and consultation And they need motivation, they need help, advice, as soon as they are elected and they can then confidence that they can achieve; confidence that emphasise that there are better ways of investing that they can achieve as much as the Waterloo Tenants money in Britain at the end of the eighties. And if it Association that we heard of. Their achievement will 120 .. SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION not simply be swept away by some grandoise idea of from Eric Cousen, is it, or Curren of Leeds. And I progress. think it's a question that many people would like to And the last of my little sections. Not wait, but ask of those people who represent established take. I don't know how this greening process is going political parties, and it's 'Why have none of the to continue particularly, whether it will continue political representatives this afternoon made reference through its own party, whether it will continue or commitment to the concept of devolving power to through the other parties, whether it will continue communities as noted by David Hall this morning?' I outside the parties. Probably a bit of all those. And of think it's very noticeable at conferences like this that course I welcome the green rhetoric that has been you get many fine words bordering occasionally on much more prominent in political circles; but there is blandness and cliche about the importance to achieve warning here for politicians who are supreme in certain sorts of shift in something called power. Very rhetoric and very often not so good in action. I've rarely does one have particular structural proposals been doing a little of studying on environmental to get one's teeth into. And I think this particularly policy in my spare time on the stuff that has been gives cause for some sceptism when politicians repeat coming out of the office of William Waldegrave. It these phrases, they being the only people eventually says, for example, that conservation and the who have the capacity to do something about it. And Conservatives have always been synonymous. It says, I would like just to ask the three repr~sentatives we for example, that the Conservatives left materialism have on the platform if they could answer that to the Liberal Party in the last century and to the particular question on the structure of devolving Socialists in this. I then listen to government power to communities. ministers today talking about how this government's record is one of participation and decentralisation SHIRLEY WILLIAMS and I know that that stuff is an insult to our I was a wee bit surprised by the question because I intelligence, Ladies and Gentlemen. had thought, speaking at least for myself, that I had The fruits of this government, and I come back to made quite precise reference to the concept of Rev. Thorley when he was talking about 'Faith in the patients being involved in the management of the City' based on the Bible. One of the things I National Health Service, of tenants being involved in remember from the Bible is 'by their fruits ye shall the management of its estates, and for that matter know them' and indeed, I must say to Mr Heseltine, people involved in employment be involved in the except that he's not here, that the fruits of the present local employment and enterprise agencies in their government living in Battersea, and you 'II hear a little own community, but if the questioner is not satisfied, more about this from Brian Barns I am sure, because let me make four specific statements all of which are he knows much more about it than I do, the fruits of part of Alliance policy. the present government from there are exceedingly Number one. A clear commitment to freedom of bitter and they don't rest well with the sort of sugary information legislation without which no participa sentiments that you hear on occasions like this. The tion is meaningful. 'By their fruits shall ye know politicians, the planners, the bureaucrats, the them'. In the Labour Cabinet of 1974 to 1976, Roy professionals, they won't give up their power. Tony Jenkins proposed the repeal of part 2 of the Official McGann made that quite clear enough. They will Secrets Act and was supported by myself and Tony need it taken from them and then some of them will Benn; and that was it. agree to serve the communities. The communities will Number two. We have a precise commitment in the start to put the experts to work in their service. That Alliance to local income tax instead of rates. You may to me is what the Green Movement is all about. I or may not like it, but what it means is the giving of think that's what Community Architecture is all power over financial resources to the people of the •' about. I thank you for asking me here because you've local community with no right for central government shown me in this field at least and in an increasingly to step in. That Alliance pledge is unique to the big way, it's not a dream, it's a practical proposition. Alliance. Thank you. The third clear commitment that we have as an Alliance combination of parties to proportional CHAIRMAN Thank you very much indeed, Paul representation in Local Government, you may like it, Ekins. you may not, but I believe it is the basis of consensus, We have a few minutes before the next pause. A so ifl wasn't clear enough in what I said let me add to number of people have sent notes saying they would what I said, which is a clear commitment to the like to ask questions of the politicians, at least those community, local and regional, and I had thought I'd politicians who survived our onslaught and one of the spelt that out, freedom of information, local income ones I'd thought I'd kick off with just for a five, ten tax, proportional representation in Local Govern minute session before we break, is one that comes ment, all three of which are things to which we are .. 121 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION bound by our democratically achieved policy making place and I think once that takes fire, we will find that process. the patterns of decentralisation and the structures that are thrown up, will be quite different from the JOHN FRASER MP way that we might imagine them at this stage. My A number of local authorities have wanted to create a energies and my enthusiasm at the moment are very parish council structure within their area. I think that much behind those of you who are actually stirring is particularly important where you've got a very that process up and showing what can be done, at the large conurbation like Birmingham. I think some of grass root level by people when they find their feet. the London boroughs are probably small enough to be manageable and identifiable and certainly the CHAIRMAN I'm going to ask one more question before we let the Labour Party is not discontented but willing to assist politicans go. This is a version of a point made by those authorities that want to have that kind of Keith Lancaster of First City Architects in devolution of structure; I think my own borough is Birmingham. 'Do we consider that the emphasis about the right size and compactness, although personally I would rather like to see one councillor which has been much placed at this conference on National Community Aid and on Inner City Aid is per area with an individual responsibility rather than three. I think people tend to escape responsibilities again allowing the real question of government responsibility to go unanswered. Where do you place sometimes by spreading it around. that burden?' Secondly, as Shirley has said for the Alliance, so I say for the Labour Party, there are many institutions SHIRLEY WILLIAMS of power, particularly the Health Service, but many I think in the short run it's inescapable that others as well, which are actually run by civil servants government has to take a fair degree of responsibility on a regional basis with very little direct account because, whether we like it or not, the process of ability which ought to come into a structure of centralisation means that government has control regional government, and the Labour Party is over something like 80 per cent of the public working on plans for that as well. resources of this country.I've tried to explain that in Thirdly, it goes without saying that tenants ought my view that ought to be the short-term, that we must to be able to assume some power of control or find structures that cycle many of those resources management over the areas where they live, both in back through local communities and regional bodies. the private and in the public sector. It's not a question We would like to see elected regional councils and a of consulting them. If you're going to exercise power single tier local authority at the community level, but you need often to have professional expertise behind bluntly it would be madness to embark on another you as well. You need to have the right kind of major reconstruction oflocal government before one information to be able to take decisions; and the has begun to use the present structure in order to deal combination of the right kind of support and the with the massive size of the present crisis. So in my ability to assume power, is part of that process. And I view the government must act, but as soon as it add fourthly, something which I did mention in my possibly can it must graciously withdraw from the speech, which is that people must be involved in all scene and leave · it to local communities, that is types of social institutions, including those to do with councils in partnership with the local private sector to employment, in their own areas; that's an extremely undertake those jobs for themselves. important way in which power could be devolved as well. I give four examples but there are many others JOHN FRASER MP which one could think of. I don't think that one can dodge the necessity for central government to provide the resources and it's PAUL EKINS proved peculiarly difficult to develop those resources Yes, I don't want to add very much really. I've always for local authorities. One of the ways in which it been a great admirer of the Alliance's decentralisation might be done is certainly revaluation with rates policy (and the way Shirley Williams spelt it out); if raised on capital values rather than upon the now we could get half of that it would be a big quite idiotic rateable values; that would certainly be a improvement. My only worry about these decentral much more egalitarian way of raising money for local isation plans is that I don't perceive that many people authorities and if one had a regional structure that on the ground are actually itching to have this power would then make it easier, perhaps with local income in their own hands and I don't think they are actually tax, (I say that with a bit of a question mark over it). itching to utilise this power for their own good and At the moment I think we've got a fair amount of that to me is the problem of decentralisation. It is agreement about what the nature of the problem is actually the generation at the bottom of that process but we are not quite so certain about how we tackle it. of wanting and demanding control that must take However, so long as government provides the 122 .. SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION resources and partnership I don't think I'll find many session of the conference. I did express a hope when I local authorities complaining. Indeed. What's often opened this session that the debates about inner put to me is that they want to get on with what they're cities, which are clearly going to be a part of the doing providing central government writes the election campaign, should lead to enlightenment cheques out. So I've not noticed, even with rather than polarisation. I hope you think that the Birmingham, a particular complaint about money speakers we've had from the political movements this coming from central sources; certainly we've got to afternoon have on the whole been constructive rather restore the levels of central government support and than purely partisan. I'd like to thank them very of course we like people to spend their own money. much for giving us the time to come along and hope One of the ridiculous things about this country at the that they have set the tone for battles to come. moment is that about £6,000 million pounds is locked Thank you very much indeed. up in the banks with local authorities, which is their own money, which they are not allowed to spend. So I CONFERENCE PRESIDENT don't see any point of principle arising at the moment Before we break for coffee I'd like to make two house which gets in the way of doing something in the inner keeping announcements and also thank our Chair cities on the question of resources. man. Like yesterday, it's a long stint to expect a Chairman to go right through the day, so we've done PAUL EKINS what we did yesterday. We have our second Well I certainly couldn't disagree more on the subject Chairman coming on in a minute. · of central government finance because to me whoever First announcement, this might be the second time pays the bills, calls the shots. And I think that it's just this has been said, but it doesn't matter, there's an naive of these local governments, whoever they may alteration to the workshops and seminar programme. be, to think they're going to have a central The presentation on 'Public Participation of Physical government writing them blank cheques there to do Planning, Environmental Management and Urban whatever they like, and the sooner we can get to local Design in the Netherlands', billed at 10.00 tomorrow governments and local communities getting their has been cancelled. It's been replaced by a own sources of funding, the better. That is the only, in presentation seminar on 'A National Programme of my opinion, the only way in which they will get their Community Regeneration in Israel', 10.00 at the independence and their freedom to do what they Architectural Association tomorro~. wish. This is an interesting one. Chris Gittings would like Having said that, central government has done a to meet Jerdern Delstra. I suggest you both go to the huge amount of disabling and it's got a lot of making Dress Circle in the tea break. good to do and undoubtedly that is going to cost a lot I have invited Brian Barnes, who has been standing of money. And nothing makes me crosser than this out in the cold all morning, in to give us a short sort of 'Care in the Community' stuff; when over the statement here within our congress because I think last ten or twenty years we have seen these decimated, he'll probably find far more support for what he we see the people in the poor communities struggling stands for than perhaps he expected: So please along with no resources trying to do as well as they welcome Brian Barnes on behalf of BRAG. can and then suddenly we are supposed to have care in the community. These overworked, unpaid, BRIAN BARNES unresourced women are suddenly told that they have Thanks very much. Obviously as a protester, I didn't to take on the care of their dependents and that is really come here with more than slogans and protests somehow supposed to be a good thing and something so I've been trying to write some notes while I've been that they can do. That is the most unbelievably trying to listen to the other speakers. I must make it cynical cost-cutting I believe it's possible to imagine. plain that today I'm speaking on behalf of the It is the most appalling abuse of that word Battersea Redevelopment Action Group and I'm not 'community' (which could easily drive it out of decent trying to say that I speak for anybody else who was on political usage if that sort of stuff goes on). So I think the demonstration today. BRAG's been in existence central government has a lot of making good to do for fifteen years and we've campaigned for more but local government, local people, local com participation by tenants and trade unionists and munities, down to the neighbourhood level if working class people in their living environments in necessary, will have to start and will have to be Battersea during that time. It is mainly concerned enabled to raise their own money over which they about the redevelopment oflarge sites but also about have absolute control. the Wandsworth Tory housing policies which are mainly to sell estates and individual homes to private CHAIRMAN ownership. And the reason for our demonstration Thank you very much. That ends this particular today was largely because the Regalian Property .. 123 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION when people are evicted from these estates over a long period of time. In the case of the Livingstone estate, which is now called the Falcons, tenants were all separated. They didn't want to move from that estate, there was no structural problem. It was not a hard-to let estate, and it was a very good proposition for Regalian to take it over, as can be seen. It took the council a long time, six months, to find places for people because they won't take anything off their sales list to put people in. On that estate there was a corrugated tin fence put round the estate. Twelve families were tinned inside, virtual prisoners in their own homes. Tenants objected to this fence and were arrested trying to prevent the things being put up. They were fined in the courts and there was harrassment by neglect, services were cut off, lights were switched off, electricity supplies were turned off. It is more or less municipal Rachmanism going on in Wandsworth, all so the estate can be sold with vacant possession, and let's see where Regalian made their money. They bought the flats for £13,000 a home, they spent £25,000 putting in some carpets, TV security, porters and a grandiose front entrance, then they sold them for £70,000 to a £100,000. That's a profit of 100 per cent. That's a pretty good partnership between Wandsworth council, buildings that were built with ratepayers' money and the rents and rates of tenants in the first place being subsidised so that a private company can then make lOOper cent Company have been very active in our area. They've profits. And there are two ways that the community is taken over two estates from Wandsworth council destroyed in Battersea. One is that tenants are moved (they are leaders in this field of taking over council to far flung corners of the borough into similar estates) and they are building luxury flats on an accommodation away from family and friends, the empty site, so Battersea is a very keen place for them structures of the community that existed. That's a to be. term that Goldstone of Regalian has called Now you may not think that Regalian are 'mobilising', he's mobilised the tenants. And responsible for the plight of the tenants that once Wandsworth Council say they've been absorbed. lived in those flats, but we heard Michael Heseltine And the second way that that community is broken who has been down to see the Regalian alterations in up is that when the Yuppies move in, they move in Battersea and applauded their efforts there. And I behind a defensive screen, a fence, electronic gates, think that's what he means by partnership between TV security, porterage 24 hours, they sweep in in their government and local government, or central cars, they park, they go into their flat. They do not government and the private sector, and so we see involve themselves in the local community. They Regalian as partners with Wandsworth council. don't go to the pubs, they don't set up user groups, Wandsworth council does the dirty work. They they don't buy in the local shops, they don't do virtually evict tenants. They didn't have the Housing anything in the local community, they use the place as and Planning Act to help them so they found a dormitory. structural reasons (or maybe change of letterboxes) So, that is the reason why BRAG in particular was to actually get tenants out of the flats so that then complaining about Regalian sponsorship at this Regalian could step in to take over whole estates and, conference. We think it's pure hypocracy for don't get it wrong, it's not an easy task to find in our Regalian to be sponsoring it, with Prince Charles and borough homes for these what are called decanted Lord Scarman and the politicians today, it's a good tenants. They are often offered only the same kind of and cheap form of publicity for Regalian to carry on accommodation, a tower block or some other kind of the process of getting tenants out of council estates to estate dwelling. They are not offered homes with buy them. gardens; and the community is split up in that way. Now the second reason we were demonstrating is Friends and neighbours and families are split up because of the way the conference is organised. Very 124 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION few tenants' organisations are invited. Trade unions More capital from central government and local were not invited and the speakers have been Lord government is needed to build family homes for rent Scarman, Prince Charles, Michael Heseltine, etc. It's in Wandsworth. There has been no new rebuilding been £70 to attend. It's not from the bottom up, you since 1978; there has not been one replacement home know, it's the top, everybody here is at the top or built. We would not be against the council estate sales they're midway up and they want to be at the top. if houses were built to replace those sold on the open I think that's represented by the fact that the first market to individual sitting tenants. So there should thing that they tried to do with Prince Charles was to be more capital to build family homes and that is convince him about a project in Limehouse where the what this conference should be about, an effective tenants and councillors in that area have asked structure for tenants to decide what they need, what people to resign from the committee because they kind of housing, how it's maintained, how it's didn't realise what was going on. That's not really the repaired (if it's existing) and all the things that need to way of involving the local community if they are now go to make a perfect living environment. The being asked to resign. I believe it was Nick Wates and problems of a proper maintenance of estates is not George Clark who have been in some kind of just a problem for Tory councils, but also a problem difficulty with people in Limehouse. for Labour councils. The proper maintenance of And this conference is a good platform, (it's been estates would mean that the Livingstone Estate, now said by various speakers today), you know they are called the Falcons, is clean and secure with no grafitti. pleased to be here; Heseltine to be here because he's That's all about defensible space and security of the following on from Prince Charles and he's following buildings and a pride in where you live. When the on from very influential reports from the Arch private sector pays to do gates and fences and has bishop's commission, the Duke of Edinburgh, caretakers on site, then the estate stays in good repair. Scarman about the inner cities and it's election year. With Wandsworth's mobile caretaking service, where So we see the Tories recognising the obvious signs of a they've got four caretakers for the whole of Putney burning issue and allocating some money for the and Roehampton for instance, there's no way that an regeneration, but in a cynical move so they get elected estate can be properly maintained. Tenants should be again. And when did those politicians ever solve the able to say what kind of maintenance they need. I problems, Labour, Tory, SDP whatever? The mean this conference is about the inner city and the problem is worse now that I've ever known. I've been problem of the inner city is largely to do with the involved in housing issues for fifteen years from planners and the architects of the sixties who built Anthony Crossland through all the DOE inspectors high-rise system-built blocks. Is this conference going to Peter Shore and Michael Heseltine. When were the to make any difference to those architects and inner city problems solved by politicians. They planners? It won't unless it involves local people. haven't been at all. It's worse now, homelessness is Local people would have said, people who went to worse now, the scandal of bed and breakfast, waiting live in those flats would have said, we don't want to lists are growing, they are worse now than they've live in castles in the sky, or streets in the sky, we want ever been. When did these politicians speaking today houses with gardens; doesn't everybody, I mean if ever solve the problems? They didn't; and why should you were asked where you wanted to live, it's a semi they be given a platform at this conference? They've detatched in Bromley, isn't it, that's where you want not done it before and they are not going to do it to live. So the tenants have got to be involved in the again. Prince Charles himself, is he the Bob Geldof of repairs of the estates and the money that's been raised the housing issue? Can he raise £10 million? So what? so far, the billions of pounds that's been raised so far If he does, great; £40 billion is needed to regenerate on the sales of the estates, should be used for that !