Availability of Appropriate Skills
66. The shortage of staff with the necessary skills
to manage regeneration schemes was noted in the Urban Task Force
report in 1999 and in the subsequent Urban White Paper which
proposed the setting up of regional centres of excellence. The
Government then returned to the issue five years later when it
appointed Sir John Egan to head a task force into skills for
sustainable communities. As a result of Egan's report, the Government
announced in January 2005 details of the Academy for Sustainable
Communities to be established in Leeds.
67. The lack of adequately skilled staff threatens
the Housing Market Renewal programme. The Pathfinder chairs pointed
out widespread problems in recruiting skilled staff.
The skills required in Housing Market Renewal
are not, in essence, different from those required by other regeneration
initiatives. There is no doubt, however, that there is an acute
shortage of such skills. This is reflected in the rapid growth
of salaries offered to those experienced in the field.
The skills shortage pervades the whole programme
and is not limited to the Pathfinder teams, who often have problems
recruiting suitable staff. Local authorities, on whom the Pathfinders
rely for much of the strategic input as well as local consultation
and implementation of projects, find it difficult to man up to
the demands placed upon them. This is especially the case if they
are smaller authorities, for whom the Pathfinder programme represents
a step change in approach.[42]
68. Expertise in delivering programmes for major
neighbourhood remodelling has been lost over the years and the
wide range of skills required is not adequately covered by 'traditional'
professional areas of expertise. The Chartered Institute of Housing
said that it was reviewing its professional qualification in terms
of whether new areas of competence were required. Sarah Webb from
the Institute told us: "We are reviewing our professional
qualification at the moment …without predicting the outcome
of that, the kinds of skills we will identify as needing the profession
to have in the next five years will be quite different".[43]
69. The evidence also highlighted the problems experienced
by new graduates seeking a career in regeneration because experience
is required for most jobs. Bob Pringle, director of the Hull Pathfinder,
told us: "Most people in regeneration want you to have some
experience and the difficulty for most people is actually getting
that experience".[44]
Hardial Bhogal, director of the East Staffordshire Pathfinder,
called for new opportunities to enable new recruits to get experience
in working in regeneration projects.
There is a demand for very high skilled people
because of the intensity of the work. Not only in the Pathfinders
but in the external adviser consultancy fields and so on they
are stretched; there is a colossal investment going on this and
you will see they are also being stretched in terms of the submissions
and the quality of submissions coming forward. Firstly, there
is a general agreement there is a lack of skills and I think whatever
can be done to incentivise more people coming into the field,
trainee, graduate positions and so on for people to learn on the
job, and the transferring of skills from consultancies to mainstream,
the more that should be encouraged.[45]
70. We welcome the recent announcement of the Academy
for Sustainable Communities. It should give priority to training
in the broad range of skills and expertise required to deliver
housing market renewal. This should include immediate action to
meet gaps in knowledge, analysis and implementation through short
courses, networks and briefing notes. The Government should consider
setting up new ways to develop regeneration skills. New pathways
are needed to recruit graduates into regeneration programmes where
they can get the necessary experience before taking on managerial
roles, including graduate training schemes and work experience
placements.
71. We welcome the Chartered Institute of Housing
review of its professional qualification. We urge the other professional
bodies including valuation, surveying, architecture and planning
to review their qualifications and key areas of competence to
reflect the demands of managing regeneration projects.
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