London School of Economics/Cities Regeneration Group Roy Adams OBE 17 March 2010 - “Community Recovery; paying the piper/calling the tune”

I’ll talk about such recovery in relation to Belfast, the city I know best, but I also want to talk about a town called Vaulx- en-Velin, which lies to the north east of the wonderful city of Lyon in France, and which forms part of the agglomeration of communes which make up Grand Lyon; I have been involved in a small way there over the past 20 years. [...] The client for both projects was a Government Minister called Richard Needham who had the wisdom to see how neglected was the city, the determination to do something about it, and the authority to make things happen. [...] Once the barrage was put across the tidal estuary of the River Lagan to keep the water level constant, the river dredged, walkways started and the new cross-harbour bridge begun, the potential became all too apparent. [...] As we know, however, the Third Sector is chronically under-funded relative to the scale of the problem and often lacking in the capacity to act. [...] A transformational shift is needed in the capability of the Third Sector, to increase the contributions it makes and for it to become the engine of change in securing the welfare and prosperity of society.