- the inner cities, it's not going to be done by £10 purpose. That's all, I've come to the end of my writing million. and I can't think of anything else to say. Thank you .- So, I'll just wind up and let you get to coffee. What very much. is necessary is the repeal of the Housing and Planning Act, and until that happens tenants will have no CHAIRMAN security of tenure. They can be, treated as in fact they That's the longest applause we had today. I think we have been in Wandsworth. People have been chucked have to thank the Battersea Redevelopment Action out of the Livingstone estate and put into a Putney Group for perhaps putting our feet back on the Vale estate and now Wandsworth council, after ground. The conference is a bottoms up conference eighteen months, is selling their home again. They're and I think a pang of conscience there will have gone nomads, they've not got the right to a home so that through a lot of people. The only thing that would the Housing and Planning Act is useless. W andsworth have been better, I think, would have been if Brian Tories have ignored that act anyway, they didn't need and his team had been here from the start of our it, they found excuses. conference yesterday. .. 125 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION So to give you something to go away with; I'm they've been inundated with calls, where do we send going to give you a programme which has all the the money, what sort of help do you want, can we speakers, including many voluntary groups, many organise this event, that event, regionally, nationally, tenants' associations who've already contributed and what do we do? Well I'm just about to tell you. will be passing certain resolutions today (and I hope the conference staff are strategically located hopefully producing a charter). Perhaps you would at points of access to the hall and hopefully on the be good enough to stay to contribute to those way out too. Those are the staff with the red bow ties. resolutions because I am sure you will have triggered They will take cash, they will take cheques, which are many a thought. So I would like to hand you out a made out to Inner City Aid, please, and they will be programme so you can see the number of people from doing that now. I would like to suggest that at this similar backgrounds to yourself who are in fact bottoms up conference, we start at the top, and if one contributing to this conference. of the girls would like to come forward, I would ask I have been asked to cancel the tea break. It would our conference president, Mr Hackney, and our new be unfortunate to lose the momentum, so please carry chairman, Ted Watkins, (we take dollars), to start us on taking tea as you feel fit. And while I ask our next off. Ladies would you like to come up and relieve the Chairman, Ted Watkins, to take over, I'll ask Charles gentlemen of their wallets? Knevitt to make an announcement on the Inner City I suggest you'll be wanting some guidance. But Aid Fund. everybody here today that has paid to get in should Charles Knevitt is the Director of the Inner City give not less that one per cent of what it cost them to Aid Fund and he has something to say to us about come in, in most cases that's a pound, so nothing Prince Charles's Appeal yesterday. On how the under a pound please. And by all means, do feel funding is going and how your funding, if it's generous. You've had a good time here for the last available, should go during this congress. Charles two days. Let's help those that we're trying to Knevitt. encourage to follow your example. Those without their cheque books here can write to Inner City Aid, CHARLES KNEVITT P.O. Box lAR, London WIA IAR. The GPO have Yesterday The Prince of Wales stood here and gave us put in telephone lines in record breaking time, and we his vision of renaissance in Britain from the bottom will be taking calls as from Monday. There is one up. He launched Inner City Aid, a fund-raising number I can give you immediately, 01-491-8747. campaign to encourage and support self-help Please give generously. Thank you very much. community initiative in deprived urban areas of the (PAUSE). United Kingdom. Please welcome our new Chairman to complete the Well, this morning John Patten promised to support proceedings today. Ted Watkins from Los Angeles. it and he's agreed to see me with a shopping list for Thank you. what I want from him, and I will be suggesting that the government matches pound for pound the TED WATKINS amount we've raised from commerce, industry, While the ladies are collecting the donations, I would events and public subscription. In addition he'll be like to remind you not to put heavy money in the bag asked for various types of help in kind. because the dangling of coins interrupts the The points raised by Brian during his impromptu equipment that we have here that's very sensitive, so speech about our appeal in relation to the size of the if would you please put paper money into the bag; we problem have been noted. We do not in any way would appreciate that. under-estimate the task. He might have added The brave person that I'm calling on has a question incidentally the point raised by Sam Webb (whom and I'm going to do it a little different because of the I've just been sitting next to) that the nomadic tenants time that we have. Each person will read their own who are being moved on lose their right to vote. But question and then hopefully we will be able to in answer to Brian's point about the size and success respond and answer the question after they've read it. of our appeal, I would say that it is too easy now as it Marine, Or Martine Bernard. And the next one is has been the past to rely on other people to do Keith Lancaster, it appears that that is Lancaster. Do something. It's too easy to say the government has you want to read your question? While she's getting got to pick up the tab, the local authority has got to ready, will the next person start coming forward so pick up the tab, commerce and industry, professions we can move it quite along. We've got quite a few -we've all got to pick up the tab. And many people papers here to go through. here today have been asking how they can contribute. Well we've already started. Mrs Shirley Williams made a contribution over lunch. I've had a call this MARTINE BERNARD afternoon from Buckingham Palace saying that My original question was, why do so few people plant 126 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION trees in the community and it seems to me that the Olympic Games to somebody else but I was nobody gets any credit for planting trees and that pleased yesterday that the City Architects Department perhaps is part of the reason why our inner cities are got a reference from His Royal Highness and that's so sick. In a sense our feeling unwell or sick in the being communicated back and they're changing the inner city is because we don't have nature around us letter headings, although as an urban renewal and nature actually heals us. architect in Birmingham for the last few years, I'm And I do feel that we all have a lot to learn about concerned that now the residents know exactly who this, and I want to give an answer to this gentleman, to write to when they don't get satisfaction. Brian. And I heard his plea and as I walked out at My original question was, does the Conference lunch time, I looked and I thought what can I offer, consider that the emphasis on the National because I've come here to offer as well as to receive Community Aid Fund and Inner City Aid is again from you all. And I want to offer him my experience. allowing the real question of government re About five years ago I was in Manchester and I put sponsibility to go unanswered? Now please don't together a house, a derelict house, and I'd received a misunderstand me, I've made my donation already, I grant to do it up. And it was in a very deprived inner think it's absolutely essential that these two funds go city area right next to the area where Myra Hindley forward, but what concerns me is that they are the and her crew came from, and I wonder how that two headlines that have come out of this conference. situation developed and I wondered whether the They are the two headlines that are relating to sickness of the place created that. And I would like to (Interruptions, there is something on fire in here, ... tell Brian what I did when the councils came and said clothing behind ... alright . . . sound engineer, it's an that they would demolish my house, and because they electric fault on the equipment . .. excuse me, it's were going to demolish my house, they were not okay, it's an electrical fault, we will deal with it going to pay me any money, and it might take them immediately ... so please don't panic). five years to demolish my house and I couldn't sell it. I think the best bet is if we continue and ignore it. It So I went on a hunger strike. After five days the might go away. Carry on. doctor told me that I should take fruit juice, so I took fruit juice and it took nineteen days for the council to There was a disruption in the hall at this point. decide to rehouse me. And that was one of the most worthwhile experiences of my life and the council We must not let Government abdicate its res made a condition of my moving that I should never ponsibilities: we must not let it think that it can get report this. But I'm telling you now. out of things by relying on private charity. I think the real need is in education, in the education of CHAIRMAN Thank you. governments and local authorities. I think they're the Let me just say that the question was why don't we people who have to learn. We've heard fine words plant trees and I want to say that our organisation in today but the legislation hasn't come and the Los Angeles planted thirty-five thousand trees in our resources still aren't there. Their words haven't yet community and the reason that we planted them was been put into real terms. What I would like to say in because of pollution and we understood that the conclusion though is, and I was going to bring chlorophyll from trees began to kill off some of the forward some examples, please don't go away feeling toxins in the air and that's why we planted trees. good about these new initiatives and warm inside because you feel as a conference you've achieved KEITH LANCASTER something. You should be going away concerned and Thanks Chairman. Keith Lancaster, Birmingham you should be going away angry about the real City Architects Department. I asked if I could come situation. Don't get any ideas that the institutions, up and actually reply to the politicians. My question the architects institutions, all support this community was read out to them and as usual they didn't actually movement- the vast majority still don't. There is a lot answer the question I asked, or at least it didn't of work to be done there. In Birmingham we've been appear to be that way to me and there were references spending the last ten years trying to renovate houses, made to the City of Birmingham not being happy nothing else, just renovating houses. And at the end with the money it was getting. I didn't say that at all. of that ten years there are now more houses in Of course it isn't happy with the money it is getting disrepair than when we started. That's the scale of the and one or two other references were made so I'd like problem in Birmingham, and I would say that that's to make the point that I originally intended. Before I the scale of the problem elsewhere. Could I please ask do that could I just say that there has been the Chairman, I'm sorry to take so long. disappointment in Birmingham recently as you probably know. It rained very heavily when we had LEWIS PRESTON the Grand Prix, that was the first mishap; then we lost Mr Chairman, thank you. I wrote a question and I 127 • 0 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION didn't really expect to stand in front of you, but I'll situation in the street which was one of great strength; just simply repeat the question that I put on the slip the whole community was very cohesive in that area. and that is that I was, personally I think a great many At the same time we asked a gentleman who has other people share with me the inward warmth and appeared here today, John Patten, who was coming satisfaction at seeing a representative from the to Hull anyway, to come and look at the street. The tenants outside come in and address us just before. effect of that was we got a whole bus load of Hull City And it seems to be quite a simple proposition that I Councillors who actually had never visited the street ask you to include in the resolutions that are going before but were advocating its demolition, to come out from this conference and that is that we will call down and speak to the people. They looked at it and for a properly resourced National Tenants Body as a decided that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to pull result of this conference and it seems to me that that it down after all. And in fact the report that the could be one of the priorities of the fund that we've students had prepared who put to the Housing just been contributing to now. Mr President, I would Development Sub Committee in Hull. It was very much like to be included in the resolutions. accepted and the street was U-turned from being a Thank you. (APPLAUSE). demolition area into a priority area which meant that the householders then got improvement grants to do CHAIRMAN Let me say as the Chairman at this time, up their houses and the end of the story is that we've if there is a resolution for that, if it's brought forward now got the whole branch of ACT AC ABC and it can be read into the resolutions and maybe we commission and an architect there to put together a should have had a resolution instead of just a proposal for producing community gardens and question. The next person please. gates to the street; so it's just a little story of hope. William Murray and Councillor Kevin Stephens, LEWIS PRESTON Miss Boyce, did you leave? Councillor Kevin Thank you, Mr Chairman. My name is Lewis Preston Stephens, William Murray. Councillor William and I've come from Hull and I just wanted to say a Murray, Claudia Bloom, Mrs Mary E H Smith. few words in fact on the subject of action groups and community groups taking initiative, especially after NEW SPEAKER listening to and being very moved by the talks by I didn't want to put a question, in fact, I labelled it an Francis McCall and Paddy Doherty yesterday about observation and I made it this morning when it was what they were doing in their localities. It seemed it perhaps a little more relevant than it is now. My might be relevant just to mention one other quickly observation this morning was that we are discussing which might give a lead for other community groups communities and I underline the word communities. who perhaps feel disillusioned or left out. That was in I wanted to remind the conference that the Hull. I lived in a house which was compulsorily population today is made up of over 50 per cent purchased by the local city council and was to be female and I was sitting down there looking at a pulled down and I moved into the next door street platform which was entirely male. What I think because I liked the area and had all the searches done worries me about this is that we are talking about by a solicitor on the house I was moving in to. But communities, we are talking about representing unfortunately three months after I moved into that communities. We heard the Rev. Thorley this house, the Hull City Council decided they would pull morning say that the Church of England is male that street down as well. And these were quite sound dominated; we all know that most of the established Victorian houses and after all the talk we've had in bodies in this country are male-dominated and I the last couple of days about the sixties and seventies wanted to make a plea to the organisers of this dwellings not living up to their expectations it seems a conference that this very worthwhile initiative should shame that we should pull down good solid houses a not be male-dominated. The trust that we heard hundred years old which could be done up and last about, ifl heard right, hasn't got a woman on it and I another while. So I went along to a meeting and at think it is important that there should be women that meeting local residents decided to form an action represented. group and what we did was, we commissioned two of NEW SPEAKER the students from the local school of architecture to I am the general secretary of Family Forum which is come and help us and produce a report because at an organisation concerned with policies affecting that time the City Council's environmental health families from the cradle to the grave. So one of the officers were coming round compiling their report things we are particularly interested in is housing and which was basically to justify the demolishing of the the kind of environment people live in. We've been houses. It didn't take into account any of the social talking for the last two days about building situations; so we asked the students to look both at communities, about building from the bottom up, so the physical condition of the houses and the social I want to put a resolution that asks, when all of you, 128 .. SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION all the people here who get involved in these the wealth of experience in this conference to make communities and all the people who aren't here who this community work. God willing next time. This is will be, when you are making your plans, you put conference number one. Conference number two aside a small proportion of the living accommodation might let us have time to discuss all the things we want and the resources for the people who are homeless to put into our communities. now and who will become homeless over the next few years? This is very appropriate because we are coming JIM SCOTT into the International Year of Shelter for the I'm glad the last speaker said what she did because I Homeless. very much hope people will take part in the There are lots and lots of reasons why people are workshops tomorrow and exchange ideas on a rather homeless. I'll just mention three of them because they smaller scale and get some benefit from other are very important. One is unemployment, either people's experience. I say that because I am going to people have got on their bikes and found perhaps a be involved in one of them on Community job but nowhere to live; they may have got into debt Architecture and the Architectural Association. and been thrown out of their homes, they may have Back to my point: having striven for tenant tried to buy their own homes and defaulted on their participation in rehousing and redevelopment for mortgages. There is a lot of homelessness through twenty four years, keenly supported 'small is unemployment. We've heard a lot today and there's beautiful' for ten years and spent five years the exhibition about the number of families in bed researching and promoting community design, it is and breakfast. Another reason for homelessness is ironical that I should conclude that community is the break-up of relationships and marriage. It figures about unity, it's not necessarily about localism. It is that when a relationship breaks up you need twice as because oflack of unity of purpose between designers much living accommodation. One in three marriages and users that user-control of design is found to be are breaking up, (that's not counting the relation the only way of users' interest being met. It is also ships) and where there are children there is enormous because of lack of unity of purpose and commitment hardship. Frequently the non-custodial parent is a between government and users that user-voluntary man who cannot have his children or see his children funding is found to be necessary to meet their needs as because he has nowhere to take them. These people well. In other words, had that commitment been need places within communities to live, and to have there, there would already have been"adequate, more their children to stay, because it is an absolute fact than adequate, provision without the necessity of that children who lose contact with their non people having to be as much involved as we are. custodial parent both stop doing as well at school and Without the unity of purpose and commitment present quite a few problems. And the third is a very, between providers and users generally, whoever they very important part of the community and it hasn't may be, professionals, economics, economists, users, been mentioned at all in the last two days, or perhaps residents or whatever, community planning, com just once in passing. And that is the enormous munity architecture and design will be no more than. number of people who are being thrown out and window dressing for the status quo in a new form. sicked literally onto the community who have spent However dedicated individually committed people years and years in hospitals, people who are mentally and groups may be, we've already had warnings in handicapped. If we are going to build communities this conference, the warning that professionals are that are going to have anything to say in terms of 'cunning bastards' and the thing which I think we modern living and quality of life, we must give those ought to be particularly aware of is that Community people room. There was a television programme last Architecture has actually been defined by the week where quite a lot of very nice people, all classes professionals. In other words, if there had been user and types, said we don't want to know. Yes of course control, would it really ever have been called they must come into the community as long as they Community Architecture in the first place? are not in our road. Therefore must we not all, not only drop our egos Now this is something we must think about. I but in fact also our roles, in other words not think of wouldn't have mentioned it except I have a feeling ourselves as an architect, as a local councillor, as a that this conference should reflect the problems that planner, as a builder or whatever because many of the are in our communities, (I don't mean to criticise the problems need a joint development of view, which is organisers, being a conference organiser myself). actually intuitive in a new area. We have to forget our We haven't had the opportunity that we'd have own specialities and look to see how the dynamic of liked to have our voice heard. This is my third or the situation is actually evolving. Is it not necessary fourth attempt to get heard, and we haven't had the therefore, not only to drop our egos and our roles but physical or the mental or psychological space to get to also our individualistic interests for anything really to know one another and exchange ideas and really use happen? .. 