Examination of Witnesses (Questions 275-279)
9 FEBRUARY 2004
YVETTE COOPER
MP, RT HON
LORD MCINTOSH
OF HARINGEY
AND MICHAEL
SEENEY
Q275 Chairman: Welcome to the second
part of this session of the inquiry into the role of historic
buildings in urban regeneration. We have had your written submissions.
We usually give witnesses the opportunity to make a brief opening
statement if you feel that appropriate. Otherwise we can go straight
to questions if you prefer.
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: I am
perfectly happy to go on to questions.
Yvette Cooper: I would like to
make a couple of general points. There is a huge opportunity and
potential for greater use of historic buildings in regeneration
programmes. There are some fantastic examples across the country,
whether it is the Albert Dock in Liverpool or Tate Modern and
so on, that the Committee will be aware of. I think there is considerable
potential for greater use of the historic built environment in
the regeneration programmes. The thing that I think is perhaps
additional to this is that it is not simply about the physical
environment and physical regeneration programmes. The other thing
I would add is that local history can be particularly important
for community-led regeneration programmes. I will just give one
local example of that, which is from my constituency, where a
big regeneration focus around an urban renaissance programme has
meant that the local catalyst has been a couple of historic buildings
and the local community want to get involved because they want
to champion the historic buildings. Although in the long run the
debate ends up being about everything from the transport system
to all sorts of broader regeneration issues, where the new jobs
are going to be, what skills needs there are, the interesting
thing is that people have been drawn into the process, the local
community has been drawn into the process, often by a debate about
local history and championing local historic buildings, people's
pride in their own local history. I just want to say that the
potential for history is broader than simply physical infrastructure.
It is also the potential that it has to support community regeneration.
Q276 Mr O'Brien: PPG15 is the Government's
planning guidance on the historic environment and it refers to
the regeneration potential of heritage but that it does not have
a strong regeneration focus. Will the draft Planning Policy Statement
on the historic environment, PPS15, address the regeneration potential
of the historic environment specifically?
Yvette Cooper: It is quite interesting
when you look at that 1994 document: it does look like a 1994
document. There is only one mention of regeneration and that may
well reflect the political climate at the time. It does talk about
economic growth and balancing economic growth and conservation,
and certainly PPG15 allows you to do all kinds of development
in terms of the use of historic buildings for regeneration but
a lot of the language feels like it was written ten years ago
and it also does not champion the potential opportunities of historic
buildings and regeneration. It makes it possible to use those
opportunities. Certainly it is something that we would want to
look at as part of looking at all of the PPGs. What we do not
know at the moment is what the timetable will be for looking at
PPG15 but it is certainly an issue we will want to look at. Probably
in the meantime, however, you could also look at some of the issues
about who PPG15 is used and interpreted by rather than specifically
the content of it and what more we could do to get a better interpretation
by local authorities, by developers and by stakeholders that have
to use PPG15.
Q277 Mr O'Brien: So you have no idea
when it will be published? Can you give us some indication how
it will change, the PPS to the PPG?
Yvette Cooper: Not at this stage.
Certainly the issue around potential for regeneration is something
that we need to look and consider. One of the reasons I cannot
give you a timetable is that we are also looking, in the light
of the ODPM Select Committee's comments on the ODPM Annual Report,
at the timetable for all of the PPG revisions at the moment in
the light of your points. Certainly it is an issue we are interested
in but, as I said, there is more we can do in the meantime to
see what we could do to help local authorities better interpret
it or interpret it in a more flexible way to support regeneration
in the short term.
Q278 Mr O'Brien: Will it be earlier or
later, do you think?
Yvette Cooper: I cannot tell you
that at this stage. I am happy to get back to the committee as
soon as we have a conclusion but it is something that the department
is still looking at.
Q279 Andrew Bennett: This is crazy. We
criticised you for not having a timetable and now you are telling
us that it is even worse while you consider our report. Come on:
you must have some idea whether you are going to get to grips
with this before Easter or not.
Yvette Cooper: No: I cannot give
you the timetable at the moment because what we are looking at
in the light of the comments that you raised is the different
priorities that should be given to different PPGs. What is the
critical question on this one is that—
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