The main focus for the Group this year will be the role and importance of local regeneration activity in the context of an economic downturn. 

Clearly this is a challenging time for the regeneration sector – especially those schemes which have been predicated on private sector development and investment. But it is also an exciting time for developing new forms of local economic activity, with new interest in topics such as creating more resilient communities.

Community and neighbourhood led regeneration has and continues to make a difference in turning the fortunes of places around and impacting positively on local people and communities. This ‘local’ and more intimate regeneration, involving bespoke, focussed and ‘softer’ outcomes, has not only had a key role to play, but is likely to play a increasingly bigger role in the recession and in regeneration policy in the longer term.