Yearly Archives: 2006

A diverse range of local residents and businesses were able to learn more about the exciting opportunities on offer within the construction industry at the Constructing Hackney: Business and Information Day held Wednesday 15th November between the hours of 10.30am – 7pm in the Assembly Hall at Hackney Town Hall.

The event, commissioned by Hackney Council, in association with Hackney Homes and organised by Renaisi Ltd attracted around four hundred (400) local residents and gave them the opportunity to seek information and advice from key contractors, training providers and business support agencies about the existing opportunities and those coming online soon within the Borough.

Apprenticeships, job opportunities and advice were on offer at

Constructing Hackney, which housed 38 exhibitors and a range of seminars (led by Hackney Community College, Hackney Training and Employment Network, The Innovatory, HM Revenue and Customs and Hackney Homes).

The Olympics, the Woodberry Down Housing regeneration project and the Decent Homes initiative will transform the Borough. Keynote speaker, Cllr Guy Nicholson, LBH Cabinet for Regeneration and Olympic and Paralympic Games, Richard Abbott Chair of Decent Homes Employment and Enterprise Partnership and HBV Enterprise, Charlie Forman, LBH Chief Officer for 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Steve Tucker, Chief Executive of Hackney Homes addressed the crowd highlighting the positive changes occurring in the Borough and the opportunities open for both businesses and residents alike.

Cllr Nicholson said, “The event represents a coming together of the council, its partners, the public and private sector for mutual benefit of all parties and the Hackney construction industry. Over the next 25 years there will be unprecedented change in East London. We are planning for an Olympic Games legacy, so that people who get jobs building the London Games will continue in employment working on other London Gateway developments.”

“There is tremendous pool of talent in Hackney, a potential workforce waiting to be mobilised. To take advantage of this opportunity, the Olympic Host Boroughs have come together to create a job brokerage network. Supported by £9m investment from the GLA, the brokerage will provide a one stop solution for employers and those seeking work.”

The Decent Homes initiative is currently in the process of bringing 32,000 homes within Hackney up to and above the Government’s own Decent Homes Standard of warm, well insulated homes, new kitchen and bathrooms.

Hackney Homes Chief Executive Steve Tucker said, “Hackney Homes is working with the contractors (Kier, Mulalley and Company, Connaught Plc, Lovell Partnerships, Mansell Plc) so that together they offer opportunities to local people to carry out these well paid skilled jobs. In addition we have commissioned Hackney Community College to train 400 people on skills required by the contractors working on Decent Homes programme”

HBV Enterprise works with entrepreneurs to start, fund and grow their business. Richard Abbott Chief Executive of HBV said, “It’s ‘Enterprise Week’, and it’s fantastic to see all the wide range of opportunities coming on offer to local businesses and local people. It’s early days for much of the work in Hackney, but it’s great to see employers advertising jobs, the training and development opportunities on offer, and so many organisations passionate and committed to ensuring that local people secure local jobs.”

On top of all this, Hackney residents had the opportunity to win a plethora of prizes and a chance to win a “Name a Hackney Street” competition. Amongst the prizes on offer were a TV, DVD player and microwave from Kier Hackney, £400 donated by Connaught Plc, a power drill and bits from Mulalley and Company and a power drill by Lovell Partnerships, whilst Mansell held a day long text prize draw whereby 2 lucky winners received an iPod each.

Invest in Hackney, with support from Hackney Council, is giving people a unique opportunity to glimpse what the future holds for Hackney, at an exhibition of planned developments in the Borough called Future Hackney, running at the Village Underground in Shoreditch between 4^th- 6^thOctober.

Lindsay Tripp, Head of Invest in Hackney, said: “Hackney is changing fast. New hotels, businesses, homes, office and retail units, better transport, and of course the Olympics are set to transform Hackney for good. We’re bringing together all the key developments across the Borough at one event, and for the very first time people will be able to appreciate the scale of change across the Borough.”

Over a dozen key developments will be showcased at the event, including the Olympics International Broadcast and Press Centre, the East London Railway project (formerly known as the East London Line Extension), 30 Crown Place Plaza, and the Woodberry Down regeneration scheme.

The exhibitions include DVDs, ‘fly-throughs’ on computers, and scale models providing visitors with a range of visual and interactive ways of experiencing many of the most important planning schemes in the pipeline. A team from Invest in Hackney will be on hand to guide visitors round the exhibition.

Hackney’s directly-elected Mayor, Jules Pipe, will be giving the opening speech at the invitation-only launch event on the evening of the 4^th October between 6pm-9pm. The exhibition is open to the public on the 5^th and 6^th October between 10am-4pm.