129 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION CHAIRMAN The next speaker, Tony Noble. While Tony is coming to the stand let me say that there are going to be two more questions raised and then we're going to go into resolutions and hopefully we will get some of that maximum participation in the resolutions if the audience is still here. TONY NOBLE I've anticipated your comments Chairman, mine is a resolution. I'm from Middlesbrough and we have severed inner area problems, social, economic and physical, but forty thousand people live on outer estates, without the physical but worse economic and social problems, 50 per cent to 80 per cent levels of unemployment in parts, near uniform poverty. Incomes of £2,000-£4,000 per annum per household. The term 'Inner City Fund' is too narrow and it has fallen into the trap of identifying the high profile fashionable sector of a widespread urban and occasionally rural problem. Rational analysis of our present society incidentally (as is demonstrated in 'Faith in the City') shows that the incidence of deprivation in outer estates of virtually all towns and cities is as severe or worse than the inner city. I'd invite you to ask that the Fund be renamed to tackle areas of severe deprivation and poverty. Thank you. G. A. PADSTONE The question was prompted because I represent the Clerkenwell Heritage Centre which is based in conference because I think that's something we Islington. In 1974 there was a suggestion that should think about when we go away. This occasion Islington alone, out of the boroughs around the no doubt has given us a very good time but the real centre of London, should look at tourism and the issue it seems to me is wider than a lot of those that Clerkenwell Heritage Centre has in some ways been we've been discussing here. When we turn to inner promoted in order to do just that, but we have found city aid, the challenge (in reviving what Prince that it's also a convenient way of looking at Charles called 'shattered communities') is to make increasing employment in the borough and we are in towns and cities as a whole more liveable for the fact already looking at ways which we can involve the people who are there, to make life more bearable and local community, both business and residential. to provide resources better able to meet community Tourists are not people in funny hats wanting to buy needs. And I think that means addressing much more ice creams any more: in fact they're now visitors and than the relatively simple re-shaping of the physical they can actually come from just up the road and environment that has been the main subject under suddenly find something they had never noticed discussion at this conference. It means addressing all before. That's the reason for the question because the the planning issues that were outlined for example, by question is: few if any, dispute the failure of some David Hall, this morning and much more besides to earlier schemes, particularly high rise buildings. Few end the alienation which so many people feel. I think dispute the need for new initiatives however, do we Mike Franks put it quite well when he talked about know the reason for our failure to preserve that bringing back ordinary people's involvement in the endangered species of society, the local community as life of the city. Because I think no matter how anything more than a symbol. Should it not be the effective is the work to reconstruct, for example a basis on which we should build in order to re-create run-down estate, if it is done in isolation, society? independently from what is happening in the rest of society it will be only be of very limited benefit BRIAN LYMBURY indeed. I've just got a question to ask, which was, what, if And so I would like to suggest that the Inner City anything will change anywhere as a result of this Trust needs to think about those issues. It seems to 130 .. SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION me that if it wants to make a success, if it wants to happy note. About a week ago I was talking with a achieve the impact that clearly its promoters intend; it councillor and a student, he happened to be black but must do more than try to stimulate hundreds of he could have quite easily been white, who was doing thousands of Community Architecture Projects, call a youth training scheme and the attitude of the it what you like, Community Development Projects councillor was -'I suppose you don't think much of in different parts of the country. To make an impact this because you won't get a job at the end.' The it's got to do more, it's got to target on certain areas, student's reaction was - ah but I'll be able to build a work with local groups and with enlightened local house for myself when I've finished perhaps. So I do authorities in the same place to support a whole think that we should not belittle the efforts that are collection of local projects, so that the overall effect being made in education and try really to bring in will really make some impact in achieving change. So what I've tried to state today. Thank you. that it can really achieve its purpose in making the town or the city in which it's working a better place in CHAIRMAN every sense. And very few of the contributors to this This time, will the people who have passed in conference have taken that sort of strategic approach. resolutions and you know who you are, will you begin I can understand why. The speaker who encapsulated to come forward because we've got a stack of and illustrated it very well indeed was Paddy Doherty resolutions and what we'd like to do rather than go but if it's not possible for the Inner City Trust to through and try to find you in the resolution, we'd promote that sort of strategic approach in carefully like for you to get your resolution, come up and then selected places, then I think your initiative will be in present it. danger of being sidelined as so many have before it. In the meantime we are going to have a And I hope that's a lesson that you will think about. presentation to those people who've put on such a Thank you. wonderful conference. But before we go into that, let me just throw another thought to you - in the once NEW SPEAKER Labour Action Committee, we created what is quite I just want to develop a point that was brought up by new, we feel in the Western Hemisphere and possibly David Hall which hasn't been mentioned very much in the Eastern as well what we did twelve years ago at this conference but I think it very important and was pass, through the executive board of the then that is the training of the professionals. I don't know Labour Community Action Committee a resolution whether I come under the category of a 'cunning that called for horizontal leadership and that began bastard' because I was a valuer in the sixties who was to be possibly one of the greatest revolutions that we buying up a lot of properties, or whether I come had in our organisation because first, in order to be a under the category of 'enlightened academic' but I part of the top structure of the organisation, each hope I've learnt from both my experiences. I think person who wanted to be a president had to go out one thing wrong with the training of the professions is and organise a club with one hundred members, not that like inner city problems there are engrained less than a hundred members. So today we've got interests within the professions themselves. Architects, thirty presidents in the Watts Labour Community surveyors, housing managers, valuers, quantity Action Committee and in order to be a director of the surveyors, they all work together as a team and they organisation you had to put together a package or a all must be trained in their specialist expertise, but I proposal to bring into contracts more than $100,000 do feel there is a scope for a common study coming of monies, so that the budget would include a salary within the courses and the curriculums of all these for you to direct a programme. We have thirty two professional people, and I am sure that that is not the directors in the organisation and every Friday case at present. Also I feel that in the training of these morning we have a meeting that basically discusses professionals there is a need really for joint working questions, problem solving etc. Now horizontal where this can be brought together because when they leadership is quite different from what we are used to. get out into the professions that is where they'll have We are used to pyramid type leadership and therefore to work together. And the final point I would make is it begins to be a completely different approach to that there must be a chance for them to work in the being part of an organisational structure because community, I know that this is possible with a lot of then you have a responsibility for organising and the professional courses at the moment but it's going out in the community and getting those bodies certainly not true of all of them and if we want a that we talk about being part of our community Prince, I think we might have Prince Edward of participation. So take it in as adult, think about it and Education who will make sure that our educational do with it what you want to do. Thank you. initiatives build up on what his brother, Prince Charles is trying to do for the inner cities. CONFERENCE PRESIDENT On a happier note, or perhaps not quite such a Thank you Ted. .. 131 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION We will have in one minute resolutions, the last items CHAIRMAN of the day, because we also intend to go forward from If somebody would like to make that a resolution the end of today, we have tomorrow morning at the we'd include in that. Thank you. RIBA, we have the Architectural Association, some Miss Marbelly moves, is there a second to the field trips, so it isn't the end, but the beginning, and motion?. Seconded. Miss Marbelly moves and the resolutions will be used in any post-conference seconded, are there any questions on the motion? information. This is the way we do it in the United States and the I would like to begin to thank the people who've UA W by the way. (LAUGHTER). Hearing no points helped to make this conference possible, so that you is called for. All those in favour of the motion let it be can see who they are, you've seen a lot of faces milling known by the union sign of'Aye', 'Aye's' have it and around in the last two days, and I'd like to thank the so on. sponsors, Bovis, Gulbenkein, Rank Xerox, The Builder Group, Trust House Forte, Wates Founda CONFERENCE PRESIDENT tion and Trafalgar House, and in particular Regalian To the CAIS organisers - there's two lots of cases Properties and Alison Patterson who is here this involved, there's the CASE, (the campaign against afternoon as their representative the irony is that this the sale of estates) but the organisers of the conference wouldn't have been possible if we hadn't conference are also called CAIS: Charles Knevitt, kicked off with their contribution and they've Jim Sneddon, Nick Wates and Caroline Theobald. allowed others to come forward and put their case And I would like to ask Caroline to come up onto the even against themselves and I think that's a good sign platform please. and a good healthy climate and a good democratic And the men are not going to get away with it. way of working. Would Charles Knevitt, Jim Sneddon and Nick I would like to thank the people who organised the Wates also stand up please. They're not going to get exhibition design and coordination, that's Covent any flowers but let's see what you look like. To Ann Garden Housing Project, the Hunt Thompson South, who also is involved in CAIS for the Community Architects Associates, the Nottingdale administration and you know the sort of administra Urban Studies Centre and especially Jean Sillett and tion that goes to make a conference like this work so Brendan O'Neil for organising what was a truly please give your applause to Ann South please. exceptional exhibition, as The Prince of Wales To London Conference, whose job it was to himself said when he saw it yesterday. publicise and attract all those people who have (APPLAUSE). managed to attend and representing them today, it's To the Astoria Theatre decoration and special team work, but we have Jane Ahern on behalf of effects which you've seen this afternoon. To the Free London Conferences Ltd. Please come forward Jane. Form Arts Trust for their work in putting on a very The main publicity, putting it out to politicians, interesting venue for us. The theatre format has getting people excited, getting the press involved, and actually contributed I think, to a very good I must say the number of press involved yesterday discussion. I'll tell you why, sitting here, nobody sits was tremendous and all credit there has to go to still, people can move around, people are buying tea Stratton & Reekie, Public Relations, and here both of and coffee, no they're not, they're getting it free, but you please, Deborah Stratton and Amanda, come up. they are actually moving around and it's not I knew I had to give five kisses. And now I hand disturbing anything at all. It's a very relaxed way. back to your Chairman. Just a mention by the way, And I would like to think perhaps a similar event the cost of conference I understand has cost over organised in the future could take this sort of format £100,000 to put on. We were guaranteed a certain if we can find a theatre big enough to take us next number of places to start with but I understand we year. So thank you for letting us use your theatre, the just about managed to break even and I must Astoria Theatre Management Team, and thank you, congratulate CAIS for managing to do that. Thank Rainbow Associates, for last night's little show. you CAIS. Can I hand you over then to Charles To the 67 speakers, the 1,050 delegates and the 100 Knevitt, a Director of CAIS. press, most of whom were here yesterday for making it such a tremendous occasion. Many people thought CHARLES KNEVITT it was impossible to get so many people to a I keeping changing hats here today but I thought Community Architecture conference but thank you you'd like me on behalf of the organisers to thank our for attending, it proved it is viable. There is a need conference president very much indeed, Rod and I've also been asked to tell you that the organisers Hackney who has supported this since the first idea of would like to think that they could be allowed to the conference was mooted in July 1985, although we organise a similar event next year if that was the only started working on it in May, but I'm sure you'd feeling from the audience. all like to show your appreciation to Rod and what 132 .. SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION he's done and not least for introducing The Prince of John Ashton. You all have the resolutions. Are there Wales to this audience here yesterday. Rod, thank any resolutions that anyone would like to speak out you very much indeed. on? Or would they rather us just to go on record approving all the resolutions and taking that kind of CHAIRMAN action. How do we want to do it? Because we've got Now let me say that I'm to try to call these names out two ways we do resolutions in the UA W, we do away as close as I can to an alphabetical order and the first with all of those we oppose to and only pass the ones resolution is Miss Anderson and Michael Brown, that we support. Trudy Ashley, Eric Cowen, George Clark, Phillis I remember the time that Walter Rooper had, there Ferguson, Mike Galloway, H. Hinsley, Jan Tolley, was a local union, Ford Local in Detroit Michigan Isadoria Deikidies- Hackney Inner City Council. G. had 60,000 workers and we had the national Payne. convention and they have the largest delegation of This resolution here has no name on it and the any local union in the United States and so they had person did not wish to identify themselves but maybe been raising the question among the rank and file because of the way it's being handled they will come about a shorter work week, thirty hour week for forty up and get the resolution if they didn't want to hour pay was the major issue being raised at that identify themselves. convention in the UA W, so what Walter Rooter Madeleine Morgan, Tony Noble, Mary Renaldo, done, he set aside a special area for the delegates from Dorothy Stein, James Sweeny, Bernard Smith, Local 600 and he laid a red carpet down from the Nancy Thomas, Toppings and another resolution sidewalk to the seats that Local600 were supposed to with no name on it, if somebody can recognise that sit in and they had big, plush red seats for them to sit piece of paper but it has no name. Sam Webb and in, and when the time came for the resolution to be another resolution, Bruce Smith, Howard Seymour, passed there were no delegates sitting in any of the Laura Sheretton, Anthony McGann, Bill Hessel, seats. So how do you all want to do this? RESOLUTIONS CONFERENCE PRESIDENT CHAIRMAN Ted, can I make a suggestion and please let us know if Ayes have it so this is the right one, each person reads the resolution Next. and then very quickly the audience says 'Aye or nay' we'll get through it. How's that? JUDY ASHLEY My resolution is to do with the implementation of CHAIRMAN positive action and equal opportunities in order that That's as democratic as anything Reagan has ever the resources that are being made available are done. (LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE). channelled to those most in need in our society and For starters, something quite uncontroversial. the resolution of what to put to this conference is that Delegates to this conference individually commit in administering the Inner City Trust and National themselves to support Bottoms Up by asking each Community Aid Fund, the administrators require candidate for election in their home area exactly what that the recipient organisations are actively working powers they propose to delegate to which representa to eliminate prejudice within their own organisations, tives of their communities. whether racial difference, class gender or any Aye. disability and that they require this also of their MICHAEL BROWN technical and consultants and also their contractors. I was delighted to learn that the Community Aid Fund is in favour of and committed to the idea of CHAIRMAN networking, of putting communities in contact with Aye. each other and enabling them to identify needs, and Let me say one thing, we are passing these putting them in touch with people who can provide resolutions. Now we didn't quite do it that way at the professional and technical help. I am amongst those UA W, not taking your resolution back with you who are ready to offer help and I would like to because if you take it with you there won't be nothing propose that following the conference, that some sort that we've approved here. (LAUGHTER). of network be set up to identify needs and show where people are able to meet these needs. GEORGE CLARK That this conference should stand .. 