Urban regeneration projects are often failing to deliver value for money, a committee of MPs has warned.

The Commons urban affairs sub-committee said that brownfield schemes have been of "poor quality" in many deprived areas.

Tougher standards for inner city development projects were needed to push up standards, the report concluded.

Forum Response: Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors

A spokesman for RICS told ePolitix.com: "RICS endorses the select committee's findings that many regeneration projects have failed, and supports many of it's recommendations that government must ensure that future regeneration initiatives are designed to address the needs of the areas that are being regenerated.

"However, will government take the select committee's advice as it implements the recently announced Communities Plan, or will it continue to make the mistakes it has made in the past and miss the best opportunity to re-vitalise many of Britain's most deprived areas for a generation?

"The select committee's conclusion that it is the proliferation of single issue initiatives which are then implemented on a short term basis which is the root cause of the failure of many of these schemes is well known to RICS members working in regeneration.

"Schemes have to be targeted at what will get funding rather than what the area needs, and because many are organized on a ward basis, there can often be a very uneven distribution of initiatives that don't really respond to local needs.

"We agree with the select committee that these problems need to be overcome, with regeneration initiatives designed to genuinely respond to the specific problems of the areas concerned, with the involvement of the local community, with high standards of design and which look at all of the social, economic and physical issues that need to be addressed.

"We particularly welcome the committee's support for asset-based regeneration that can provide revenue streams to support the long term development of regeneration initiatives and the development of regeneration plans that would co-ordinate initiatives across their area.

"With the government now embarking on the largest regeneration initiative for many years, it needs to take heed of the select committee's recommendations. Failure to do so could result in a further 35 years of missed opportunity for Britain's deprived areas."

Forum Response: Countryside Alliance

Richard Burge, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance, told ePolitix.com: "This report concludes what the CA has been saying for a long time - that local communities are those in the best position to provide solutions, such as regeneration initiatives, in their own areas.

"The CA would like to see a simplification of these regeneration schemes so that the people and the communities on the ground actually benefit - together with the corresponding reduction in bureaucracy and legislation.

"This will allow those who actually know what is happening and what is likely to work, to provide for, and ensure, the full prosecution of successful regeneration schemes.

"It is these communities who have the best understanding of the issues and it is these people who should be allowed to construct local solutions to local problems."

Forum Response: British Property Federation

Ian Fletcher, commercial and residential director of the British Property Federation told ePolitix.com: "We are particularly pleased with the Select Committee's emphasis on better co-ordination and rationalisation of the plethora of small pots of public funds for regeneration.

The stress the Committee puts on involving transport providers at an early stage of the regeneration process and its espousing of a holistic approach are also welcome.

"In its report, however, the Committee makes conspicuously little reference to the role that government regeneration initiatives have in encouraging private sector development.

We are glad to see there is some recognition of a skills deficiency, which is more generally indicative of a lack of understanding of the property industry by public sector employees. We would urge government to work with us to address such a deficiency, which is holding the whole regeneration process back."

Forum Response: Local Government Association

A spokesman for the LGA told ePolitix.com: "The LGA welcomes the committee's emphasis on giving local authorities the freedom to devise solutions to local needs. In our own evidence to the committee we stressed the importance of working with local authorities who alone are able to provide the key ingredients of leadership, vision and commitment. We also stressed the importance of 'bending ' mainstream funds to support regeneration initiatives if they are to deliver sustainable benefits over the longer term.

"We welcome the work which the Regional Coordination Unit has begun in reducing the number of area based initiatives. We believe that the work of the RCU reflects the beginning of a wider understanding across Whitehall of the dangers of "initiative overload" and we hope that the committee's report will galvanise these developments.

"We would, however, sound a note of caution about the committee's proposals for Local Regeneration Plans. If these are envisaged as yet another local plan we believe they could have the effect of further sidelining the regeneration function. Of more importance, in our view, is the integration of the local authority approach to regeneration with the development of wider Community Strategies which engage all the key stakeholders in a local area and provide for wider ownership of the agenda across a range of partners."