Mayor Pipe said: “Hackney Council has a pivotal role in enabling the regeneration of the Borough through significant projects like Building Schools for the Future and Woodberry Down, one of the largest residential-led regeneration projects in London. 2009 will see the realisation of our long campaign to bring the tube to Hackney, and much of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games will also take place in the borough. We are working hard to ensure that all these developments bring change to Hackney and we have a lot of work happening to make sure there are real, long term benefits for local people. This includes how we develop the media facilties after the Games as a centre for employment and enterprise. It’s an exciting and positive time for Hackney, and Future Hackney is helping to put what’s happening in context.”

The exhibition is being staged at Village Underground – a distinctive venue in the heart of Shoreditch, located in a previously vacant railway arch, and filled with refurbished tube carriages.

Renaisi has been asked to work with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, one of the largest social policy research and development charities in the UK, the Centre for Urban and Community Research, and Community Links, to support research into the interaction between formal governance arrangements and the changing face of Britain’s communities.

The research will examine:

- Which groups are heard through current arrangements;
- How groups that don’t have a voice could be empowered;
- How the relationships between are affected by participation; and,
- How the new governance structures affect community representatives.

Renaisi’s Director of Policy and Strategy, Kate Foley welcomed the research: “The outcome of the research will inform the debate around the local localism agenda, and to what extent, and how best, governance structures can work for mixed communities. Renaisi has considerable experience in running community-led regeneration and as regeneration seems to be the focus of tensions between communities, I believe we can bring an interesting dimension to the research.”

Renaisi has built a reputation for providing a first class interim management service for our clients in the regeneration field. Our strengths – programme and project management in a regeneration context – perfectly meet the needs of Local Authorities and Local Strategic Partnerships in the implementation of NRF activities and Local Area Agreements. We know how crucial effective delivery is and how difficult it can be to recruit experienced staff with the right skill set.

Research we’ve conducted shows that there is a perception that interim management is an expensive alternative to recruiting permanent staff. But is this perception justified? The evidence suggests not.

There are on-costs: that’s up to an additional 25% national insurance and pension contributions. And then there is the cost of recruitment: the cost of the advert and the cost in time taken to recruit. And that’s not forgetting sick pay. It all mounts up!

With Renaisi Interim Management Services, we won’t ask you to pay us if our staff member falls ill. And of course, we’ll pay their on costs, look after their personnel issues, guide and support them, and carry out their formal appraisal. There is a danger of matching the wrong person to the wrong post: if our member of staff is not right for you, we will identify alternative support. That’s a luxury not available to those who recruit permanently.

But costs aside, do your staff members have the skills you need?

Renaisi staff all complete a series of training modules designed to equip them with the tools they will needs in an interim management position. Courses include Partnership Development, Options Appraisal, Programme and Project Management, Equal Opportunities and Diversity, Financial Management, Health and Safety, Report Writing and Presentation Skills. The work we carry out demands a wide and deep skills’ base. Our reputation as the leading regeneration specialist in London means we attract the very best candidates in the field – from recent graduates to seasoned professionals with many years experience in hard to recruit to disciplines.

We’re happy to put our reputation up front. We’ll provide up to three days of free consultancy to clients wishing to try out our interim management service. This will give you the opportunity to test the skills of our team for free. Why? Because we believe that the quality of the service you are getting will provide you with all the evidence you need to justify our competitive day rates.

If you are interested in our hassle-free route to good staff, please contact us.

Zaha Hadid, one of the world’s leading architects, has won planning permission to develop a daring new scheme in Hoxton Square, east London.

The 900m2 development, which will replace an existing 1980’s building (number 33-34) on the east side of the Square, will house a ground-floor gallery, offices and apartments. The project is set to become Zaha Hadid’s first built project in England. Work is expected to start on the development in the autumn.

This proposal represents a bold and elegant addition to Hoxton Square. The dramatic sweep of the roof and stark modern elevations present an architectural counterpoint to the adjacent listed building. It also contributes a notable and signature building to the diversity of architectural styles already present in Hoxton Square.

Daniel Bridge from Renaisi project Invest in Hackney said, “A new Zaha Hadid scheme in Hoxton Square is fantastic news for Hackney. As a world renowned architect and recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, her scheme will undoubtedly attract global attention and help further cement Hackney’s reputation as a choice destination for some of the world’s most well-respected and established names”.

“Hackney is already home to Jay Jopling’s White Cube Gallery and together with Dalston Culture House, Hackney Empire, and Sir Richard Roger’s planned Gillet Square development, Hackney looks set to become one of the world’s most exciting destinations for lovers of art, culture and architecture”.

Professor Peter Roberts, Chair of the Academy of Sustainable Communities, delivered the Renaisi Annual Lecture at Shoreditch Church in East London on Monday 24th April. Over one hundred and fifty people (150) drawn from across the public and private sector listened as he challenged many basic assumptions about regeneration.

