Neighbourhoods need to be thought about in the medium to long-term, and are often best developed in a managed, incremental way. Any ‘new’ activity or investment is a potential distraction from that unless the exit or ‘succession’ of that is thought about early.
Succession can mean many different outcomes – from changing cultures to creating self-generating income streams. It is extremely important to have challenging thinking about the implications of future scenarios on current activity – what will happen if there is less funding available? Or if personnel or the population change? This kind of forward planning can help generate activities that have a better chance of long-term success.
In EC1, the NDC produced a succession plan that attempted to identify the best long-term outcomes for the investment, and secure the commitment of partners to this approach. It covered the continuation of flagship projects, the management of capital assets, governance of the area, and the future of each individual funded project. Preparing a succession plan earlier would have had a number of advantages – particularly in terms of deciding about the creation of new organizations, or identifying where existing partnerships or organizations would need to take on enhanced roles. This would then have allowed more time for these changes to be supported through other strategic decisions, especially in terms of funding.