133 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION adjourned because this conference applauds the ISIDORES DIARIDES initiative of the conference organisers, welcomes the The government in the last few years has been cutting setting up of the inner city aid and welcomes the continuously the Urban Aid Budget which is one of patronage of His Royal Highness The Prince of the few means to which the government has Wales, asks that we should not cease our efforts to supported some of the initiatives that the conference implement the tasks set by Community Architecture has been advocating. We are told earlier that the until all men and women have economic liberty and minister is going to, or has promised that they will social freedom and a choice to live in a decent city give some money towards the Inner City Trust and regardless of their race, class or religion. my experience is that the danger is that they would try Nay. to take it out of the existing Urban Aid Grant. Nays have it. The resolution didn't pass. The Therefore what I would like to suggest to conference conference does not stand adjourned at this time. is that any financial contribution from the government to the Inner City Trust should not come PRESIDENT out of the existing Urban Programme Budget, it Can I suggest, Mr Chairman, we make this the last should be entirely new money. resolution of the day. CHAIRMAN CHAIRMAN It has been properly moved that we Ayes have it. make this resolution for adjournment, the last item for today. All those in favour say Aye, Ayes have it so GEOFFERY PAYNE pass it. I am primarily involved in professional education, particularly for architects and planners and urban H. HINSLEY designers and it seems to me that there is going to be My resolution is to do with the injunction that came considerable need for change in educational curricula from the floor earlier on, that we should learn to leave if the next generation of professionals are to avoid the our egos behind. I think that a lot of us here who are paternalistic label of the present generation. And it professionals should also learn to leave our power to seems to me that if this is to be the case, there is one decide what others should do behind and the practical demonstration for which the next step resolution is that the money raised by the Inner City forward could follow, which is· that if schools of Aid Fund should be directly controlled by architecture, planning and urban design were to democratically organised groups, not by the express their willingness to the community groups professions or by so-called experts on planning, and local authorities represented here, that they were architecture or any other specialisation. willing to work with local community groups and vice versa, the community groups wishing to work with CHAIRMAN schools of architecture, should identify themselves as Ayes have it, so pass it. such. This would provide a basis for working groups which then could report to subsequent conferences or IAN JOLLY international workshops of this nature. Government initiatives in inner cities, but Community Architecture and community regeneration is by its CHAIRMAN Bottom Up nature, directly opposite to such Ayes have it. initiatives as the LDDC. Much regeneration is taking place in the Docklands but with only lip service paid MANDY REYNOLDS to consultation with the communities. The LDDC In the light of supposed the Bottoms Up basis of this has effectively asset stripped an inner city area, conference and the apparent commitment of the leaving the previous community bemused by their conference and participants through community new neighbours, and leaving surroundings laid out by control and support, my resolution is that I suggest planners answerable to no-one, but this conference that if the National Community Trust and the Inner asks that present and future initiatives by the City Trust Fund are to have the confidence and government should be securely tied to local accountability that they claim the trustees must consultation and be available to local communities to reflect this community. There must be a substantial avoid even greater divides being made in our society number of trustees who are genuine representatives between the haves and the have nots. of all community groups, especially of ethnic minorities and women; so far there appear to be no CHAIRMAN women whatsoever in the trustees group. These Ayes have it. representatives should be in genuine control through You were a little slow with that one. democratic processes of the fund, not the pro- 134 .. SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION fessionals who as usual seem to be holding the purse JOHN TOPPING strings and the power. Mr Chairman. Belief in spaces and places for people. Capital S capital P especially capital P for people. CHAIRMAN Thank you. Ayes have it. Mr Chairman, may I ask you to read the rest of it. CHAIRMAN VERNA SMITH Space and Places for People. Faith in mankind, My resolution is about homelessness. Sin~le perso~ inherent quest for community, a faith in the homelessness in particular and Commumty Archi importance of building communities, and a fa~th in tecture, because Community Architecture won't the importance of perceiving a coherent, visual, function and won't work unless there is equal access urban design. Where collective units also accom to housing for all. I come from an estate of three modate people's wishes and enhance the confiden~e hundred and fifty people and for eight years we have in the necessary freedom of people to express their been building our community, for eight years we've individualities and enterprise which progress social been working with Community Architects, we've boundaries toward further investments in people, transformed our estate, we've saved it from resources, endeavours and their environments in demolition, but in the end it's not us who will inherit order to take a new social energy named a third force the new buildings because single people don't have a out of choice and control. right to housing under the Housing Homeless Is that a resolution? Persons Act. And so my resolution is that this Thank you. . . conference calls for the amendment of the Housing All those in favour of that notion of a resolutiOn let It Homeless Persons Act to embrace all homeless be known by the usual sign of aye. people whatever their circumstances and calls on the The ayes have that one by unanimous vote. government to provide the resources and encourage (LAUGHTER). the partnerships which will provide housing for all. What I would like to propose is that each resolution be condensed and put in to an intelligible form so that CHAIRMAN we can have these resolutions sent to each one of the Ayes have it. people who have been delegate to this conference and that some appropriate steps can be made to get these DOROTHY STEIN resolutions before our respresentatives in Parliament Because of the threat to a community which has been and in the councils. I would like to make that point. regenerating itself from the grass routes for fourteen Ayes have it. years, because of threats imposed to land values which will go up, and because traffic, this conference SAM WEBB recommends that references to Waterloo Station be Repeal the Housing and Planning Act, 1986. That's deleted from the Channel Tunnel Hybrid Bill and the the first resolution. siting of a terminal or terminals should be made a matter of public enquiry. SAM WEBB Hand back the LDDC areas and power to the CHAIRMAN boroughs and the people. Ayes have it. CHAIRMAN NANCY THOMAS Both resolutions had a unanimous vote and therefore I would plead for a pragmatic and flexible approach are passed. in any actions or all actions resulting from this conference based on perceived wants of the DAVID MOORE communities being served and not on some political My resolution is that the venues of all future meetings theory or action which often ends up in bickering or be more carefully chosen to provide the best possible at worst, conflict. access for the disabled members of our communities. CHAIRMAN CHAIRMAN Ayes have it. Unanimous vote. Ayes have it. There weren't many ayes that time. You all want to speak up again on that one. JOHN ASHTON Aye. I would like to introduce this resolution on behalf of That's better, the majority of the house. Bruce Smith, Howard Seymour, Laurie Chiarena, .. 135 SESSION 6: THE POLITICAL FRAMEWORK FOR ACTION Tony McGann and Bill Halsall. It takes two parts. Five: give voluntary committee development organ This group of people are a mixture of professionals isations powers to acquire public or private sector and people acting in their communities. Two parts, land and property through public or private sector there is the introductory part and then there are five subsidy at a price to be established on the basis of an points, and I will try and read them fairly clearly. assessment of its real market value. The current There are some copies around. This conference owners of buildings and land shall be required to believes that people from deprived urban areas specify their development plans for these assets and cannot achieve their dreams and potential unless they will be liable to taxation on the basis of assumed have control over the important choices of everyday returns based on their own book values. life. This control cannot be given, it can only be taken back by communities. It follows the community CHAIRMAN organisations and groups must have access to those All those in favour of that resolution, let it be known resources which enables this to be possible. These by usual sign of aye. resources include particularly land, property, services Aye. and the generation of wealth within communities All opposed, nay. together with appropriate education and training opportunities. Many communities do not have access The ayes have it. to the necessary funding to enable their plans to be initiated within a reasonable time, and ready access to At this time I think that one of the major things that start-up finance is a pre-requisite. we have set out to accomplish has been accomplished Fundamental to this process is the accountability at this convention, a conference or similar or of local community organisations and professionals whatever one desires to call it, but what has happened to the people who have to live with the consequences here that I,have been able to see, is one of the kindest of their actions. Professionals can have an important audiences that I have participated in and it appears to part to play by assisting communities but they must me that we have achieved the maximum participation have a commitment to working for, not on, from that audience. So what I would like to do at this communities, on-tap not on-top. This conference time is make two resolutions. therefore calls for appropriate parliamentary legisla Number one, that you give a standing ovation to tion to be enacted that will: yourselves for being such kind and good people. I One: give voluntary community development organisa would like to put that in the form of a resolution and tions the right to local government finance, to fund to carry it out in that way, that you stand and give feasibility development studies for their communities yourselves a standing ovation because I think you and appropriate start-up finance. Local authorities deserve it. should have the power to raise a minimum rate pre Thank you. set of two pence in the pound specifically for this And because you have been so good this year, the first purpose. year, I would like to make another resolution that Two: introduce a re-establishment tax which will you have another conference of this type next year. oblige all national, private and public sector All those in favour of another Community businesses to re-instate land and property to usable Architecture and Planning conference next year, will condition when they disinvest from an area. you let it be known by the usual sign of aye. Aye. Three: rewrite the terms of reference of all relevant All opposed, nay. quangos, e.g. the Housing Corporation, British Rail, British Waterways Board, English Estates, Develop The ayes have it and so ordered. ment Corporation, Health Authorities and others, to create a special responsibility to make land and And I've just one other note, I would like to see it be resources available for community led and control so much broader that maybe you'd have to use a place ini tia ti ves. like Wembley or some place like that for it to be held Four: make these quangos accountable to local and also don't be afraid to ask some of that trust communities through regional committees including monies to put it on for the people who have not that local authority and community organisation can attend, that they can attend and be supported. representatives. Thank you. 136 .. CLOSE OF CONFERENCE CONFERENCE PRESIDENT strength from the people they are really meant to This is the last part of the conference and I'd first like serve, the ordinary people, those who need help to to begin by thanking Ted Watkins for standing in as just regenerate themselves and break through that Chairman of today. I think his style, his personality barrier of inhibition that seems to be imposed upon have shown that even at an end of a conference when them. I think it is a future for our professional service, many people are leaving you can still keep the interest it is the one where they must relax, forget their egos of the audience. Thank you Ted. which have certainly come across today. And perhaps When the first signs were indicated to those adopt a more humble approach to what they're trying involved in this conference that perhaps it would be a to achieve, which at the end of the day is simply one of good idea to have it, there were many sceptics who articulating ordinary people's cares, for getting on thought it was rather ambitious but the organisers, and improving their environment, improving their when they did get themselves going, found job prospects, creating a shelter for the family and tremendous support from many bodies and many that's particularly relevant for next year - the organisations in actually putting it on. They actually International Year of Shelter for the Homeless. And cut across those various institutions that are very that is all, because we're in a rather complicated jealous of putting on this sort of show and they society surrounded by rules, perhaps drawn up when managed to resist the British propensities to we thought we were much more sophisticated than we denigrate this sort of effort when you actually cut really are. across sacred barriers; and all credit to them for doing All professionals are for is to translate the real that and even more credit for those very institutions basic, human needs of survival and improvement of that resisted this conference initially for actually family values so that those very people can attain participating to the full in it at the end of the day. those aims and objectives. That is all they're here for. And those words, I think, were echoed yesterday in When they go the opposite way and create rules and His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales' address, inhibitions that go against that structure they cease to when he reminded us that we are the privileged ones, have a function even in a modern, sophisticated we are the wise heads and we should put those heads society. The Community Architecture movement together and create stronger associations between hopes to remove all that surrounds professional those most active in the field of community limited organisations that in the end are simply architecture and planning rather than wasting and conspiracies against the laity. But please be warned dissipating energy in internal, narrow-minded rivalry as a movement, if that's what this is going to become, that only goes to further undermine the respect we mustn't copy those limiting rules that restrict ordinary people have in those amongst us who are ourselves to a rather narrow format; we must remain privileged to have had an education and be in a broad, always keep our feet on the ground, and position of power and economic strength. I think if remember what Brian told us. He actually provided one thing has shone through as a light in this the conscience of this conference, nobody else, conference, it is the inner ability of all of us to forget everybody else can meet their aspirations and aims by little differences for the common good, and I think if tying themselves to a person like that. We need we can go forward next year with that spirit we'll have always to keep our feet on the ground if we are to have achieved one great thing, that, of first learning to any future at all in this country. work together as politicians, technicians and Thank you for attending. Thank you for making it professionals, and if we can do that we'll then show very worthwhile. It has been as enjoyable up here as I the way for the very people that we are meant to help hope it has been in the audience and I look forward to -the community groups who are finding that they are seeing you all again next year. even more frustrated at the lack of encouragement for Just one final thing, of course, we did leave one their efforts. resolution to come from George Clark which It was a strange marriage, this conference. We did hopefully will timely bring us to conclusion and when have top gown people here talking, but what kept us we meet again next year, perhaps we can meet the going, and what kept those top gown people aims and aspiration of George Clark's resolution. So interested, because many of them find themselves I hand over now to George. Thank you. withstanding orders from local authorities, rather negative professional regulations in professional GEORGE CLARK associations, that they in fact can get their inner It does give me the opportunity of prefixing it with .. 137 CLOSE OF CONFERENCE two thoughts. The first thought is that I'm not a don't, the one thing about building communities is planner, I'm not an architect, in the sense that you that all of us, those who go to the leafy suburbs at mean it, I guess I am in the majority here, I'm not a night and forget the inner city problem, those who professional. I often like to regard myself as a peasant live in the countries in a comfortable disposition have but I have been stirred, like few occasions have stirred to remember is that to make building communities me in the past year, after thirty years work in this work, you have to commit yourself to living, field, in the field of community development and laughing, crying and dying with them. And it's at that community action and community organising. By his spirit that I move the resolution. thoughts and actions, his prodding and goading of All those in favour. the establishment over the past year, Rod Hackney This conference should stand adjourned, not closed, has produced a meeting of minds and started for I believe the work has to go on because this connections that bring some delight here today and I conference applauds the initiative of the conference do believe that this conference, throughout the last organisers, welcomes the setting up of the Inner City forty-eight hours, has managed to cross those Aid, welcomes the patronage of His Royal Highness boundaries which Rod has been so concerned about The Prince of Wales, asks that we should not cease and that's the first thought and the reason why I am our efforts, all of us that is, to implement the tasks set happy to move this final resolution. by Community Architecture until. all men and women I was in Notting Hill in 1950,just after the race riots have economic liberty and social freedom, freedom of and a lorry driver was taking me home. I'd stayed in choice and a decent city to live in, no matter their London for Christmas, and I said to him, 'Lenny, it's class, their religion or their colour. awfully quiet here you know, I don't know this The resolution to adjourn. What is the pleasure of the Notting Hill', and Lenny says 'well you know why, body? they've all gone home'. And so I thought this was a Aye. nice piece of racism coming out and I said 'what do you mean Lenny, they've all gone home', 'all those professionals, the teachers and the social workers and the planners.' If we mean what we say about building CHAIRMAN communities, if we mean what we say about enabling It has been properly moved that we adjourn and it has and facilitating, if we mean what we say, by a transfer been a unanimous vote. The meeting at this point of resources from those who have them to those who stands adjourned. Thank you very much. 138 WORKSHOP REPORTS REPORTS OF THE SIX RIBA BUILDING The RIBA could encourage local authorities to COMMUNITIES WORKSHOPS: follow the example of those who are already providing grass roots architectural services using About 150 people took part in the RIBA Building both in-house and private architects. Partnership Communities workshops organised by the Com with local authorities can achieve results over larger munity Architecture Group which were held at the areas and with greater continuity than is possible with RIBA on November 29, 1986, following the Building individual projects. Communities Conference. The workshops addressed They could make funds available to its regions to the following topics: large-scale community projects, establish local resource centres. The centres would architects as advocates, can local authorities practise make contact with local community groups and community architecture? rural communities, the establish their needs. They could promote the idea of forgotten areas, how should the RIBA respond to the parish architects who would maintain an interest in problems of the inner cities? and how can an area. Other activities could include forming architectural education respond to a changing networks of architects and other professionals able to environment? assist communities, providing information about The event attracted a wide variety of people, successful schemes, sources of funds, etc. The RIBA including architects in both private practice and the resource centre at Portland Place could actively assist public sector, members of community groups, local the regions, for example, by issuing a regionally councillors and students. The view of many people orientated leaflet to be distributed by the regions to who took part was that the workshops produced local community and church groups, public offices some fruitful ideas which regretfully were not and libraries in order to enthuse local architects and crystallised into resolutions which could be put to point them and other members of the community forward at the plenary session or included in these to comprehensive sources of information and help. proceedings. The RIBA could use its journal, The Architect, to disseminate information on the practice of community architecture, with technical aid sheets on topics such How should the RIBA respond to the as development trusts, working with Manpower problems of the inner cities? Services Commission labour and VAT, and might assemble the material into a separately published The workshop expressed its concern about the handbook of technical implementation. tendency