Introduction  | ​ Foreword  |  Recommendations  |  Chapters  |  About the authors ​

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Summary of Recommendations 

Introduction
Let’s be clear about the objective of estate regeneration: is it to improve the lives of those who live on or around existing estates, or is it to help solve the housing crisis by making more effective use of public land? With care, patience and respect we should be able to do both.

Estate regeneration must maintain and enhance social diversity: it will not succeed without the broad support of existing residents, but it can and should also play a significant part in creating additional homes for buyers and renters.

The mixed-funding model (including public investment and cross-subsidy from market housing) has worked well in creating successful, diverse and financially viable estate regeneration, but that model does not work when public investment is reduced to a token contribution and too much reliance placed on the market. Estate regeneration is now under threat from unbalanced market-led solutions provoking resistance from existing communities.

We urge government to think again about the role of public investment in estates, and to review the application of current policies to estate regeneration. Right to Buy and the Starter Homes initiative should be applied flexibly to estate regeneration, with due attention to local priorities.

Chapter 1 Appraising the options

1. Undertake an initial desk exercise to establish the viability in principle of options to be tested.
2. The range of options should be wide and as distinct from one another as possible, enabling alternatives - including redevelopment versus refurbishment or the degree of densification necessary to generate cross-subsidy - to be evaluated. The range should include the costs and benefits of doing nothing as a baseline comparator. Minimal intervention and meanwhile uses are alternatives that should also be evaluated - the benefits can be unexpected.
3. Recognise the connection between options appraisal and the stakeholder engagement process described in Chapter 2. Establish appropriate appraisal criteria for each stakeholder group and appraise options against these separately.
4. Use one of the many tried and tested appraisal methodologies. Make sure that non-financial and non-quantifiable costs and benefits are appropriately considered as well as empirical measures. Embrace holistic measures of success, as well as purely empirical and financial ones.

Chapter 2 Engaging communities 

1. Ensure that residents are involved in the process as soon as a realistic prospect of regeneration is established. Always ensure anything shown to residents in consultation is deliverable. 
   
2. Ensure that there is political and planning support, and that there is adequate time factored in for consultation.
3. What’s in it for residents? Regeneration needs to have real benefits for existing residents. Make sure that there are embryonic but realistic ideas for the residents ’offer’ from the beginning - residents will not engage effectively on other issues, such as design, until their future security is addressed.
4. Ensure that the process is transparent and auditable - a matter of record.
5. Ensure residents have adequate skills and knowledge to be able to participate in the consultation. Provide training and other assistance if required.
6. The engagement process needs to be inclusive. Design the engagement strategy to reach a wide sample of the community - including neighbouring residents and businesses outside the estate - and ensure that small vocal groupings don’t have a disproportionate voice in the process.

Chapter 3 Getting the design right 

1. Understand the existing and historic patterns of development on and surrounding the estate, and seek to reintegrate the estate with its surroundings, making connections and reducing visible difference. Create places around a network of streets and other public spaces, with clear edges reinforced by the built-form and a clear distinction between public, shared and private space. 
2. Use new development to provide a variety of homes in a range of typologies to suit different households - potentially combining family houses with mid-rise apartment blocks and taller buildings for singles and couples. Integrate different tenures within neighbourhoods and minimse visible difference - but be realistic about the need for separate entrances, different management regimes and the affordability of shared facilities.
3. To maximise their catchment and promote integration, locate community facilities, workspaces and shops on main routes and at the interface with the surrounding area.
4. Give early consideration to the car parking strategy, especially on suburban estates, and avoid domination of the street scene and other public realm by parked cars.
5. Remember that visual richness can be achieved in subtle ways and can evolve over time - avoid the temptation to create instant variety through diverse architectural languages and materials.
6. Follow the Superdensity guidance - if the financial model is pushing the solution towards hyperdensity then it may be better to do nothing for now, rather than risk unsustainable regeneration. Beware costly shared spaces, facilities and systems.

Chapter 4 Creating sustainable outcomes

1. Address the local housing requirements of the wider area and rebalance tenures to reflect the needs of all sections of society including those of existing residents, vulnerable housing groups, the old, the young and families.
2. On large regeneration programmes, plan phased development to maximise the opportunity for existing residents to have the option to stay in the area (with a preference for a single stage decant), minimise the disruption to occupiers and create a series of complete places rather than fragments of a building site.
3. Consider new delivery models where local authorities retain a financial stake in the development and develop housing to suit their local circumstances, leading to solutions that deliver equitable outcomes for the benefit of existing and local residents and provide revenues for the council.
4. Review existing and emerging national housing, planning and fiscal policies where they conflict with sustainable estate regeneration outcomes - including Right to Buy, Starter Homes and the presumption in favour of demolition.