“We don’t need a lot more original research: we’ve known for a long time the ingredients of what makes a sustainable community, what we need to do to regenerate an area, and what causes an area to be in need of regeneration in the first place.” Professor Roberts said, “What we lack are the people with the skills and capacity to deliver change.”

Professor Roberts argued for greater investment to create and maintain communities, rather than expensive and often unsuccessful remedial action: “There are parallels between regeneration and the health sector that we can learn from. It is far cheaper and much more effective to administer preventative care than intensive care. And if when we do need to intervene, let’s do so effectively rather than have a series of fragmented and ineffective piecemeal programmes.”

Challenging some previous practice, Professor Roberts also suggested that strong evidence existed which showed that single area programmes now coming into vogue in England were effective: “The Netherlands, Wales and other countries have adopted an innovative approach to their single regeneration programmes, drawing together public sector and other partners in effective ways.”

The Lecture was followed by a question and answer session, that included Professor Marjorie Mayo of Goldsmiths University, Penny Thompson Hackney’s Chief Executive, and Professor Roberts, and was chaired by Renaisi’s Chief Executive Kevin Sugrue. Questions ranged from how effectively the current planning system engages with the community, how sustainable the Olympics legacy will be and why smaller community organisations and SMEs are effectively dissuaded from bidding for tenders because of public sector procurement processes.

Renaisi’s Annual Lecturer is designed to provoke debate and discourse in the regeneration sector. Kevin Sugrue, Renaisi’s Chief Executive said: “I found Professor Roberts’ lecture extremely thought provoking. There’s a tendency for those involved in regeneration – whether as developers, practitioners, or community representatives – to be focused on delivery to the exclusion of everything else. It’s good from time to time to think about what we do, and consider how we can do it better. I hope that the Renaisi Lecture provided just that opportunity.”

Earlier this year, the Young Foundation published a follow-up to the 1957 Institute of Community study ‘Family and Kinship in East London’. The new study is entitled ‘The New East End – Kinship, Race and Conflict’ and provides a contentious portrayal of attitudes in the East End today. The book argues that the white working class population in Tower Hamlets feels alienated by current welfare policy, which bases entitlement on need, as opposed to contribution. The consequence of this is a perception among the white working classes that the Bengali community in Tower Hamlets has benefited disproportionately from welfare provision.

The picture is undoubtedly more complex than this and whether or not ‘The New East End’ attends to all the complexities of the argument is largely irrelevant. What the book does reflect, in a way no other sociological analysis has done in recent years, is the reality of community conflict in an inner city transitional area. There has been considerable indignation about the views presented in the book, with its charges of racism.

However, it is important to heed these views, if we are to understand how to build the bridges to a modern multicultural society.

But what about the role of regeneration in helping to restore communities like Tower Hamlets? The area-based regeneration programmes of yesteryear have proved to be extremely divisive in places, drawing apparently arbitrary lines through communities, and often pitting one community against another. Will the latest regeneration initiatives bridge rather than exacerbate these divides?

The Borough’s Neighbourhood Renewal provision in Tower Hamlets does not follow the same patterns as mainstream provision. In Tower Hamlets 33% of the population is classified as Bangladeshi. Interestingly, 33% of Neighbourhood Renewal funded interventions in 2004/05 contained BME communities. On what is an admittedly crude analysis, the funding does not appear to be disproportionately skewed towards any particular group, whatever the perceptions may be.

Then there’s the Local Area Agreements (LAAs) – due to come in to force in Tower Hamlets in April this year. It has been argued that Local Area Agreements are the most significant change in public services and local funding that we have had since the Second World War. The principle is based on more buying from all residents and ensuring a localised rather than a national agenda. However, if LAAs are to impact on partnerships and community building in a way that Neighbourhood Renewal has not done to date in Tower Hamlets, then it is the perception of service delivery as much as the reality that needs to be addressed.

If LAAs are going to live up to the promise, they cannot afford to disregard any view point no matter how unpopular.

Whether this regeneration initiative can deliver the safer and stronger communities Government wants in Tower Hamlets will depend considerably on how well it communicates to residents of all races.

Renaisi recently undertook a pre-planning application consultation and stakeholder engagement programme for London based property developers, HDG Ltd, for the 19 storey commercial development at 30 Crown Place in the City of London. HDG were keen to embrace planning best practice by starting the consultation process very early so as to identify the views of stakeholders before the planning application had been submitted.

Renaisi’s consultation and stakeholder activity included, setting up and management of an on-site exhibition, management of open days with display boards and models, advertisements in local press and targeted mail outs, workshop sessions with key stakeholders for more in-depth discussions and the development of a project specific website with feedback mechanism. More than 500 people attended the two open days on site.

Edmond Harbour, a director of HDG Ltd, noted, “Integrating such a high level of community consultation into a tight development programme is extremely challenging and Renaisi played a pivotal role in delivering against this timetable.”