apparent at the Building Communities Conference for community architecture to be The RIBA could investigate and promote a better thought of as a charitable activity, with its attendant understanding of the mechanisms of urban re dangers of perpetuating an 'us and them' mentality. habilitation. Experience so far in this country The bottom up concept, though introduced as a suggests that CUDATs should only arise from local reaction against tl1e top down approach which had demand based on local expertise and would normally been shown not to work, had its dangers too. The supplement ongoing local activity. At the same time problems of the inner cities - and other areas of there may be role for architects as 'entrepreneurs of deprivation, both urban and rural- are problems to ideas' where opportunities exist within areas where which financial and professional resources should be there is as yet no identifiable client community. directed as of right. It was essential in this process to The workshop considered that the RIBA's long engage and support the energies of the communities term aim should be to get community architecture themselves - the third force. The problems were accepted as a special kind of architectural service complex and deep rooted and their solution requires within the mainstream of professional practice. To concerted action by government, local authorities, that end, it should take steps to enable the special housing associations, private trusts, professional skills of community architects to be learned by institutions, etc. students and practitioners. It should also establish a The RIBA could respond in several ways. Based on satisfactory scale of remuneration for the range of its members' experience of the design and social professional services provided to community groups. necessities, it could develop a clear pragmatic policy Finally, the RIBA should aim to define more clearly argument and confront government with the realities, its view of its corporate influence within society and as they see them. They should offer their professional identify its members with those aims. expertise and advice with confidence. The Community Architecture Group will be 139 WORKSHOP REPORTS examining how these ideas can be pursued within the complete unless the tenant/users had a choice of RIBA. professionals and were allowed to appoint their consultants, brief them, and perhaps to dismiss them. Pat Tindale One of the new roles of the architect was to raise the Can local authorities help practise expectations of the users and tenants, and to community architecture? encourage them to demand better services and the control of resources. There was a reluctance to raise This workshop was attended by local authority expectations before finances were available, and architects and housing officers, and concluded that then, when the money was approved, there were the RIBA should encourage local authority architects' governmental pressures to spend it too quickly for departments to promote tenant and user participation local involvement to be developed. and to develop the community architecture approach. Other delegates described how they had refused to Local authorities should contribute to the debate be rushed and insisted that the money for the project about community architecture by showing how should be held until a following year in order to allow various forms of resident/user consultation were adequate time for tenant participation. evolving. It was suggested that local authority architects had Local authority frameworks should be examined more standing in their community and thus were to assess the potential for a fully participatory design more fitted to serve the community than private approach to be developed, and how power and consultants. In contrast, others thought that private responsibility can be devolved. The importance of consultants, by being distanced from the local devolution of power was such that it was necessary authority, were freer from political pressures and for professionals, council officers and elected thus more able to represent their tenant/user clients. members to take more risk in order to achieve it. Local authorities should not consider housing Since local authority architects' departments were problems separately, but as part of their wider social required to justify their professional fees against the service. They should also be concerned for the whole RIBA fees scales, these should be amended to reflect local environment, including private employment the extra work involved in user/tenant participation. opportunities, general economic activity, other forms The existing fees scales would inhibit local authority of housing and social facilities. Devolution of power architects' departments from adopting the com involved the whole local infrastructure and other munity architecture approach themselves. professional services. Several delegates suggested that their authority Local authorities were the main body able to give already allowed their tenants free choice and power back to the people. This was better than small participation in their housing repairs and improve scale co-operatives which often took control away ment programmes. However, if the authority from users. Independent agencies are not necessarily retained responsibility for the design and execution of 'bottom-up' organisations. any building work, then this was an approach to be Most delegates believed that a form of community encouraged, but it may not be community architecture practice was applicable to local architecture. It was hard to devolve power and authorities and some thought that it was an essential responsibility to users, especially when the officers of development in the provision of housing services. a council had little of either themselves, and were There were many economic, technical and political obliged to seek decisions from a members committee. factors working against the devolution of power to Tenants and users generally made intelligent tenants and users which required further examina 'common sense' demands and centralised controls tion. were therefore of little practical importance. Despite several different approaches to tenant However, the 'bottom up' approach of community participation in some local authorities, there was a architecture was inevitably in conflict with the 'top lack of shared experience and knowledge. The down' allocation of council funding. Public audit, meeting concluded that they should be encouraged to which required justification that money could not be disseminate more information about tenant/user better spent would never accept tenant/user decisions participation and there should be some form of and responsibility. regular exchange. It was suggested that existing local authority Douglas Smith financial frameworks were not able to accommodate fully participatory solutions, and these should be re examined. Many authorities had decentralised their Rural communities: the forgotten areas technical and management services, but this did not, in itself, allow for more control by the local Rural Communities are under pressure on all fronts; community. Participation could not be considered public services have been cut back steadily over the 140 .. WORKSHOP REPORTS last few years, whilst urban incomes and car granted) will allow, either without reference to ownership have forced house prices beyond the reach community need or without allowing sufficient time of many local people. Villages have increasingly for community organisations to formulate bids. taken on a dormitory role as rural-based employment, Centralised grant-aiding bodies, such as the Sports particularly in agriculture, has declined. Council, frequently place arbitrary and unreasonable The Workshop dealt with village halls, industry conditions on grant offers, taking little account of and rural housing, and came to the following relevant local community factors. Although there conclusions: were a number of successful projects built under the Housing. Inner city decay is exacerbating the early job creation schemes, the Manpower Services pressures on rural communities. Commission now shows an increasing reluctance to It is generally more expensive to build houses in support community building. rural areas. The effects of distance, scale and services There is a general need for higher standards in the are frequently compounded by planning requirements design of low-maintenance energy-efficient village to provide expensive finishes and to build to lower halls. densities. Although the Workshop felt that 'communities Market forces encourage the development of know best' in preparing design briefs, the architect 'Executive' homes for those on higher, urban-based enabler must be aware that the provision of a new hall incomes. Although this might provide work for local will release latent demand and the design should be builders, the actual housing is usually beyond the sufficiently loose-fit to allow for this. reach of low-income locals. Workshops. There has been a major shift in The right to buy rural council houses is gradually planning control attitudes to rural industry over the transferring homes away from low-income locals. last few years, in no small measure due to the Prince Local authority waiting lists do not reflect true of Wales' 'spearhead projects' on the Duchy of housing needs within the community since prospective Cornwall Estates. Nevertheless, attitudes still vary tenants will seek housing where they believe it is likely enormously from one area to another and many to be available. Community based surveys are planning authorities are still hostile to the conversion generally more accurate. of redundant agricultural buildings to workshops. Shared equity schemes, which exclude the right to An affordable rent is crucial to the success of small 'staircase' to full ownership, are probably the most starter businesses but there is a common complaint reliable means of providing affordable homes which that planning and building control officers are will remain with those for whom they were originally unaware or unconcerned, frequently burdening new intended. initiatives with excessive demands. Providing such housing is largely a matter of luck The decline of many major industries and the and legwork by communities, their architects and climate of support for small businesses has other enablers. Organisations such as the N.A.C. undoubtedly helped rural workshops, whilst CoS IRA Rural Trust admit that their present resources barely (The Council for Small Industries in Rural Areas), allow them to scratch the surface; there is a clear need Business in the Community and other agencies have for pump-priming feasibility stage funding as well as had a major efect in launching new initiatives. Institution and Building Society funds to bring Nevertheless, limited resources and the scarcity of projects to fruition. management talent mean that such support is Village Halls. Virtually all rural services from scattered and isolated. Priority area boundaries set by transport to telephones have been cut in recent years. the Development Commission have been criticised as Against this background, village halls have been a too rigid and arbitrary, defined by administrative shining success story, both in themselves and in the convenience rather than need. (Readers may recall knock-on benefits which they create within their TV coverage of a workshop park project near community. Village halls are invariably community Redruth, Cornwall, which was abandoned part way based! through construction as a result of grant area Before 1981, the Department of Education and boundary changes). Science provided 'two for one' top-up grants, and There was general agreement that the bottom-up these tended to equalise opportunity. community based approach had proved most Local authorities are now the principal source of successful in dealing with rural problems and that village hall capital grants and the availability offunds these successes needed more publicity. varies widely from one area to another. Rural community initiatives can have important Some local authorities, and other bodies such as knock-on effects. Providing village halls and the Church Commissioners, still dispose of redundant community housing might help launch local building schools and halls at the highest market price which craft workshops; a balanced population based on a change of use planning consents (sometimes self- core of local industry is more likely to support the 141 WORKSHOP REPORTS continuation of village schools and public services. A sense of commitment by architects to working with The lack of riots does not mean that rural local people ought to be developed. communities are free from problems. Rural problems That the use of models as a technique in 'collective are related to and inseparable from urban problems design', was extremely useful. and the proposed community based solutions are identical. It is essential that funding is maintained The recognition that most of us did not train as and increased to allow rural regeneration to take Community Architects and such skills as we now place hand in hand with the revitalisation of our inner have were largely self-taught after our formal training cities. had finished at University or College. Robert Poynton That one of the important roles of the Community Architect was to develop a clear brief from the client group. Architects as Advocates That the Community Architecture process demanded The workshop developed more into a discussion an open approach in terms of communication both concerning the types of skills and sympathies from the architect and the group. architects ought to have when involved in Community That a team approach was required with a range of Architecture. The points raised included: professional skills not only architectural. A recognition that many other professions apart The recognition that as a Community Advisor your from the architectural profession are under pressure work did not finish when the building work was to change the way in which their members practice. completed. That it is increasingly clear professionals have to That broad change is required and that, on one hand develop the ability to listen to their clients. as a 'carrot', the approach was thought to be cost effective but, on the other hand as a 'stick', problems That community groups themselves ought to control were likely to reoccur such as riots if no action was the finance concerned with the project and that taken. groups ought to be in control of their own architects. That people involved in Community Architecture That architects ought to be sympathetic to designing had noticed a change of emphasis on their workload with and not for client groups. with a much greater amount of feasibility study work That the RIBA and the profession in general ought to being carried out. be implementing equal opportunities widely. Should architects specialise in Community Archi The RIBA ought to be acknowledging the growing tecture? Conversely that the skills and the approach number of its members and other architects with an learnt as a result of working on Community interest in new ways of working with the community Architecture schemes were beneficial when working and providing resources and support for this with more normal clients. movement. A recognition that the Voluntary Sector normally The RIBA ought to be acknowledging that other operated in groups. professions play their part in Community Archi That architects should become familiar with group tecture and that the Institute should encourage this mechanics and techniques. professional team approach. That group work by students with other professions Ian Finlay and user groups during training ought to be encouraged. That scale plays an important part in the success of a How can architectural education Community Architecture project and perhaps where respond to a changing environment? sizeable schemes are envisaged that consideration is given to breaking them down into 'handleable sub The Workshop discussed many issues concerning the parts' where the size of that portion of the scheme, the community and architecture schools. number of people involved and the fact that they can There was a general feeling that architecture work closely with an architect and others all remain schools should be seen as a community resource, but on a human scale. This could well mean that on a there was uncertainty concerning schools which are large Community Architecture project you need unwilling to involve themselves in the community. more architects. Should they be compelled to demonstrate some 142 .. WORKSHOP REPORTS community involvement by the visiting boards (or a pleasantly avuncular demonstration of the poly comparable body) or could this be counter styrene and poster paint model he uses to galvanise productive? Is it desirable that all schools practise communities into realising the development potential community architecture? of neighbourhoods they live and work in. Of the people attending the workshop some came Tony Gibson later brought along his model to one from schools which already do community projects of the post-conference workshops. but others complained about their schools inhabiting The objective of this workshop was to explore the a fantasy world and not tackling important issues in mechanisms that might permit communities living the real world. and working in neighbourhoods affected by major The schools already involved in community developments to become involved in and benefit architecture feel it should be learned using a common more directly from the process. Issues on the agenda sense pragmatic approach rather than taught. for discussions were mixed use planning, diversity, There were several differing views on when planning legislation, the ability of communities to students should become involved in the community. organise and the motives and constraints of Some felt community involvement should be developers. introduced in the first year giving students experience Clearly this was Tony Gibson's territory but the of consultation and drawing up briefs but not workshops also attracted quite a spectrum of necessarily going on to the building stage. interests. Among the 35 present on that Saturday Another view was that it should be introduced in morning were Stuart Lipton, prospective developer the second year after students have been given a good of the Spitalfields Market site with Leon Krier as grounding in the basics during the first year. master planner; Paul Ekins, (also a conference A third camp felt only diploma students should be speaker), director of The Other Economic Summit involved with the community because lower years and a Research Fellow at Bradford University; Peter lacked the necessary skills. Studdert, Tower Hamlets planner and co-author of An alternative solution was to have students from the development brief for Spitalfields Market; and all years involved in joint projects. Ken Martin, RIBA councillor, head of Liverpool There was a call for more contact with related Polytechnic Architecture Department and driving subjects. The workshop group included planners, force behind the pioneering bid for a Development surveyors and sociologists. Trust based, mixed use scheme in the shadow of The question of which organisation should oversee Liverpool Cathedral. education was discussed. Also in attendance were representatives of St Some felt the RIBA was inappropriate and Marys, Southampton, recipients of the RIBA's first possibly illegal after the EEC directive next year- but CUDAT; Peter Willmott, co-author of Family and this view was not unanimous. Kinship in the East End and currently researching for a One suggestion was that ARCUK should be 'given new book about community in social policy; Nick more teeth'. Falk ofURBED; Bill Hillier of the Bartlett; and Kay One problem raised was a fear of raising Jordan of the Spitalfields Small Business Association. communities expectations without delivering the We had 1Yz hours for discussion on that Saturday goods. and of course we were only just getting into our stride Another problem was fitting live community when the timetable dictated we break for the plenary projects around student's timetables of term-time session. But in the short time available to us, we had and holidays, but some schools obviously manage. the spectacle of a pioneer practitioner of community The workshop ended without drawing up a planning, a major developer and architectural resolution. It agreed to set up a network in education patron, a leading member of the Green Movement, a based on the people present but also failed to appoint planner in the front line of one of today's most a Community Architecture Group convenor. significant planning battles, and a community With so many topics raised but few conclusions architect, educationalist (and TV presenter) all reached it was decided that a further conference discovering that they seemed to have more in should be held to cover the subject more thoroughly. common on the issue than real differences. And what were the lessons of the workshops? The Robin Nicholson following points seemed to emerge: 1. Timing is critical. Development opportunities need to be identified and the process of community Large scale community projects involvement begun before the traditional develop One of the undoubted hits of last November's ment system swings into action, money is spent and Building Communities conference was Tony Gibson's attitudes harden. .. 