Sustainable Brownfield Regeneration: CABERNET Network Report

5.4.3 4. the relationship between structure and impactDedicated agencies across Europe have had a variety of operational structures, inparticular the level of private sector involvement. The importance of private sectorinvolvement, at either a management or operational level, in delivering sustainablebrownfield regeneration is not clearly understood and is worthy of further research.There is an invaluable opportunity to share experiences and learn from both bestpracticeand mistakes made to date from the history of dedicated agencies in Europeand beyond. Some European-wide networks have already been established to dothis and to further research into areas of common interest - one example of this isthe ‘European Association Of Development Agencies’ (EURADA), a non profit-makingorganisation comprising of representatives from regional economic developmentagencies in 27 European nations. Existing European programmes such as URBACTand Eurocities (in particular the Sustainable Cities forum) could be used as a conduitfor exchange of information and ideas.An alternative would be that the European Commission supports the establishmentof a dedicated virtual European network for city/sub-regional development agenciesto support the continued exchange of best practice at both the individual andorganisational level; debate common issues; and promote direct macro-policydialogue in both national and European institutions. Examples of best practice at anational level already exist⁵⁷.CABERNET Position:Dedicated Agencies can potentially offer a range of benefits in deliveringsustainable solutions to the brownfields problem. CABERNET believes it isimportant to critically evaluate the role of dedicated agencies to betterunderstand their potential impact. It is vital that these relationships areunderstood now so that we can further improve attempts to empty the‘brownfield bath’ in the future⁵⁷ In the UK English Partnerships, the national brownfields regeneration agency, has established a network for URCs whichhas twice-yearly symposiums, and an ongoing training & development programme and its own dedicated website tofacilitate this; Italy similarly has an Association of Development Agencies (AIDA).94