Select Committee on Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Written Evidence


Memorandum by Beatrice Fraenkel, Chairman, South Liverpool Primary Care Trust (CAB 06)

  I would like to make the following points to the Select Committee regarding the role and effectiveness of CABE in respect of CABE's relationship with other national and local agencies.

  I am the Design Champion for the City of Liverpool. I am also an NHS Design Champion. I have been the Design Champion since 2002. Liverpool is taking the quality of design and support for design and the built environment very seriously indeed, and my role is supported by the Chief Executive of the City and the Leader of the Council. On the NHS side, we have signed up to LIFT and will be spending over £43 million on new buildings over the next five years. We are also likely to spend around £1.2 billion on new hospitals in the coming decade. On the Council side we are involved with other public and private sector partners in huge regeneration schemes including Housing market renewal initiatives, The Grosvenor Henderson Development of the City Centre, and major waterfront sites. The importance of smaller single buildings must also not be underestimated.

  As Design Champion am working very closely with CABE across all the projects and the level of support and expertise they can and do provide makes a major impact on the effectiveness of how these schemes can and will be delivered. Having myself been through several training schemes I have been able to bring increased expertise back into Liverpool which has already had a positive impact. CABE are now going to provide training for all those individuals involved commissioning the billions of pounds worth of buildings in Liverpool. This can only have a major impact design quality, on the effectiveness of the environmental impact, and best value which will be with us for a long time to come.

  The guidance and support I can call upon through CABE is essential, and the areas of expertise I will need to call upon will increasingly be in relation to evidence based information about best value—the relationship between design and high value outputs—as a means of encouraging private sector investors/developers to value spending time and/or money on design. I would like this area to be developed further. It would also be of great value for a "library" of private sector individuals to be made available who have been involved in commissioning excellent buildings who would act as champions within the private sector. CABE is uniquely placed, if adequately resourced, to help people like myself in making a real difference in their local areas.

Beatrice Fraenkel

Chairman

South Liverpool Primary Care Trust





 
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