Area Regeneration is Land & Property Re-cycling

As a practitioner since 1985, I ask myself from time to time what the core task of area regeneration is : land and property re-cycling. The aims and objectives may differ according to context, but this is the basic task as far as I'm concerned.

From this starting point, I would expand the regeneration task to cover the re-use of :

• Empty residential and commercial property
• Declining centres and fringe areas
• Local and strategic brownfield sites

Fundamental to sustainable regeneration I would add, is a clear comprehension of the environmental, economic and social context for a project, plan or programme, hence the usefulness of environmental assessments and wider sustainability appraisal.

Access and transport planning are usually key issues.