Research and analysis

Sunderland Regeneration Board

Published 10 April 2024

Applies to England

Partnership for People and Place

The PfPP programme has piloted a new approach to cross-government working to improve local outcomes and efficiency of policy and programmes designed and delivered in place. PfPP funded 13 local government partners to deliver pilot projects focusing on hyper-local issues that could be tackled through better central or local government coordination. The overall objective of the PfPP programme was to test whether closer working between different central government departments and local places can bring measurable benefits to people who live there.

Local background – Sunderland

Over the last 20 years the Council and its partners have completed several major regeneration projects to address city centre decline in Sunderland. The start-stop nature of funding mechanisms and central government support has meant many of the projects have either stalled or regressed. This has slowed progress and inhibited long-term, sustainable investment plans from both public and private sector stakeholders.

The project aimed to influence central government partners to take a more holistic approach to regeneration and development, and to look at economic and social value in a broader sense. While the pilot was initially designed to promote improved integration and partnerships governing regeneration of the city centre, discussions facilitated in early Theory of Change workshops suggested narrowing the focus to the Sunniside area. It was felt this could be used as a case study for wider Sunderland City regeneration plans.  As part of the pilot, a Regeneration Board was planned to bring together key local and central government stakeholders and make regeneration intervention decisions holistically.

Central government involvement

The project intended to work closely with central government partners to ensure national and local strategies and policies were aligned. It also sought to use cross-government experiences of levelling up to support Sunderland to address some of its key challenges. These focused on population and talent drift, the need to deliver better housing, improved education and employment opportunities and better health outcomes for local people. To do this, the ambition was to work with DLUHC, DESNZ, DWP, DCMS and DfT.

Existing relationships with Homes England and DLUHC were seen as a key enabler of engagement in the pilot. The project lead emphasised previous close working with Homes England to unlock components of the local housing ecosystem. This had been aligned to the Council’s strategic narrative and the wider government Levelling Up agenda. These working relationships built trust between the local authority and Homes England.

The biggest barrier to engaging with central government partners was the limited time and resources available for the local authority to invest in forming effective, collaborative working relationships. The pilot lead acknowledged the Sunderland team underestimated the level of engagement and effort required. This was exacerbated by: the need to engage an external organisation to deliver the community engagement work required to understand the needs of the Sunniside area and appropriately frame the asks of central government partners; and delays in setting up the Regeneration Board, which it was felt would have provided a forum to facilitate engagement with central government partners.

Delivery plans	Meetings	Visits	Involvement in delivery
DLUHC, DESNZ, DWP, DCMS and DfT were listed in the initial delivery plan as departments to work closely with.	Homes England and DLUHC regularly attended meetings.	Homes England, HMT and DLUHC visited Sunderland in April 2022, HMT in August 2022 and Homes England in January 2023.	N/A – given delays in setting up the Regeneration Board.

What was delivered?

The project engaged a broad group of central government partners in thinking through the Theory of Change associated with the pilot and secured interest in participating in the Regeneration Board (including DESNZ, DCMS, DIT, DfT, NHSE and DHSC). This engagement was supplemented by hosting visits from central government departments including HM Treasury, DLUHC and Homes England.

The project procured a community engagement organisation to lead local engagement with businesses, community groups, charities, housing providers and residents in Sunniside.

Together this engagement has supported the development of a Vision and Strategy for change for Sunniside. This emerging masterplan will underpin a ten-year strategy for sustainable change, focused on building partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders. The Sunderland team aim to collectively plan how partners can each deliver this change. This will be based around 5 strategic priorities: a stronger sense of place and purpose; safe and joyful streets; support for priority sectors; intensify the use of existing buildings; and co-operative stewardship that builds capacity and co-ordinates resources. The next stage of the process will be to develop a detailed action plan to deliver the vision.

This approach has created a “live case study” for a partnership approach to place-based change. It established a partnership approach from the outset which will in turn enable delivery at pace. The speed of delivery is of particular importance in helping rebuild trust within the community as they start to see change on the ground.

Through the pilot the Council has established a close and trusted working relationship with Homes England around an ambition to unlock the housing ecosystem in a coordinated and effective manner. This is the result of both clear strategic alignment between the two organisations and the strength of the relationships between the people involved who have met several times prior to and throughout the project.

The council has established several internal working groups that are organised based on the priorities identified through the engagement process. These working groups have been created to focus on partnerships related to the strategic themes that will guide the regeneration programme. At the operational level, the working groups include the Property Working Group, Awareness Working Group, and SAIL group. The SAIL (Sunderland Altogether Saving Lives) group is a partnership between the Council, the Police, and the Business Improvement District, with a specific focus on addressing crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) issues in the City Centre, particularly in Sunniside. Each working group is led by a senior leader in the council and involves relevant council teams and statutory partners collaborating to address their specific priority areas in Sunniside.

The team has drafted the Terms of Reference for the Regeneration Board that will drive long-term change, although the Regeneration Board was not yet in operation at the conclusion of PfPP in March 2023.^{[footnote 1]}

Local communities

PfPP has facilitated engagement with key community groups including residents, businesses, the local community, and voluntary sector organisations. This has enabled a two-way flow of information: increasing awareness of the plans and understanding the priorities for local communities. Feedback from members of the local community to DLUHC during a visit suggests they hope this engagement with central government partners has signalled a change and provided a sense that the Sunniside area will receive increased focus from the Council.

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Delivery partners & local government

PfPP has facilitated engagement with a range of key local delivery partners, particularly housing organisations. This has helped increase alignment of plans and enabled the organisations to coalesce around a vision for Sunniside.

PfPP has acted as a catalyst for many of the plans and ambitions of the City Council in terms of joining up regeneration activity across the city and providing a strategic focus for activity. A vision for Sunniside is now in place, work is ongoing to turn this vision into a detailed action plan. Likewise, Sunderland has established relationships with residents and Councillors, community groups, local businesses, and policy and strategy stakeholders to deliver activities set out in a working action plan.

PfPP has enabled the City Council to focus on getting the governance right for the Regeneration Board through the establishment of clear terms of reference and several working groups. The focus has been on creating a body that can be sustained over the longer-term as opposed to the establishment of a Board that is tied to one time-limited funding stream, which then disbands when the funding ends.

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Central government

PfPP has raised awareness of the local issues and challenges facing Sunderland within DLUHC, in particular DLUHC’s Transformational Regeneration team who attended a visit to Sunderland facilitated by the pilot. Teams in DLUHC are now more aware of and aligned with the challenges facing the city as well as having a greater understanding of the need for flexibility and the nature of the support required.

PfPP has acted as a catalyst to building relationships with central government around a strategic vision for place. Notably, sustained relationships have been formed with civil servants in Homes England and DLUHC.

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1. Update November 2023: The inaugural regeneration board meeting (Transforming Sunderland Executive Board) took place on 17 October 2023. DLUHC’s Director of Regeneration attended the meeting. It is intended that DLUHC will remain involved in the activity of the Transforming Sunderland Executive Board while playing a role in connecting the board with other government partners. ↩