Outspoken chief executive of west London’s Park Royal Partnership, Jackie Sadek, called upon the next Communities secretary in Gordon Brown’s new government when it is formed at the end of next month to shake things up.

She was speaking as part of a special regeneration panel session and question time at the Think 07 conference, held at the start of May over three days at the London ExCel exhibition centre.

Chris Brown ceo of Igloo Regeneration was trenchant in his criticisms of Silvertown, a development local to ExCel in the Thames Gateway, which he called an “absolutely horrendous” regeneration project, “very poorly designed, apartheid between the affordable housing and the private housing,” concluding that it was “very depressing to someone who would hope that after 15 or 20 years we’d be able to produce more attractive places.”

Jackie Sadek said:” These are not sustainable communities. These are isolated, dysfunctional buildings, and most of them, not even with stakeholders now, have been sold on for buy to let. So it’s not a community at all, and we are still making those kinds of mistakes.”

Graeme Brown of Shelter interjected saying “I think what depressed me most – I’m from Glasgow – and we witnessed some of the greatest disasters in terms of house building and planning that have ever been inflicted upon the population. What worries me is that we don’t seem to have learnt the lessons at all; we’re talking 40, 50 years later that we still don’t seem to be able to get the blend of employment, infrastructure, housing, and (vitally) that question about the community, the local community, right. Now a couple of things I’d say. One is, I think it raises a profound question which is – is it possible to actually design a community which is effectively what we’re trying to do in Thames Gateway. And I just question whether that is possible with some of the very public, as I say, planning disasters we’ve seen.”

In conclusion Sadek attacked the Barker report said she would approve of David Miliband heading a combined climate change and regeneration department.