143 WORKSHOP REPORTS 2. There must be diversity. To create the WORKSHOPS AT NOTTINGDALE opportunities for involvement of (sometimes con URBAN STUDIES CENTRE, LONDON flicting) community interests, large developments needs to be subdivided. The Lipton/Krier scheme 'Environmental education, synonymous with moti (and now the LET/MacCormac scheme) demonstrate vating community action, is the basis for community that this is economically feasible. architecture, however defined'. This was a comment of one of the visitors to Nottingdale Urban Studies 3. There must be openness. Local communities often Centre, for a session of workshops organised as a distrust the profit motive and only by seeing how the follow-up to the Building Communities Conference. sums work, can they be satisfied that profit, where it The Urban Studies Centre, one of 40 throughout exists, is necessary to make development, and Britain, was an appropriate venue. Issue-based urban neighbourhoods, work. studies is a major force in raising awareness and 4. Technique is paramount. Tony Gibson has a community perceptions, creating a solid platform for growing track record which demonstrates how it is participation and action. Centres provide com possible to go about transforming the myriad munities with the facilities and resources to gain interests and opinions of the local community into a knowledge and power in their locality. With people of consensus which, as he says, confers clout. all ages, Urban Studies encourages the use of the local environment as a learning resource, as a living 5. Organisational models exist. Development Trusts textbook. offer a promising mechanism capable of transforming Indeed, one of the workshop themes was using the local interests into physical reality. Local Environment as a Learning Resource. Others included: Group Dynamics; Role Plays in Planning; The workshop had been asked to come up with Empowering the Community; Schools and Com resolutions to deliver to the morning's plenary munity Education; and The Problems of Process session. The requirement to come up with resolutions versus Product in Community Planning. and the plenary session itself were the least We aimed to show how directly Urban Studies satisfactory aspect of the RIBA workshops, because deals with real problems of housing, unemployment, having heard the resolutions, the session failed to etc. (An Urban Studies project on youth unemploy agree about what to do with them. However the ment at N ottingdale led to the setting up of the hugely following were proposed: successful175 ITeC Centres, training young people in Information Technology.) Also we wanted to 1. Where development opportunities of more than 5 facilitate more face-to-face dialogue than was acres exist, local authorities should be under a possible at the conference itself. 'I liked the format of statutory duty to establish groups involving all the workshops better' said one, and 'it was more interested parties to define an acceptable planning human' commented another. We were pleased that a brief. look at some specific work helped 'define realities in the face of the idealistic aspirations of the conference' 2. Where evidence of extensive local interest exists, as one workshopper put it. local authorities should set up Neighbourhood Everyone was glad of the chance to talk and all Development Trusts representing both the authority were keen to maintain contacts. There would seem to and community. These should have legal powers to be a very strong case for a community information acquire land and buildings with potential investors in agency (CAIS) acting as a kind of'Dateline' whereby order to create conditions in which the communiry groups could find the technical aid service they're can become developer. looking for: "Tenants' group seeks sympathetic architect with interest in local government finance" 3. That a non-political organisation with proper perhaps? professional expertise be established to provide a Much of our recruitment for the workshops was research base, to give advice about participation in done in the conference. As a consequence the development to local groups and to establish a model workshops, like the conference, were open to the for local community development. charge that it was merely professionals talking to 4. The Community Land Act should be restored to each other about the illusive, conceptual 'community'. the statute book. Patronisingly known as 'real people', community groups were in evidence at the conference but were These rather imperfect resolutions were widely difficult to get at, since the event always gravitated to supported by the workshop. the star-studded stage and away from satellite functions, like Nottingdale's display, where they Ben Derbyshire might have been recruited. Professional occasions 144 .. WORKSHOP REPORTS which result when an £80 ticket is required tend to their own institutional norms, not according to the inevitably to preach to the converted. One effects on the people at the receiving end. disgruntled person at the workshops described an Neighbourhoods are dealt with by a variety of 'upwardly mobile middle class affair' and said 'we different agencies and authorities, each pursuing its don't need another day of self-congratulation'. own objectives through its own procedures unrelated This was not untypical of our feedback, and the to the total impact on the community. question remains unresolved of how to involve Given the right structure for their work, professionals without them dominating everything, community workers can intervene in this situation patronisingly potty-training the working classes. and demonstrate that every local population has the A counterpart to this problem was expressed by capacity to play a much greater part in organising its someone at the workshops from a tenants' group in own life - and that this is an essential condition for Liverpool, who felt that the self-help necessary for the effectiveness of the various service contributions. genuine bottom up initiatives demanded a confidence People respond positively to uncondescending help and self-reliance which did not exist in the groups he which shows them how to identify common sources worked with. of their problems and achieve a better deal from The relationship between the community and the service providers while at the same time generating professional is the greatest challenge to emerge from more creative energy in their own lives. the conference and our workshops. It is a difficult What, then, are the implications of all this for problem. The answer, as our opening quote indicates, planning and architecture? Primarily, it means that is in education. there are techniques available to bring about real dialogue between communities and professionals. Paul Rasmussen There is a world of difference between an occasional for further information contact KELLY CODE at: consultation exercise in which members of the public NottingDale Urban Studies Centre are invited to attend a council meeting and, on the 189 Freston Road other hand, a strategy for supporting and maintaining London WlO 6TH a dialogue with groups which embody and increase 969 8942 the community's own sense of identity. They generate the dynamism which turns an amorphous 'public' into a cohesive community. Typically they organise Community Development - the activities and take responsibility for providing a implications for architecture and variety of self-help services as well. They represent the community in an active, participating sense, and their planning articulation of life in that locality provides the Abstract taken from the Community Projects authentic perspective for the work of planners and Foundation Workshop, London: architects. At the same time, the very process of Community development is a practice which builds resident involvement helps to build the sense of up the capacity of people in a particular locality to collective responsibility which ensures that people improve their conditions and strengthen their life make the most of their environment and further together. This is done primarily by stimulating and enhance and care for it by voluntary effort. supporting community groups. From this basis, further important options for The work of community development is carried development become visible. Residents' concern with out by many individuals and, most ambitiously, by a the whole range of services affecting their locality can professional sector which is little known to the be the lever to develop better co-ordination of those general public. There are over 5,000 full-time services. The planning process can help to create the community workers in Britain whose job is to forum for county and district, statutory authorities encourage, advise and assist community groups in and voluntary organisations, government agencies their struggle for better conditions and self-reliance and local bodies to relate their respective res for themselves and their neighbours. And more work ponsibilities jointly to a particular population. of this kind is done by others part-time, in a voluntary Professional liaison alone cannot create the all-round capacity or as part of their work in other helping and detailed awareness of local needs and capacities professions. which emerges in a forum where local people For people to exercise more control over their lives themselves are at the centre of the process. together they need both to have good informal Community development is still relatively young in networks and means of negotiating with authorities, this country, and many of those doing it are working policy-makers and administrators. from isolated positions. CPF, as the national Authorities and agencies, even those dedicated to community development agency, concentrates on public service, have an inherent tendency to operate building teams of community workers, in partnership 145 WORKSHOP REPORTS with local authorities, and provides a professional drew the two communities into joint action and the structure to support, monitor and promote the work. sense of an enduring common cause. The story of For the Building Communities Conference we are how it happened throws light onto the factors that putting on a special meeting presenting an illustrative really facilitate participation by local residents in the case-study of this work from a neighbourhood in shaping of their environment. Rochdale. Here two employees of Rochdale Community Project, one white and one Asian, For further information contact Linda Grant worked side-by-side in a neighbourhood where the Community Projects Foundation, white and Asian residents had previously been 60 Highbury Grove, divided. Both groupings wanted a community centre London N5 2AG for the neighbourhood, and the workers gradually (01 226 5375). EXHIBITORS Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields Education for Neighbourhood Change National Federation of Community Alternative Arts Eldonian Community Association Organisations Association of Community Technical English Heritage National Federation of Housing Aid Centres Franklin Stafford Partnership Associations Barrowfield Community Group FreeForm Arts Trust Neighbourhood Use of Buildings and Bayswater Hotel Homeless Project Friends of the Earth Space Building and Social Housing Groundwork Foundation Planning Aid for Londoners Foundation Habitat et Participation Poynton Bradbury Associates Business in the Community Hazle McCormack Young Rawsthorne Associates Calvay Co-operative The Hoxton Trust Regalian Properties pic Cardiff City Farm Hunt Thompson Associates Robert McDonald City of Westminster Planning The Hunter Village Development Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors Department Project Royal Town Planning Association The Civic Trust IPSA Scottish Special Housing Association Community Land Use Institute of Housing South Kelvin District Council Community Land and Workspace International Union of Architects Strathclyde Housing Association Services Lewisham Self-Build Housing Tabernacle Community Centre Community Projects Foundation Association Technical Services Agency Community Service Volunteers Limehouse Development Group Ted Cullinan Architects Co-operative Development Services Louis Hellman Terry Farrell Partnership Coin Street Community Builders Lovell Group 36 Lime Street Ltd Covent Garden Community Lozells Traders Association Ltd Town and Country Planning Association Manchester City Council Planning Association Covent Garden Housing Project Department UN International Year of Shelter for Architects Marston and Son and Tideway the Homeless Department of the Environment Developments WHHL Partnership Derry Inner City Project National Federation of City Zenzele Self-Build Housing Duffy Ely Giffone Worthington Farms Association FILM PROGRAMME The House That Mum and Dad Built Foundations 1985 Award Winner. Community Development Description of the organisation, construction and financing of Organisation: Sonatala Milan Sangha. 30 minutes. B & SHF, a pioneering British local authority self-build housing scheme Memorial Square, Coalville, Leicestershire LE6 4EU. Tel: for people on low incomes using a particular form of timber 0530 39091 frame construction. Clients: Lewisham Self-Build Housing Association. Local Authority: London Borough ofLewisham. Towards Urban Co-operatives Architect: Walter Segal. 30 minutes. Lewisham Self-Build Account of a new co-operative settlement for 50,000 people at Housing Association, 6 Segal Close, Brockley Park, London Batikent, Ankara, Turkey; 'the greatest new settlement in the SE23 IPP. Tel: 01-690 5882 United We Are Strong Account of a multifaceted rural community development (OPPOSITE ABOVE) ACTAC Exhibition at the Architectural project at Udaynarayanpur, India facilitated by multi- Association. (BELOW) The reality of homeless families: a disciplinary technical aid. Building and Social Housing typical bed and breakfast room. 146 .. 147 FILM PROGRAMME world'. Building and Social Housing Foundation 1985 A ward Outline Arts Trust, 30 Fourth Avenue, Heaton, Newcastle Winner. 17 minutes. B & SHF, Memorial Square, Coalville, upon-Tyne NE6 5YH. Tel: 091- Leicestershire LE6 4EU. Tel: 0530-39091 Spencerbeck -A New Beginning The Pride Factor - Community Architecture in Action Film by Langbaurgh Borough Council showing a housing A look at community architecture projects in Stirling, Hull, project carried out with Urban Development Grant assistance Beverley, Leicester and Birmingham interspersed with in partnership with Barratt Urban Renewal (Northern) Ltd. 17 interviews with HRH The Prince of Wales. A Mirageland Film minutes. Borough of Langbaurgh, Langbaurgh Town Hall, presented by Ken Martin, 1985. 30 minutes. Mirageland, 14 Fabian Road, South Bank, Middlesbrough, Cleveland TS6 Clerkenwell Green, London EClR ODP. Tel: 01-253 2818 9AR. Tel: 0642-246345 Power to the People Langbaurgh Homecall Television film of the pioneering new build co-operatives in Film by Langbaurgh Borough Council describing its 'round Liverpool with detailed footage showing co-op members the clock' alarm and intercom link to over 6,000 elderly or designing their new homes with their architects. 30 minutes. disabled people. 12 minutes. Borough of Langbaurgh, Wilkinson Hindle Halsall Lloyd Partnership, 98 Duke Street, Langbaurgh Town Hall, Fabian Road, South Bank, Liverpool Ll 5AG. Tel: 051-708 8944 Middlesbrough, Cleveland TS6 9AR. Tel: 0642-246345 Groundwork in Action Barcelona Utopia The story of Groundwork including detailed shots of A new documentary film that traces the contemporary story of Groundwork projects run by community groups, volunteers a great mediterranean city from the industrial revolution and private companies. 30 minutes. Groundwork Foundation, through the Spanish War, the Sixties economic boom right up Bennetts Court, 6 Bennetts Hill, Birmingham B2 5ST. Tel: to today's city preparing for the 1992 Olympic Games. 30 021-236 8565 minutes. Third Generation Films, 19 Shaa Road, London W3~ 7LW. Tel: 01-749 5049 Community Architecture: The Story of Lea View House, Back to the Future Hackney Film portraying the new and old of Glasgow's housing stock Account of a pioneering project for involving tenants in the and the new Community Ownership Initiative by Calvay Co rehabilitation of council flats in Hackney, London. Architects: operative. 10 minutes. Calvay Co-operative, II Calvay Road, Hunt Thompson Associates. 25 minutes. Hunt Thompson Barlanark, Glasgow G33 4RG Associates, 79 Parkway, London NWl 7PP. Tel: 01-485 8555 Building a Better Barrowfield Housing Co-operatives: The Liverpool Pioneers Film portrays an area renewal project with the community Film on Liverpool's new build housing co-operatives by Co working in partnership with the local authority. James operative Development Services. 20 minutes. Co-operative Cunning, Young & Partners, 2 Anchor Lane, St. Vincent Development Services, 39-41 Bold Street, Liverpool Ll4EV. Lane, Glasgow Gl 2HW. Tel: 041-221 4022 Tel: 051-708 0674 Bed & Breakfast - The Real Scandal Planning Aid for Londoners Film by the Bayswater Hotel Homelessness Project, West Television footage of this scheme run by the Royal Town London, of interviews with families in bed and breakfast Planning Institute with case examples. 5 minutes. Planning accommodation. 30 minutes. Church House, Newton Road, Aid for Londoners, 26 Portland Place, London WIN 4BE. Tel: London W2. Tel: 01-229 4338 01-580 0993 The Environmental Yard Air Conditioned Garden (22. 00) Account of community school project in Washington, USA, Film by Covent Garden Community Association tracing how involving a process by which an asphalt playground was community gardens were built in Covent Garden and the converted into an ecological park and community garden. 35 context of community initiative in battles for the neighbour minutes. NottingDale Urban Studies Centre, 189 Freston hood. 15 minutes. Covent Garden Community Association, Road, London W10 6TH. Tel: 01-969 8942 45 Shorts Gardens, London WC2. Tel: 01-836 3355 A Change for the Better Design Matters: Why Can't We Live and Let Live A film by the Department of the Environment's Urban Three part film about building communities featuring Milton Housing Renewal Unit describing its work in helping local Keynes' Green Town, the Lewisham Self-Build Housing authorities tackle the problems of their run-down housing Association and the community renovation of an old house in estates by involving residents and introducing local estate Suffolk. 30 minutes. Jon Broome, 6 Segal Close, Brockley based management banked up by selective capital improve Park, London SE23 lPP. Tel: 01-690 5882 ments. 25 minutes. Department of the Environment, 5 Marsham Street, London SW 1 Charity or Self Help? Ashkelon is part of a national programme in Israel where The Skarne Central government laid the foundations for decentralisation Film by Duncan, a student at Jordanstone College of Art and full resident participation. The film shows how a modest showing the appalling problems faced by residents of a system charity contribution can be used as a lever to induce a better built housing scheme in Dundee. 15 minutes. use of local resources - physical, economic and social. 25 minutes. Murray Field, Blackburn Film by the Environmental Improvements Group, Blackburn Stoneygate on a multiple deprived estate highlighting the problems and Explanation of how a community made a playground out of a practical solutions. Thomas Henney, Architects, 19 Newington piece of wasteland and made a community house. 10 minutes. Road, Edinburgh EH9 lQR. Tel: 031-667 3825. 148 .. MEDIA COVERAGE REPORT INTRODUCTION One of the principle objectives of the Building and regional newspapers (there are more than 400 Communities Conference was to bring together for cuttings), on radio and television and in the the first time all those who have been involved in the professional press. community architecture, planning and design move We have compiled a selection of press-cuttings, ment over the last ten years and disseminate this and transcripts from the broadcast media to give an experience via the media to the general public. idea of the breadth of the coverage. Full sets of The conference succeeded in its objective and transcripts and press cuttings are available from the secured comprehensive media coverage in national orgamsers. TELEVISION AND RADIO COVERAGE BBCl 'London Plus' 26.11.86 BBC RADIO 4 'You and Yours' 26.11.86 'One O'Clock News' 27.11.86 27.11.86 'Nine O'Clock News' 27.11.86 'Today' 27.11.86 'Midlands Today' 27.11.86 28.11.86 'Six O'Clock News' 27.11.86 'PM' 27.11.86 'John Craven's Newsround' 26.11.86 'News Briefing' 28 .11.86 BBC2 'Newsnight' 27.11.86 BBC RADIO 2 'Kevin Livingstone' 27.11.86 Thames TV 'Thames News' (Helpline) 26.11.86 BBC RADIO 1 'Newsbeat' 27.11.86 'Thames News' 26.11.86 BBC WORLD SERVICE 'Network UK' 29.11.86 'Thames News' 27.11.86 BBC RADIO London 'Sparrow over London' 26.11.86 Channel4 'News' 27.11.86 'Rush Hour' 27.11.86 lTV 'London News' 28.11.86 BBC RADIO Manchester 'News' 27.11.86 'Brian Hayes' 27.11.86 BBC RADIO York 'Mid Morning Show' 25.11.86 'Nightline' 28 .11.86 BBC RADIO Lanes 'News' 26.11.86 'Open Lines' 30.11.86 27.11.86 ILR Hereward 'Hereward Tonight' 27.11.86 BBC RADIO Merseyside 'News' 26.11.86 ILR Red Rose 'Red Rose Reports' 27.11.86 BBC RADIO Derby 'News' 27.11.86 ILR Pennine 'Newscene' 27.11.86 LBC 'Early Evening News' 26.11 .86 ILR Capital 'Capital Reports' 26.11.86 'AM' 27.11.86 'Early Evening News' 27.11.86 28 .11.86 ILR Aire 'News' 27 .11.86 30.11.86 PRESS COVERAGE NATIONAL NEWSPAPERS The Birmingham Evening Mail Greenock Telegraph, Renfrewshire Th e Times The London Standard Sunderland Echo Th e Sunday Times The Nottingham Evening Post Eastern Daily Press, Norwich The Guardian The Journal, Newcastle-upon-Tyne Bradford Telegraph and Argus The Observer Sandwell Mail, West Midlands Herald Express, Torquay and Devon The Independent The Northern Echo, Darlington The Daily Mail The Liverpool Daily Post TRADE AND TECHNICAL PRESS The Daily Telegraph The Dundee Courier & Advertiser Building Design The Sunday Telegraph The Glasgow Herald Construction News The Financial Times The Western Mail, Cardiff Architects Journal The Sun Doncaster Star Building The Star Lancashire Evening Post Construction Promoter The Daily Express Yorkshire Post Contract Journal The Daily Mirror Yorkshire Evening Post Chartered Surveyor Weekly The Weekly News Bournemouth Evening Echo Surveyor The Times Higher Education Supplement Swindon Evening Advertiser Estates Gazette Today Glasgow Evening Times Building Technology & Management The Scotsman The Banbury Guardian What's New in Building The Chatham Standard Chartered Builder LOCAL NEWSPAPERS Wolverhampton Express & Star Building Refurbishment The Birmingham Post Dundee Courier & Advertiser Estates Times The Birmingham Daily News Shropshire Star Building Trades Journal .. 