Call for single Thames Gateway authority

Ben Cook, Regen.net, 24 April 2009

A draft report by the charity Sustainable Environment Foundation said the new body should have strategic planning, decision making and compulsory purchase powers if the Gateway is to achieve its eco-region status.

The bodies currently involved in the Thames Gateway scheme include: the Department for Communities and Local Government; the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform; the Department for Transport; the Highways Agency, the Homes & Communities Agency; the Greater London Authority as well as 18 local authorities and three regional development agencies.

The report - A ‘green paper’ for the Thames Gateway – said a body could be established that would have responsibility for producing the planning framework, as well as having planning and compulsory purchase order powers, as well as land-holding and development powers.

It added that there were three options for achieving the necessary unity and alignment of interests, policy, practice, procedure, powers and assets. According to the SEF, the options are: a collaboration, an economic regeneration company, and a new sub-regional regeneration authority.

The report said: Creating such a body would necessarily require the transfer of functions (and potentially land) from other organisations, which may be difficult, but could be the only answer to secure a comprehensive regeneration of the Thames Gateway area in an holistic way.

A final version of the draft report – which also moots the idea of creating a tenth English region – will be published next week.