Civil servants fear that coalition reforms will lead to a lack of sub-regional planning for economic growth, according to CSW research – and they think that local leadership, rather than central government initiatives, must fill the gap.

The survey, conducted with Property Week and the Public Property Summit, asked participants to assess the danger that the abolition of regional development agencies (RDAs) and the creation of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) will lead to a lack of strategic, sub-regional planning on economic growth or regeneration. Some 57 per cent said the danger was “very serious” or “serious in some parts of the country” – a proportion that rose to 64 per cent among managers.

Participants were also asked to rank six factors on their importance to fostering local economic growth. The creation of enterprise zones came fifth overall – and was ranked last by managers – while “visionary and proactive local authority leadership and management” came in first. Second was “an LEP that is effective in attracting public and private finance” and third was a business-friendly planning framework.

Meanwhile, 82 per cent of civil service managers “agree” or “strongly agree” with the government’s plans to accept deferred payment for land put into joint ventures with housing developers. Support for the model among other grades was lower, with 74 per cent backing the plans, while 85 per cent expressed warm support for the idea of renting land out until values recover (76 per cent of managers supported this.)

Asked to rank in order of importance a list of challenges preventing closer partnership working with the private sector, civil servants of all ranks first blamed “private businesses’ fears that political factors will lead to a lack of continuity”. Opinions then diverged: managers worried about a shortage of private investment cash and fragmented public land holdings, while junior staff pointed to private sector distrust of the public sector and a lack of flexibility among public bodies.

The survey was completed by 278 civil servants, 20 per cent of them of grades 6-7 and senior civil service.

The full results will be available at the Public Property Summit on 2 November. For details see www.publicpropertysummit.com.

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Written by CSW