149 MEDIA COVERAGE REPORT The Architect FOREIG N PUBLICA TJONS MISCELLANEOUS MAG AZINES Art & Design Ingenieurs et Architectes Suisses New Society Architect & Surveyor Caribbean Times UK Press Gazette The Planner African Times Th e Listener Planning Irish Times Heritage Outlook New Civil Engineer Asian Times Project Scotland London Housing News Arab News London Property News Refurbishment The Spectator Design Week The Economist Architectural Review New Democrat Network (TCPA) IBP Bulletin A FEW QUOTES FROM THE PRESS help. Funds will go on improving housing and the environment. Building a new future: Charles leads crusade The Prince called for a British "renaissance." Behind the When Prince Charles gets to his feet in London's Astoria initiative is his fear that by the time he becomes King many Theatre on Thursday his subject will cause little surprise. rundown inner cities could have become "no go" areas of Although his thoughts will range from Bristol to award lawlessness. winning housing schemes in Turkey, his theme will stay the The Daily Express, 28 November 1986 same: community enterprise and self-help are the way to revitalise Britain's cities. The Sunday Times, 23 November 1986 Me and my big mouth - Charles ROYAL AID! The Prince of Wales today appealed to the nation to "follow Charles launches cash campaign to boost inner cities the banner I unfold" to banish urban blight. Royal crusaders Charles and Diana yesterday took major Prince Charles launched a blistering attack on inner city steps to help the "suffering" people of Britain. architectural decay at the opening of the first International The Prince, with the fervour of Bob Geldof, launched Inner Conference on Community Architecture Planning and Design City Aid. at London's Astoria Theatre. From the stage of a London theatre, Charles appealed for He was unrepentant about his controversial speeches which tens of millions of pounds to transform the "derelict, have rocked the country's staid architectural establishment festering" inner cities. declaring with wry humour: "I have an inherited inability to He wants the money channelled to a new charity from keep my mouth shut." industry, commerce, institutions- and anyone else willing to The Standard, 27 November 1986 150 MEDIA COVERAGE REPORT 'Massive publicity and spiky debate marked the 'Building projects in their own areas. He'd seen schemes as community Communities' Conference in London last week. architecture which were successful. That the event was a success in terms of the quantity and quality of media coverage achieved, there is no doubt. BBC Radio 2 'Kevin Livingstone' 27.11. 86 Whether it was actually 'stage-managed' or simply well I think we've all read about Prince Charles' well-known dislike organised is something that the press have obviously decided of modern architecture. He once described a modernistic for themselves! extension to the National Gallery as a 'monstrous carbuncle'. 'With the stalls and circle bursting with people, the entire And he will be expounding on that as he continues talking this performance was stage-managed expertly ... The cry has gone morning and what he's doing is launching his own campaign up for a similar event to be staged next year. It is hoped that the Inner City Aid. The campaign hopes to raise money from organisers will have the strength and will to continue. The industry and the private sector in the style of Band Aid with support is undoubtedly there.' pop concerts and sponsorships. And the cash will be spent Building Design, 5 December 1986 encouraging people in the deprived inner cities to plan their own communities. 'Few conferences in recent years can have generated so much The role of community architect in this self-help planning interest and controversy as last week's Building Communities process is crucial. Community architects are a new breed of extravaganza .. . Following a well orchestrated campaign of designers who believe that the people who live in their publicity, Prince Charles finally launched the Inner City Trust buildings should have the final say in their design. and its fund-raising arm Inner City Aid last Thursday.' BBC Radio 4 'PM' 27.11.86 Planning, 5 December 1986 With Alan Simons and Robert Williams. The Prince of Wales has launched a new charity today aimed at 'The appeal of the joint launch of Inner City Aid, The Inner helping improve Britain's decaying inner city areas. The City Trust and the first mega-conference on the subject, charity, which was set up at the Prince's own initiative, is called produced national press coverage of a type that had not been 'Inner City Aid' and it hopes to raise tens of millions of pounds seen since Dr. Rod Hackney - one of the contributors - first towards rejuvenating derelict areas, improving the inner city shot to prominence (through a leaked conversation with a environment and creating jobs. certain Prince).' In his keynote speech to a building communities conference, Chartered Builder, January 1987 the Prince called for a new renaissance for Britain and for people to work together to improve what he called 'the THAMES TELEVISION REPORT withered and decayed urban areas'. Prince Charles and the renaissance he mentioned is already HELP! is a five-minute programme broadcasting three times a starting to blossom in a few small pockets of Britain, interest in week in the London area on Thames Television at 6.25pm. As 'community architecture' as it's become known, is growing in a programme aimed at helping the community when we were Liverpool, in Glasgow and in Londonderry. approached by the organisers of the 'Building Communities Conference' we were delighted to work with them. BBC World Service Network UK We decided that the object of the programme was to This week saw the start of a major campaign aimed at encourage viewers to involve themselves in their own revitalising Britain's rundown inner city areas. The campaign, environment and, at the same time, make viewers aware of the called Inner City Aid, has just been launched in London by His numerous services available to give advice and help. Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, and comes at a time of In the programme we decided to feature two relatively low mounting public concern about the quality of life in parts of cost projects, working on the premise that such schemes are the capital, and other big cities in Britain. more likely to get off the ground. Therefore we showed a BBC Radio 4 'Today' disused building in Richmond which was turned into a youth First it was 'Band Aid', then 'Live Aid', and a host of similar club, and a school playground in Islington which local spin-off charities raising money for good causes and now with children had transformed into a beautiful garden. the help of a launch by Prince Charles and his plea for a new Straight after the programme we opened our phone-lines renaissance for Britain, we have 'Inner City Aid'. It's being and invited viewers to ring us. Standing by were a panel of 15 publicised at a two day conference sponsored by a private people including community architects, chartered surveyors, developer which has led to some opposition to it in certain town planners and advisers from technical aid centres and quarters, including from the Housing Charity Shelter. voluntary groups. The phone-in was extremely busy and we took over 160 calls. All callers were sent a letter from HELP! LBC 'AM' 27.11.86 and a selection of leaflets. But right now, we say that The Prince ofWales,just returned We are now undertaking a full scale monitoring exercise to of course from his tour of the Gulf States, will have a captive determine what has happened to viewers since they contacted audience later this morning when he addresses the first us. International Building Communities Conference and launches the Inner Cities Trust. The Prince of course, often critical of architects, is likely to tell the assembled profession to consult A FEW EXTRACTS FROM THE MANY RADIO with tenants to find out what they want rather than impose REPORTS their own whims. Radio 1 'Newsbeat' 27.11.86 BBC Radio 4 'You and Yours' 27.11. 86 Prince Charles has announced his City Aid appeal which he BBC News at noon. The Prince of Wales has launched an Inner hopes will raise tens of millions of pounds to improve housing City Aid appeal which he hopes will raise tens of millions of in the environment and to provide jobs for the unemployed. pounds to improve housing in the environment and provide Speaking at an International Building Conference in jobs for the unemployed. Addressing a conference in London, London, he said he'd seen some of the decay in urban areas on he said he wanted a new renaissance for Britain from the his travels and calls for ordinary people to get involved with bottom up. .. 151 DELEGATE LIST ABBAM Mr A HEAR BARBOUR Mr D K The Riches & Blythin BORODIN Mr V TASS News Agency ABDUL-Redha Mr R Partnership BOUSSAA Mr D Institute of Advanced ABEL Miss J A Centre for Economic & BARLOW Mr G Metropolitan Housing Architectural Studies, University of York Environmental Development Trust Ltd BOWEN Mr L Dept of Architecture & ADAMOU Mr A Institute of Advanced BARLOW Mr J Chartered Builder Landscape, Leeds Polytechnic Architectural Studies Newspaper BRADBURY Mr D Henley Centre for ADAMS Mr N R F Newlook Builders BARLOW Ms S Community Design for Forecasting ADAMS Mr G Hastings Borough Council Gwent BRADFORD Mr D University College of ADAMS Mr G F Hastings Borough BARNARD Mrs M Bach Educational London Council Programme BRAD MAN Mr G Rosehaugh Pic ADAMS Mr P Help! Programme, Thames BARNA VILLE Mr K Central Technical BRADSHAW Mr G Acton Resource TV Unit Centre ADEYEMI Miss A Portsmouth BARNETT Mr W School of Architecture, BRADSHAW Mr L Merseyside Improved Polytechnic Thames Polytechnic Houses AGYEMAN Mr J London Borough of BARRACLOUGH Mr M Great Eastern BRAND Mr G Archbishop's Commission Lambeth Self Build on Urban Priority Areas AITKEN Mr I Lovell Partnerships Limited BARRETT Dr A Dorset County Council BREA THNACH Mr B Dept of the AITKEN Mr K The Gray Aitken BARTLES-SMITH The Venerable D Arch Environment Partnership Deacon of Southwark BREESE Mrs A G Harding Housing AITKENHEAD Mr D Scottish BARTLETT Mr K The Housing Association Development Agency Corporation Headquarters BRENT Mr T Thomas Brent Associates ALDENTON Mr J Tower Hamlets BARWICK Mr H N Hanover Housing BREUILL Y Ms S Bayswater B & B Project Environment Trust Association BRICKELL MrS J Newquay House ALEXANDER Councillor R City of BATEMAN Mr C London Borough of Tenants Association Edinburgh District Council Lambeth BRIGHT Mr D London Borough of ALI Ms M West Hampstead Housing BAUMAN Ms I Leeds Federated Housing Lambeth Association Association BRINDLEY Dr T Leicester Polytechnic ALLAN Mr R B C Glasgow District BAYLEY Ms R Housing/Inside Housing BROADY Professor M N F C A Council BEANLANDS Ms L University of Sussex BROCKLEHURST Mr C Inner City ANDERSON Mr R Poole Dick Associates BEAUMONT Mr R D William Gillespie & Enterprises pic ANDERSON Mr R J Southampton City Partners BRODIE Mrs J The Wates Foundation Council BEECHAM Councillor J Partnership BROOKE Mr G Lancashire County ANDERSON Councillor Mrs S Harlow Programme Council District Council BEEDHAM Mr A J London Borough of BROOKES Mr J Dept of Town Planning, ANDREWS Councillor Mr G Wakefield Tower Hamlets UWIST Metropolitan District Council BELL Mr E Architect BROOME Mr J Lewisham Self-Build ANDREWS Mr L I Y S H BENJAMINS Mrs S Consultant in Housing Association ANDREWS Mr R Andrews Downie and Housing BROOMFIELD Mr R United Kingdom Partners BENNETT Mr S Solon Housing Housing Trust ANDREWS Mr R M Oxford Polytechnic Association BROWN Mr A London Borough of ANNAN Mr M Sanctuary Housing BENNETT Mr W City Architects Dept, Haringey Association Manchester BROWN Mr J Salamed Architects Group ANTONY Mr S Gloucester Arts BENSON Mr F An Bord Pleanala BROWN Mr L Scottish Special Housing ARNDELL Mr J Design Partnership BEST Ms C Limehouse Development Association Wales Group BROWN Mr M Michael Brown Landscape ARTON Mr I East Kilbride Development BEST Mr R National Federation of Architects Corporation Housing Associations BROWN Mr P The British Petroleum Co ASHBOURNE Mr D Westminster City BIG MORE Mr D Bigmore & Netherwood, pic Council Chartered Architects BROWN MrS Community Technical Aid ASHKEN Mr P Southbank Polytechnic BILTON Mr D PTRC Education and West ASHLEY Mrs J Leicester Federation of Research Services Ltd BROWNHILL Mr P E Duval Brownhill Housing Societies Ltd BINTCLIFFE Mr D H West Lancashire Partnership ASHTON Dr J World Health Organisation District Council BRUNT Mrs I Chiswick House Area ATKINS Mr K Chair, First Lewisham Self BIRD Ms V Residents Association Build Housing Association BISHOP Mr J London Borough of Bexley BRYAN Mr D St Matthew's Meeting Place ATWELL Mr D Royal Institute of British BIXBY Ms S Bayswater B & B Project · BRYER MrJ Architects BLACHE Ms J Bayswater B & B Project BUCKWELL Mr R Hackney Council A YRE Mr R BBC TV News BLACK Mrs I Hunter Village Housing BULLEMENT Councillor Mrs A Sheffield Co-op City Council BLAIR Mr W Calvay Co-operative BURDON Mr A Brighton Polytechnic BLAIR Prof T L SEPC, Walter Faulds BURHANOGLU Mr F Northern Ireland BACHMANN Mr N R Southampton City BLEASBY Mr A Southbank Polytechnic Housing Executive Council BLONSKI Mr A c/o Bickerdike Allen BURKAMMrDM BAGOT Mr P Scottish Special Housing Partners BURKE Mr G West Lancashire District Association BLOOM Ms C N U B S Council BAILEY Ms C Development Officer, BONE Mr D Rock Townsend BURKINSHA W Mr P NACRO C P S ACTAC BOPARAI Ms N The London Race and BURKHILL Mrs K Leicester Housing BAILEY Mr D David Bailey Associates Housing Research Unit, 178 North Association Ltd BANETH Ms H London Tenants Gower St, London NW I BURN Mr D Sanctuary Housing Organisation BOR, Mr W Llewelyn-Davies Planning Association 152 .. DELEGATE LIST BURRELL Mr A The Burrell Co. CLIFFORD Ms S Common Ground DAVIS Mr J TCPA Community Technical BURRELL Mr J Burrell Foley Associates, CLOUSTON Mr B Brian Clouston & Aid Centre Architects & Urban Designers Partners Ltd DAWSON Mr G Dudley Metropolitan BURROWS Ms G M N U B S COCKBURN Mr C Institute of Advanced Borough Council BURTON Mr R ABK Architects Architectural Studies, University of York DAWSON Mr M Construction Industry BUSHELL Ms M Bayswater B & B Project CODE Ms KNotting Dale Urban Studies Directorate, Dept of the Environment BUTT Mr R Historic Building & Centre DEAN Mr J Leicester City Council Monuments Commission for England COHEN Mr M Housing Corporation, de CORDOVA Mr D K Bristol Inner City BY A TT Miss M Liver Housing Association London & Home Counties Project Ltd COLEMAN Mr H Welsh Office, Architects DEELSTRA Mr T Delft University of COLEMAN Ms R Avon County Technology CADBURY Ms R Covent Garden Community Environment Scheme DELLER Mr H London Borough of Community Association COLES Mr T Moxley Jenner Ltd Richmond upon Thames CALDWELL Mr M Glasgow District COLLET Mr J Bristol Polytechnic DEMPSEY Mr J Strathkelvin District Council COLLINS Mr T Langbaurgh Borough Council CARLILE Mr B Chartered Architect Council de POL Mr M De Pol Associates CARR Mr B Cleveland Housing Aid Trust COOKE Mr D Nottingham City · DERBYSHIRE Sir Andrew RMJM CARR Mr W J North Tyneside M B C COPELAND Mr J Leicester City Council London Ltd CARTER Mr J M Stockbridge Village Housing Dept DERBYSHIRE Mr B Hunt Thompson Trust Ltd CONNOLLY Mr J Construction News Associates CARVALHO Miss T C Oxford CORKE Mr R World in Action DEWAN Mr V K Oxford Polytechnic Polytechnic CORNELL Mr J Stoke on Trent City DIAFATMrA CARVILL Mrs A Civic Trust Council DIAKIDES Mr I London Borough of CASEY Mr P Extern Organisation CORTEZ de LOBAO Mr A AARQ, Hackney CAUDLE Miss D North Kensington Task Atelier de Arquitectura DIBLEY Miss J TCPA Community Force COUCH Mr I R Department of Technical Aid Centre CAVANAGH Ms S D Women's Design Geographical Sciences DODDS Mr A J South Lakeland District Service, Interchange COULSON Mr P London Borough of Council CHALMERS Councillor Mrs A Hammersmith & Fulham DOHERTY Ms FA London Borough of Peterborough City Council COUSINS Miss L Milton Keynes Tower Hamlets CHAMBERS Miss J London Borough of Development Corp DOHERTY Mr P L North West Centre for Hammersmith & Fulham COUSINS Mr W London Docklands Learning & Development Ltd CHAMBERS Mr R Gutteridge Woodford Development Corporation DONOHER Ms G Edinburgh District Chambers, Chartered Architects COW AN Mr R Architects Journal Council Housing Dept CHAMBERS Mrs R Tunbridge Wells COWIN Mr E Leeds City Council DONOHOE Mr M Strathkelvin District Borough Council COYNE Ms B Midland Area Improvement Council CHANDLER Mr J London Borough of Housing Association Ltd DONOVAN Mr B Builders Employers Waltham Forest COYNE Mr K Coyne Associates Confederation • CHAPLIN Ms W Nat. Housing Working COX Mr D Browne Helm Architects DORFMAN Mr M Consultation Unit Party- SDP COX Mr D PC London Borough of Southwark Planning CHAPMAN Mr P KMS Thomson Southwark DOUET Mr J Avon Industrial Buildings McLintock CRANE Ms H Bayswater B & B Project Trust CHARLES Mrs V London Borough of CRANNA Mr J Hillview Residents DOVE Ms C Hunt Thompson Associates Greenwich Association DRAGE Mr M Newcastle Architecture CHARLTON Mr A London Borough of CREAGHAN Mr D Leicester Housing Workshop Hammersmith & Fulham Assoc Ltd DRAKE Mr C Olley & Partners, Chartered CHARRINGTON Mr G A Private CRITCHLEY Mr R SCAT Publications Quantity Surveyors Housing Unit, Milton Keynes Dev Corp CROFT DE MOURA Mr V R Visconde DREW Mr B Renfrew District Council CHEESLEY Miss J Cambridge City Porto Salvo DUFF Mr J Community Design for West Council CROOKALL Mr L RIBA Glamorgari CHEPHETHE Mr R Dept Town & Reg CROWHURST Mr K DEGW DUGDALE Mr B Shell UK Ltd Planning, Botswana, Oxford Polytechnic CULLEN Mr R Cullen Carter & Hill DUINKERKE Ms S Projectorganisation CHESHIRE Mr J Housing Services CUMMINS Mr A G Dept of the Urban Renewal Agency Environment DUNION Mrs B Strathkelvin District CHEUNG-JUDGE Dr L M-Y National CUNNING Mr J James Cunning Young & Council Voluntary Organisation's Anti Racist Partners Consortium CURNO Mr P Calouste Gulbenkian EARLE Mr J Tarmac pic CHIARELLA Mr L Merseyside Improved Foundation EASTON Miss K Winchester School of Art Houses CURTIS Mr R C H Pearce & Sons pic EASTON Mrs D London Borough of CHRISTIE Mr C A Langbaurgh Borough Haringey Council DANIEL Mr P L Catholic Union EDGAR Mr A Alan J Edgar & Associates CLARK Mrs D Richmond upon Thames DANIEL Ms WH EAR EDGAR Mrs C Alan J Edgar & Associates Churches Housing Trust Ltd DARKE Mr G J Darbonne & Darker EDWARDS Dr B Glasgow School of Art CLARK Mr L Pearce Developments Ltd Architects EKINS Mr P The Other Economic Summir CLARKE Mr Ian James Cunning, Young DARLINGTON Mr R Cambridge City ELEY Mr P D E G W & Partners Housing Dept ELKES Mrs S S CLARKE Mr G Limehouse Development DAVIDSON Mr D Avon Industrial ELVEN Mr P London Borough of Group Buildings Trust Lambeth CLARKE Mr B Lozells Traders DAVIDSON Mrs J University College of EMINTON MrS Municipal Journal Association London ESPIU Mr J CARDO, University of CLA WLEY Mr A Community Networks - DAVIDSON Mr J Groundwork Newcastle upon Tyne Technical Aid Service Foundation ESSEX MrS CLAXTON Mr K Kenneth Claxton DAVIES Mr B BVSC, The Digbeth Trust EVANS Mr G Interchange Associates DAVIES Mr D A Lancashire County EVANS Mr H W Merseyside Improved CLIFFORD Mr N Manchester City Council Houses Council DAVIES Mr R Business in the Community EVANS Mr M National Youth Initiative .. 153 DELEGATE LIST EVANS Ms T Business in the Community GARDINER Mr D St Martins Estate HAWKES Mr P Milton Keynes Tenants and Residents Association Development Cor GELLATLY Mrs B Hunter Village HAY Mr R London Borough of FABIAN Ms W Newcastle upon Tyne City Housing Co-operative Hammersmith & Fulham Architects Dept GEORGE Mr A S R Hull City Council HA YA TI Mr F Wester Hailes Management FAGG Mr G C London Dockland GHANIE Mrs L Lobatse Principal Agency Development Corporation Housing Officer, Botswana HAZLE Mr R Hazle McCormack Young F AHMY Mrs D Royal Borough of GIBSON Dr T Town & Country Planning Architects Kensington & Chelsea Association HEAL Mr A R The British Petroleum FALEY Mr R D Calderdale Metropolitan GITTENS Mr C Friends of the Earth Complany pic Borough Council GLENN Mrs P Hunter Village Housing HEGARTY Mr P Salaried Architects F ALK Dr N URBED Co-operative Group RIBA FARRELLY Ms E M Architectural Review GOLDSTONE Mr J L Regalian Properties HELE Mr T A Watcombe Residents FAWCETT Mr A Scott Sutherland School pic Association of Architecture GOLTON Mr B Thames Polytechnic HELM Mr N Browne Helm Architects FEENEY Mr D Manchester University GOODRICH Mr M Free Form Arts Trust HENDRY Mr J Dept of Architecture and FEGAN Mr J Barrowfield Repair Ltd Planning Co-operative GOODYER Mr P London Borough of HERRTAGE Mr N Regalian Properties pic FENTON Mrs L Lancashire Enterprises Lewisham HERVEY Ms F The Help! Programme, Ltd GORMAL Mr G Rutherglen Housing Thames TV FENTON Mrs M Association HESELTINE The Rt Hon M The House of FERGUSON Mr A Strathclyde Housing GRANT Ms L Community Projects Commons Liaison Group Foundation HIGDON Mr D The University of FERGUSON Mrs P Family Forum GRAVES Mr C Tudor Trust Newcastle upon Tyne FIDLER Mr J Historic Buildings and GRAY Mr A The Gray Aitken Partnership HIGGINS Miss L C National House- Monuments Commission GRAY Mr D Strathclyde Regional Council Building Council FIELDING Mr N Voluntary Action GREENWOOD Miss J Bucks Housing HIGGINS Mr H COMTECHSA FINEBERG Mr B Barry Fineberg Association Ltd HILL Mr I Hillview Residents Association Architect and Planning Consultant GRIFFITH Mr N Ideal Homes London HILL MrS The Samuel Lewis Housing FINLAY Mr I Community Architecture Group and Design Cooperative Ltd Trust GRIFFITHS Mr B Leicester Housing HINES Dr V The National Federation of FITZWALTER Mr R World in Action Association Ltd Self-Help Organisations FLEMING Mrs J Bucks Housing GRIGG Mr C Health Educational Council HINSLEY Mr H Architectural Association Association Ltd GROOMBRIDGE Mr N North Graduate School FOGG Councillor Mrs S Renfrew District Kensington Task Force HIRST Mr P Rochdale Community project Council GRUENBERG Mr M London Borough of HOAD Mr J London Borough of Waltham FOLEY Mr N London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham Forest Hackney GRUNDY Mr D Oxford City Council HOBHOUSE Miss H Survey of London FORBES Mr P TCPA Community HOCKING Ms S Manchester University Technical Aid Centre HACK Mrs A W Newlook Builders HODDES Mr B Trent Polytechnic FORMSTONE Mr G E Rende! Palmer & HACKNEY Mr R R Hackney & Associates HODGSON Councillor F Wakefield Tritton Consulting Engineers HALE Mrs M Urban Spaces Scheme, Metropolitan District Council FORSHAW Mr F Bucks Housing Polytechnic of North London HOFFENBERG Mrs R Packadel Association Ltd HALL Mr D Town & Country Planning Properties Ltd FORSTER Mr M Diocese of Chichester Association HOFFMAN Mr C National Council of FORSYTH Mr L University of Liverpool HALL Rev. H C Southampton City Centre Building Material Producers FOSKETT Ms M FCA Co-operative Parish HOG BEN Mr C Hogben Smith Barritt Resources Centre Ltd HALL Mrs J London Borough of HOLLAND Mr G The London Residuary FOUNTAIN Ms V Community Land & Hillingdon Social Services Body Workspace Services Ltd HALLEN Mr H International Union of HOLLINGER Mr T Anthony Bowhill & FOWLER MrS Clackmannan District Architects Associates Council HALLY Ms L Solon Co-operative Design HOLMES Mr E J Northern Ireland FOX Ms S Watts Labor Community Services