Councils should be able to hold a regeneration account to more efficiently allocate capital for regeneration projects, a think-tank has argued.
A new report by Localis calls for the next government to give local leaders greater economic powers over regeneration to boost housebuilding and local growth.
It says the current requirement to distinguish between revenue and capital spending is an ‘obstacle to delivering holistic regeneration projects’ and ideally should be abolished in place of single budgets.
But in the absence of such reform, councils should be allowed to hold a separate regeneration account, similar to a housing revenue account, the think-tank said.
It would mean that capital raised for regeneration could be spent on projects without the bureaucracy of revenue expenditure accounting, even if it is on matters normally covered by revenue spend, such as provisioning for the maintenance of new buildings and infrastructure.
The report also argues for a return to regional spatial planning and the establishment of regional planning offices to pool resources to support sub-regional planning, and for greater private and third sector involvement to allow for more community-led development.
