Meet Southend's fairy godfather

Few, however, get such glowing references as English Partner- ships. "Manna from heaven" and "fairy godmother" are two of the terms used recently by awed local officials to depict it.

Councillors and others with big holes in their budgets have suddenly become aware an organisation with a half billion pound a year budget to dispense has become a player on the south Essex scene.

In fact, English Partnerships has had an established presence around Basildon, at least, since its foundation ten years ago.

The connection is historic.

English Partnerships is the direct heir to the 1949 Basildon Development Corporation, which built Basildon New Town on green fields. In recent months, though, English Partnership's name has increasingly cropped up in other council offices. A typical line in, say, Southend, is: "We'll get some funding from English Partner- ships with any luck."

Golden goose? Rich uncle? Duncan Innes, English Partner- ships's regional director, comes across as a genial man, but almost rolls his eyes at this sort of perception.

"We shouldn't be seen as an organisation which goes around carrying large bags of cash for hand-outs," he insists. "We are more of an investment body than a funding one."

It is in this capacity English Partnerships is on the point of making its first investment in Southend. The exact site remains confidential until the deal is clinched, but smart money is riding on the Alexandra Street car park.

Southend Council is planning to sell the car park to English Partnerships to make way for a Brighton Lanes-style development of quaint shops and arcades.

One thing is for sure, however. English Partnerships will not be giving it away. In the longer term, it will seek a return on its investment.

Yet, for all Duncan Innes's denials, the fairy godmother's wand isn't entirely missing. "Where we might differ from a purely commercial organisation," he says, "is that we're in a position to provide early money for a project. English Partnerships can invest in the first year of a scheme and get it off the ground, where a private sector organisation which has to justify its actions to its shareholders might have to hold back. We are a primer, a facilitator. We don't take a quick-buck, in and out again, approach."

English Partnerships makes its move, then commercial developers come on board at a later stage. "We also bring a certain credibility to a project, if developers know that we are involved. Our presence tends to inspire confidence," says Mr Innes.

South Essex, or at least its lapwings and oystercatchers, has also witnessed one act of pure beneficence from English Partnerships - the donation of Vange Marshes to the RSPB. This came equipped with what Mr Innes rather quaintly calls a dowry, which will fund the operation of the new nature reserve and help to provide public access. Yet he still disputes the notion of Mr Bountiful.

"The point is this land was never going to be in line for development," he says. "Here we were using an asset we had to best effect, not for building, but for wild life. A lot of what we do is about using public assets well."

So what does a developer or local authority need to do to tickle the fancy of this angelic organisation? "We expect a sound business case to be made," says Mr Innes. "Sometimes our role is then simply one of reassurance. We can tell people they don't need us. You've got the asset, you've got the will, the project is sound, go ahead and do it.' English Partnerships actually builds very little itself.

"We grow the market, add value, create investor confidence," Mr Innes says.

But others tend to be left to do the actual building work.

What a strange hybrid organisation this is "a public body with an entrepreneurial attitude", mixing old-school public spirit with sharp commercial acumen. Measured commercially, English Partner- ships gets stronger all the time. "Our cash flow is significantly larger than it was three to five years ago," Duncan Innes says. "Profit is not a dirty word here."

Yet he makes profit sound almost incidental, and there are no shareholders, not even Gordon Brown, to benefit from the financial success. Its profits become reinvestment money, rolled into further regeneration projects. In this capacity, English Partner- ships is always on the lookout for suitable good causes.

"By investing at the right time we can actively stop an area going down hill," Mr Innes says. "Prevention is better than cure. It's better to invest to stop an area going into decline than invest in an area already in decline. But it's not all about just rescue work. The flipside is we will be investing well, investing for growth."

English Partnerships has met its targets and created wealth, rather than drained it. How many quangos can make that claim? So, given such a history, it might seem odd the name, English Partnerships, is about to disappear. In 2009, it will be absorbed into a new and larger body, Community England. The change has the backing of Duncan Innes.

"It is one of the best moves the Government has made," he says. "It will make the whole regeneration process much more integrated. It will create a one stop shop."

Nevertheless, it means just as Essex is starting to get the measure of this extraordinary organisation, English Partnerships will vanish in a puff of smoke. As fairy godmothers do.