Federation of Housing Associations Action Committee HALSALL Mr W The Wilkinson Hindle HOOD Mr A Alan G Hood FOX-PITT Miss STate Gallery Halsall Lloyd Partnership HOOD LESS Mrs E Community Service FRANCIS Mr M Lewes District Council HAMIL TON Mrs J Essex Institute of Volunteers FRANKLIN Mr M R Franklin Stafford Higher Education HOOLACHAN Miss A Hunter Village Partnership HAMMOND Mrs A Plymouth Polytechnic Housing Co-operative FRANKS Mr M Regeneration, Finsbury HANCOCK Dr J College of St and St HOOPER Mr J Chartered Institute of Business Centre Mary Building FRASER Mr John MP House of HANNAN Miss J London Borough of HORSBURGH Mr I South Wales Planning Commons Hammersmith & Fulham Aid FRASER Mr J Oxford Polytechnic HARBOUR Miss C L Manchester HORSWILL Mr J Grove Consultant FRIDAY Mr A Sefton Metropolitan University Services Borough Council HARGREAVES Mr J Rochdale HOSSACK Mr D Cyril Sweett & Partners, FROST Mr D Burrell Hayward & Budd Community Project Chartered Quantity Surveyors FUDGE Miss E Liverpool Housing Trust HARLAND-LAHUSEN Ms L HOWARD Mr K Phoenix Housing FULTON Miss J Belfast Improved Houses HARRIS Mr B Ealing College of H E Association Ltd Ltd HARRIS Mr M London Borough of HOWELL Mr D National Community FURLONG Mr G P Derrick Wade & Waltham Forest Partnership & NFCO Waters HARRISON Mr P RIBA HOWES Mr C Dept of the Environment HART Ms L Tower Hamlets Environment HUGHES Mr A Builders Employers GALLACHER Mr M Scottish Trust Confederation Development Agency HARTLEY Mr P Manchester University HUGHES Mr R London Borough of GALLOWAY Mr M P Urban Design HARTWELL Ms A Poplar Play Waltham Forest Quarterly HASLAM Mr G N Avon Planning Dept HUGH-JONES MrS The Economist 154 DELEGATE LIST HUGOSSON Mr T Swedish Embassy KEELAGHAN Mr E K Hunter & LESLIE Mr W Strathclyde District HUMPHREYS Mr J W Newquay House Partners, Chartered Surveyors Council Tenants Association KEENE Mr J Brent Peoples Housing LEVEIN Ms A National Council for HUNT Mr B Hunt Thompson Associates Association Voluntary Organisations HUNTINGTON Mr J Health Education KEENL YSIDE Miss H Academy of St LEVETE Mr M Paintmakers Association Council Martin-in-the-Fields ofGB Ltd HUTCHINSON Ms N LSPU KELLETT Mr P Newcastle University LEVITT Mr D Levitt Bernstein Associates HYDE Miss M Action Resource Centre KELLY Ms M ACT AC LEWIS Mr D American Institute of KERR Mr D Dept of the Environment Architects ILLMAN Mrs T London Borough of KERSLEY Mr S Planning Aid for LEWIS Mr M Lea View House Tenants Lewisham Londoners Association INGRAM Mr P Borough of Broxbourne KGA TL WANE Mr T Maun, Botswana LEWIS Mr N Lea View House Tenants KHETTAB Mr F University of York Association JACKSON Mrs M Liverpool Housing KHOSLA Mr A Ealing Borough Councif LEWIS Ms D The Industrial Society Trust Community Projects Ltd KIFFIN Mrs D Broadwater Farm Youth LICHFIELD Mrs D Nathaniel Lichfield & JACOBS Mr K London Borough of Association Partners Hackney KILBURN Mr A E North Housing LIND DELL Mr H JACOBS MrS J Young Persons Housing Association Ltd LINDSEY Mr N A Lancashire Enterprises Association Ltd KING Mr R The Aylesbury Society Ltd JACQUES Mr R Jacques & Adams KINGFISHER Mr A London Borough of LINSLEY Miss S Wester Hailes JAGTMAN Mr C Projectorganisation Hammersmith & Fulham Management Agency Urban Renewal KINTISH Mr W Gruber, Levinson, Franks LITTLE Mr A W Strathclyde University JAISINGH Ms A Lea View House Tenants KIRK Mr R Thames News, Thames TV LIVINGSTON Mrs G Livingston Association KITCHEN Mr D St Hildas East Mcintosh Associates JANSEN Ms M SE London Consortium Community Centre LLOYD Mr G Wakefield Metropolitan Housing Association KLABOU Mr R Stoke on Trent City District Council JARBOE Miss N Council LLOYD-JONES Mr R Brick Development JARRAL Mr A I Peterborough City KNEVITT Mr C Inner City Aid Association Council KNIGHT Mr B Home Office Voluntary LOEW Mr E S Southbank Polytechnic JEFFERIES Mrs I Bath Self-Help Housing Services Unit LONEY Mr R Cunninghame District Association Ltd KNIGHT Miss L Holmes Associates Council JENKINS Mr J Kirklees Metropolitan KNOWLES Mr P Quattro Design Ltd LONSDALE Mr T City Architects Dept Council KOCHAN Mr B Docklands Forum LOUGHRIDGE Mr D K N.l. Housing JENKINS Mr J Haverstock Associates KUY A Ms D Affirmata Executive JENKINS Mr R Bredero Properties Pic LOVELL Mr P London Enterprise Agency JEPSON Mr D Co-operative Development LUMSDEN Mr B City of Edinburgh Services (Liverpool) Ltd LACHOWICZ Mr M A Hammersmith & District Council JOHNS Mr N London Borough of Fulham Amenity Trust LUCAS Mr K Co-operative Development Hammersmith & Fulham LAING Councillor Rev D Strathclyde Agency JOHNSON Mrs A London Residuary Regional Council LUSK Mr P Co-operative Development Body LAMBIE Mr I Ian Lambie Chartered Services Ltd JOHNSON Mr G Nottingham City Architect L WIN Ms C Community Land Use Council LANCASTER Mr K City Architects Dept, L YMBERY Mr B Civic Trust JOHNSON Mr J Edinburgh Old Town Birmingham L YDDON Dr D Environment & Planning Committee for Conservation & Renewal LANE Mr J Lane Bremner & Garnett Committee, Edinburgh JOHNSON Mr J Campaign for Homes in Architects LYON Mr R Dept of Planning and Central London LANG HAMMER Mr E Belfast Civic Trust Development, Bolton JOHNSON Mr K Community Land Use LANGLOIS MrS Southbank Architects JOHNSON Mr P Nottingham Community Co-operative Ltd McARTHUR Mr G University of Sheffield Housing Association LARKIN Mr J J Community Technical McAUSLAND Mr J Kirklees Metropolitan JOLLY Mr I Aid Council JONES Mr A Stoke on Trent City Council LATHAM Mr J Design Group McCAFFERTY Mr M Derry Inner City JONES Mr C ACTAC, ABC (Hull) Ltd Partnership, Architects & Planning Project JONES Ms K B Jones & Dennis Consultants McCAFFERTY Mr P Assist Architects Ltd JONES Mr P Tameside Education Dept LATHAM Mr P Adur District Council McCALL Mrs F Calvay Co-operative Ltd JONES Mr PAvon County Community LAWLOR Mr P HKPA Architects McCARTHY Mr D Dublin Corporation Environment Scheme LAWRENCE Mr E The London Race & McCARTHY Mr M London Borough of JONES Mr S TEAM, Training Centre Housing Research Unit Hillingdon JORDAN Miss K Spitalfields Small LEADEATT Mrs E Leicester Housing McCORMACK Mrs FA Barrowfield Business Association Association Ltd Community Business Ltd JORDAN Mr P Philip Jordan Architects LEE Mr G Lovell Urban Renewal Ltd McDAID Mr J Dublin Corporation JOZSA Mr P East Midland Housing LEE Mr J Cheshire County Council McDONALD Mr I Dept of the Association Ltd LEE Mr M Wandsworth Council Environment JULIENNE Mr L Federation of Black LEE Ms S-A Kingston Polytechnic McDONALD Mr K Planning Newspaper Housing Organisations LEGG Mr J C Strathclyde Social Work MACDONALD Dr R Dept McEWAN Mr A Ibstock Building Products KABDEBO Mrs A City Architects Dept LEIGH Mr D Chartered Surveyors Ltd KABELO Mr M Town Council, Botswana Voluntary Service McEWAN Mr J Calvay Co-operative KADRI Mr A University of York, IAAS LEIGHTON-BOYCE Ms J Avon County McGANN Mr T The Eldonian Community KAPARDI Mr P National Community Community Environment Scheme Association Partnership LEITHGOE Mr A Andrew Leithgoe McGOWAN Mr S Glasgow District KASSA MrS University of York Landscape Design Council KAZUKA Mr M Kensington Business LEON Mr L Broadwater Farm Residents McGRATH Councillor G Strathclyde Enterprise Agency Association Regional Council KEAN Mr A Technical Services Agency LESLIE Mrs M Over Forty Association for McKENNA Mrs M Liver Housing Ltd Women Workers Association Ltd 155 DELEGATE LIST MacKENZIE Ms E University of York MICHAELIS Mr Michaels Francis le NICHOLSON Ms J Cities Journal, MciNTOSH Mr S Cambridge City Roith Arch Butterworth Scientific Ltd Housing Dept MICHELMORE Mr R Westminster City NICHOLSON Mr R Edward Cullinan MciVER Mr S Mowlem Management Ltd Council Architects McLAUGHLIN Ms E City of Edinburgh MILLAR Mr D Community Service NICOL Mr W Barrowfield Project District Council Volunteers NIMAN Mr A Community Land and McLEAN Mr J Glasgow District Council MILLS Mrs D Dept of the Environment Workspace Services Ltd McLEARY Mr R Rutherglen Housing MILLS Mr J Regalian Properties pic NOBLE Mr A Middlesbrough Borough Association MILNER Mr PAvon County Community Council MACKAY Mr D David Mackay and Environment Scheme NOMURA Mr H University of York IAAS Associates MITCHELL Mr S S Metropolitan NORMAN Mr D R Vale of Glamorgan MACKIE Mr D Drew Mackie and Borough of Wirral Borough Council Associates MIZEN Mr R London Borough of NORMAN Mrs J Southsea Community MACKIE Mr G Wester Hailes Community Newham Centre Design Unit MOON Mr C J I.Y.S.H. NORMAN Mr J B Chester City Council MACLEOD Mr R Brighton Polytechnic MOORE Mr D North Tottenham Area NORMAN Mrs V Southward Environment McPHEN Ms A Bath Self Help Housing Team Trust Association Ltd MOORE Mr J Haverstock Associates NORTH Mr M Mowlem Management Ltd McQUILLAN Miss M Oxford Polytechnic MOORE Mr P Sheffield Housing Dept NOVAK Ms J Community Projects MAGOLE Mr G Botswana MOORE Mrs S Central Independent Foundation MAIR Mr P Glasgow District Council Television pic NUTLEY Mr B Lea View House Tenants MAJE Mr M Francistown, Botswana MOORHOUSE Mr N Design Co-operative Association MAJINGO Mr M Botswana MORENO Mr M CARDO, The University, MAJOR Mr R Wakefield Metropolitan Newcastle upon Tyne O'BRIEN Ms S Bayswater B & B Project District Council MORETON Sir John The Wates O'BRIEN MrS Business in the Community MALIK Mr G R North Staffordshire Foundation O'CONNOR Mr A Housing Architects Community Relations Council MORGAN Mr M Feilden and Mawson Dublin Corporation MALKIN Mr P Community Landmarks, Architects O'CONNOR Mr M National Building The Institute for Democratic MORPHET Mrs J City of Birmingham Agency Environments Polytechnic ODD Miss S Enterprise 5 Housing MALLINSON Mr M MORRIS Mr B Community Land Use Association Ltd MALONE Mr A Nottingham Community MORRIS Mr P Coin St Community O'HAGAN Mr M Sheffield Local Housing Association Builders Ltd Partnership MALONE Miss C Bayswater B & B MORRISON Mr C D RSUA- NCP O'HARE Mr P Peter O'Hare Associates Project MORRISON Mr P Solon Co-operative O'KANE Mr M C Hegarty Masterso n MAN GAR Mr H Commission for Racial Housing Services Doherty Architects Equality MORTON Mr D Metropolitan Police OKORO Mrs T London Borough of MANSOURI Mr A MOTTRAM Miss J A Community Haringey MARGERUM Mr P CityScape Design Regeneration Ltd O'NEIL Mr C Design Co-operative MARLER Mr D Capital & Counties pic MOUNSEY Mr M ACTAC O'NEILL Mrs Glasgow District Council MARMOT Ms A DEGW MOXHAM Ms J Ebor Housing OWEN Mr D East Herts District Council MARRITT Mr A University of Sheffield Association MARSHALL Mr B J Ashford Borough MUGNAIONI Mr P City of Glasgow PADAMSEE Mr C University College Council District Council London MARTIN Miss J Single Homeless Project MULLINGS Mr N Brent Community PALIOS Ms J Self-Build Housing in MARTIN Mr K Liverpool Polytechnic Relations Council London MARTIN Ms R Women's Design Service, MULLOY Mr M Tottenham Community PALLACE Mr N London Borough of Interchange Project Waltham Forest MARTZ Ms S Bayswater B & B Project MURILLY Mrs S Waterloo Community PAPADAKIS Dr A C Architectural MASON Mr T Glasgow District Council Development Group Design Housing Dept MURPHYMrB PARKER Dr J Greater London MATHARU Mr B Solon Co-operative MURPHY Mr J S Bingham Tenants Consultants Housing Services Ltd Association PARKES Mr M Planning Aid for MATHER Mr W S Apex Charitable MURRAY Mr D Technical Services Londoners Trust Agency Ltd PARKINSON Mr D Rende! Palmer & MATLAND Mr R North Kensington MURRAY Mr W Barrowfield Community Tritton, Consulting Engineers Amenity Trust Business Ltd PARKINSON Mr E South Glamorgan MAYHEW Mr D Toe H MUSCA TELLI Ms D Leeds Federated Intervol MELLOR Mr N Liverpool City Council Housing Association PARSONS Miss H Southward Council for MELLOR Mrs R David Baker & Co. MUZILA Mrs S Botswana Community Relations MELMAN Mr S Corob Holdings Ltd PARTRIDGE Canon D Portsmouth MEL VILLE Mr F United St Saviour's Housing Association Charities PATERSON Mrs A Regalian Properties MENZIES Mr P Warrington & Runcorn NAQUI Mr H CTAC pic Development Corporation NATHANSON Mr A Regalian Properties PATTEN Mr J M P Minister of State for MENZIES Mr S Barrowfield Community pic Housing, Urban Affairs & Construction, Business Ltd NEAL Mr S TEAM, Training Center Dept of the Environment MENZIES Mr W Macclesfield NEOGI Mr S Bayswater B & B Project PAXTON Mr G A Bristol Polytechnic Groundwork Trust NETTLEFIELD Mr H Quattro Design PAYNE Mr G CENDEP, Oxford MEREDITH Ms C Co-operative Ltd Polytechnic Development Services Ltd NEWLAND Mr J H Plymouth Polytechnic PEAKE Mr A Development Services Dept MERRINGTON Mr R K Private Housing NEWMAN Mr P Campaign for Homes in PEATTIE Miss A Newcastle upon Tyne Unit, Milton Keynes Development Central London Polytechnic Corporation NICHOLAS Mr F Preseli District Council PEDEN Mr W City of Edinburgh District MERRY Mr J Nottingham City Council NICHOLSON Mr G E North Southwark Council MICHAEL Mr T Camden Planning Community Development Group PEPINSTER Miss C Estates Times 156 DELEGATE LIST PERALTA Mr J C University of York RIDLEY Mrs P Community Initiatives SHELDRICK Mrs L Feltham Community IAAS Research Trust Association PERRIN Mrs J Association for RIGBY Ms C Limehouse Development SHEPHERD Mr C London Borough of Neighbourhood Councils Group Lewis ham PHILLIPS Mrs P Calvay Co-operative RIGBY Mr D Impact Housing Association SHEPLEY Mr C Plymouth City Council PHILLIPS Mr P UK Housing Trust RIGBY Ms E Hammersmith & Fulham SHEPPARD Mr R Wandsworth Borough PIDGEON Mrs M Progressive Borough Architects Council Architecture RIGG MrS Nottingham Community SHILLINGFORD Mr T Business in the PI LANE Mr I Tatitown, Botswana Housing Association Community PILGRIM Mrs M Watcombe Residents RILEY Ms J Huddersfield Polytechnic SHIRLEY-SMITH Mr C Growth Association RIMMER Mr P London Docklands Unlimited, (Voluntary Action Camden) PILGRIM Mr P Watcombe Residents Development Corporation SHORT Mr D David Short Associates, Association RISBRIDGER Mr J Hastings Community Architects & Designers PIMM Mr K Voluntary Initiatives in Housing Association SHOULTS Mr A C London Borough of Vacant Areas ROBB Mrs I Bingham Tenants Association Hackney PLACE Ms E Village Halls Forum ROBERTS Ms L Bayswater B & B Project SIME Mr J Portsmouth Polytechnic POLISH Mr P London Docklands ROBERTS Mr G Gwyn Roberts & SIMMONS Mr R Inner Cities Directorage, Development Corporation Associates Dept of the Environment PORTER Mr N Glanville & Associates ROBERTS Mr M Epping Forest SIMPSON Mr A J Civic Trust POTTER Mr M Michael Potter and Conservation Centre SINCLAIR Mr M Associate (Architect) ROBINSON Mr J Cleveland Housing Aid SINCLAIR Mr M V P SA IDOE POWELL Mr D London Docklands Trust SINCLAIR Mr W Sportworks Ltd Development Corporation ROBINSON Ms R SE London Consortium SINCLAIR Mr R Hunter Village Housing POWELL Mr K Daily Telegraph Housing Association Co-operative POYNTON Mr R A RIBA Community ROCK Mr D Rock Townsend SMILLIE Mr R S East London Housing Architecture Group RODGERS Mr D CDS Co-operative Association Ltd PRESTON Mr L Housing Society SMITH Mr B A Loughborough & District PRICE Mr D Scottish Special Housing ROLLAND Mr L RIB A Housing Society Ltd Association ROSS Mr J Glasgow District Council SMITH Mr B Sheffield City Council PRICE Mrs E Liver Housing Association ROTGE Mr V Building & Social Housing SMITH MrD Ltd Foundation SMITH Mrs M E H Housing Centre PRIMAROLO Mr M National Federation ROWBURY Mr C Strathkelvin District SMITH Mr S Community Service of City Farms Council Volunteers PRITCHARD Ms D Lea View House RUDLIN Mr D Manchester City Planning SMITH Mr T COMTECHSA Tenants Association Dept SMITH Miss V Hillview Residents PROCTOR Mrs J Phoenix Housing RYAN Mr T Earthlife Association Association Ltd RYDER Mr D Phoenix Housing SNEDDON Mr J CAIS Ltd PROCTOR Mr K Keith Proctor Architects Association Ltd SOLESBURY Mr W Inner Cities PURKIS Dr A National Council for Directorate Voluntary Organisations SPARHAM Mrs S Keniston Housing PYLE MrG SAGE MrS Dept of the Environment Association Ltd SALMAN Mr M E The Institute of SPINK Mr J Bradford & Ilkley Advanced Architectural Studies Community College QUARTERMAN Mr D South Yorkshire SANG Mr I London Borough of Haringey SPRINGER MrS Business in the Housing Association Ltd SCARMAN The Lord, OBE President, UN Community QUINN Ms J Bingham Tenants International Year of Shelter for the SOUTHGATE Ms J Bach Educational Organisation Homeless 1987 Programme QUINN Mrs K Welsh Office PEP Team SCHLESINGER Mr A Sunderland STAFFORD Mr F A Franklin Stafford Polytechnic Partnership RADCLIFFE Mr J SCHOFIELD Mr J Gloucester City STEBBING Mr R Hunter & Partners, RAJKUMAR Mr R London Borough of Council Chartered Surveyors Haringey SCOTT Mrs A M Self Employed Architect STEELE Mr D W Avon County Council RAMACHANDRAN Dr A United SCOTT Mr E J Calderdale Metropolitan STEIN Mrs D Waterloo Community Nations Centre for Human Settlements Borough Council Development Group (Habitat) SCOTT Mrs G Covent Garden STEINBERG Mr M The Housing RATCLIFFE Mr D A Community Association Corporation RA VETZ Mr J Manchester Polytechnic SCOTT Dr J London Borough of Hackney STEPHENS Mr K Gloucester City Council RA WSTORNE Mr P Rawstorne Associates SCREENE Mr V Polytechnic of the STEVEN Councillor G Cunninghame Ltd South bank District Council READ Mr J English Heritage SCROXTON Mrs J Young Women's STEW ART Mr J Hunter Village Housing REDFORD Mr T The Housing Christian Association of GB Co-operative Corporation SEDDON Mr M A Community STOCKHAM Miss K NELP REDWOOD Mr J Hove Borough Council Regeneration Ltd STRAND Mr R Church Commissioners REES Mr D RIBA SEYMOUR Mr H Mersey Regional Health for England REID Ms B Royal Institute of British Authority STUART Mrs I M Strathclyde Regional Architects SHARKEY Mrs M Bucks Housing Council RE)NNIE Mr J Palfrey Community Association Ltd STUDDERT Mr P London Borough of Association SHARP Mr A J Church Housing Tower Hamlets REYNOLDS Ms M Building Design Association SUGUNASABESAN MrS R The London REYNOLDS Mr T Housebuilders SHARPE Mr T Strathclyde University Race and Housing Research Unit Federation SHATFORD Mrs E Oxford City Council SUTTON Mr W S London Borough of RHYS Mr I Oxford Polytechnic SHAW Mr K Cardiff City Farm Trust Lambeth RHYS PRYCE Mr H Mowlem SHEARMAN Mrs J Church SWANTON Mrs L Hillview Residents Management Ltd Commissioners for England Association RICHES Ms J North East London SHELDON Mr B London Borough of SWEENEY Mr J Barrowfield Community Polytechnic School of Architecture Lewisham Business .. 157 DELEGATE LIST TABERNOR Mr B University of Newcastle TURNER Mr J F C AHAS WHITTLE Mr K London Borough of upon Tyne TWEED ALE Mr I University of Wales Tower Hamlets TAYLOR Mr B Co-operative Development TYRRELL Mr N Gloucester City Council WICKSTED Mrs A Bingham Tenants Services Ltd Association TAYLOR Mr D R Devon Community UPTON Mr A Hampshire County Council WILCOX Mr D Partnership Ltd Housing Society Ltd UPTON Mr J Glasgow East End Arts WILDING Ms B Community Land and TAYLOR Mr H Young Persons Housing USHER Mr M Wigan Metropolitan Workspace Services Ltd Association Ltd Borough Council WILKINS Miss J Oxford Polytechnic TAYLOR Ms J HTV WILLIAMS Mrs J Bingham Tenants TAYLOR Mr J Nottingham City Council Association TAYLOR Mrs J Bexley London Borough VALATINMrM WILLIAMS Mr R P Housing Officer, TAYLOR Professor L University of York VANGUCCI Mr PC The Chartered Plymouth TAYLOR Mr M Tay Developments Ltd Institute of Building WILLIAMS Mrs S SDP TAYLOR Miss N West Derby VERNON Mr R ARC Ltd WILSON Dr A Polytechnic of South Bank Comprehensive School VICKERY Mr FEast London Housing WILSON Mr B UK Housing Trust TAYLOR Mr P Hanover Housing Association Ltd WILSON Mr I The Housing Corporation Association WILSON Mr R Hunter Village Housing TAYLOR Mr P J Vale of Glamorgan WAITES Mr D Waites Cassidy & Ashton Co-operative Borough Council Partnership WILTON Mr R M British Gas pic THAKE MrS United Kingdom Housing WAKEFIELD Mr N E Y J Lovell WINTERBURN Mr C Calderdale Trust (Holdings) Ltd Metropolitan Borough Council THEOBALD Miss C H CAIS Ltd WALKER Mr M J Community Based WITTON MrS City of Birmingham Urban THIRD Mrs L Tyne & Wear Enterprise Action Areas Renewal Area Team Trust WALLACE Mr J Inverclyde Initiative WODA Miss B London Borough of THOMAS B Lea View House Tenants WALLACE Mr N Community Design Hammersmith & Fulham Association Service WOLK Miss S Freelance Journalist THOMAS Mr B Bryan Thomas Architects W ALSHE Mr M Lees Associates WOOD Mr D New Islington & Hackney THOMAS Mrs N Malachite Film & TV WARD Mr M RIBA Community Housing Association Prods Architecture Group WOOD Mr E H Community Architecture THOMPSON Mr J Hunt Thompson WARE Miss S London Borough of Group Associates Hammersmith & Fulham WOODD Mr C National Federation of THOMPSON Mr R Evening Post W ARK Mr D I Southampton City Council Community Organisations THOMPSON Mr W Clerkenwell Heritage WATES Mrs J WONNACOTT Mr B J Manchester Centre W A TES Mr N CAIS Ltd Polytechnic THORLEY Rev B WATKINS Mr E WLCAC WORSTER Mr T Mowlem Management TIERNEY Mrs J Birmingham Co WATSON Mr A North Tyneside MBC Ltd operative Housing Services Ltd WATSON Mr J North Housing WORTHINGTON Mr J DEGW TILLOTSON Mr R The University, WATSON Mr L Think Green WOTHERSPOON Mrs J Central Council Newcastle upon Tyne W A WRZYNSKI Mr J Manchester of Probation Committees TINDALE Miss P RIBA Community University WREFORD Ms J Spitalfields Design Architecture Group WEATHERHEAD Mr M South Bank Group TOD Mr I RIBA Community Architecture Polytechnic WRIGHT Mr M Housing Association TOPPING Mr J B John Topping WEATHERHEAD Mr P Freelance Charitable Trust Associates Journalist WY A IT Ms A Wyatt Maclaren TOWNSHEND Mr D R Hunter & WEBB MrS Newham Tower Block Partners Tenants Campaign YARROW Ms S Royal Institute of British TRACKMAN Mr L The Coach House WELBANK Mr M Shankland Cox Architects Small Business Centre WEST Mrs 0 Artos Agricultural & YEOMAN Mr R Co-operative TRANCHELL Ms L Hammersmith Housing Association Ltd Development Services Ltd Community Trust WESTCOMBE Mrs S London Borough of YOUNG Mr A James Cunning Young & TRIBE Mrs S Westminster City Council Hackney Partners TRICKETT Mr M Housing Corporation WHELAN Mr D Bernard Thorpe & YOUNG Ms A National Council for TROMBLEY DrS Mirageland Partners Voluntary Organisations TUCK Mr C Nottingham Community WHITE Mr A H E A R YOUNG Mr H Hunter Village Housing Housing Association WHITE Mr D Lovell Partnerships Ltd Co-operative TUCKER Councillor C Manchester City WHITE Mr F North Tyneside M.B.C. YOUNG Mr M South Bank Polytechnic Council WHITE Miss M Regalian Properties pic TUCKETT Mr I Coin St Community WHITE Mr P Downing White Project ZARGAR Mr A University of York Builders Ltd Management TURNER Mr A Alan Turner and WHITE-THOMAS Mr J Dept of Associates Environment 158 ..