Memorandum by Nigel Smith Esq (GF 01)
THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
RULING ON GAP FUNDING SCHEMES FOR URBAN REGENERATION
I write in response to the press notice regarding
the Environment, Transport & Regional Affairs Committee investigation
into the implications of the EC ruling on gap funding. I thought
the committee might be interested to see the attached article
I was asked to write on the subject recently for "Urban Environment
Today".
Since spending a year on secondment to the Department
of the Environment as a UDG appraiser, I have taken a close personal
and professional interest in the problems of the inner cities.
I am currently chair of the RICS Land Use Panel, deputy chair
of the Regeneration Panel and hold a number of voluntary appointments
in the East End. Until 1999, I was the partner heading up the
Drivers Jonas Economic Consultancy Team, which I left to set up
my own regeneration practice.
I therefore have considerable experience in
the operating of gap-funding both from the public and private
sector viewpoints. Amongst other things I have advised government
on funding strategies for English Estates and the Welsh Development
Agency as well as undertaking well over 100 area regeneration
strategies and making many successful applications for central
government and European funding.
I believe that property should play an important
role in an integrated strategy to address the problems of our
inner cities and assisted areas. But it appears to have been relegated
to the bottom of the government's regeneration agenda. I feel
strongly that, because so little importance has been attached
to the built environment, the issue of GAP funding has been badly
handled. Measures could and should have been put in place to mitigate
the effects of the EC ruling well before it was issued.
20 June 2000
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