An article presented the findings of research that had sought to value the benefits of urban regeneration policies.
Source: Peter Tyler, Colin Warnock, Allan Provins, and Bruno Lanz, 'Valuing the benefits of urban regeneration', Urban Studies, Volume 50 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Dec
An article said that those involved in the activities of the New Deal for Communities programme in England (1998-2010) had seen more gains than those who were not involved. This positive individual-level change was not reflected in area-level data because absolute levels of involvement remained essentially low. This was for a number of reasons, including: greater control from central government; diminishing community interest in the initiative; and over-optimistic assumptions on the part of local residents as to what the programme could achieve.
Source: Paul Lawless and Sarah Pearson, 'Outcomes from community engagement in urban regeneration: evidence from England's New Deal for Communities programme', Planning Theory & Practice, Volume 13 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Dec
An article examined the impact of residential brownfield development in the most deprived urban areas of England during 2001–2008, in terms of changing housing markets, residential density, population growth, and economic deprivation.
Source: Andreas Schulze Baing, Cecilia Wong, and Andreas Schulze Baing, 'Brownfield residential development: what happens to the most deprived neighbourhoods in England?', Urban Studies, Volume 49 Number 14
Links: Abstract
See also: Cecilia Wong and Andreas Schulze-Baing, Brownfield Residential Redevelopment in England: What happens to the most deprived neighbourhoods?, Joseph Rowntree Foundation (2010)
Date: 2012-Oct
The Welsh Government began consultation on a new framework for regeneration policy. Proposals included: new national outcomes; a people- and place-based approach that was well evidenced and evaluated; a strengthened national, regional, and local delivery structure; a renewed commitment to cross-portfolio working within government; and ideas on how to direct targeted investment.
Source: Vibrant & Viable Places: New regeneration framework, Welsh Government
Links: Consultation document | Welsh Government press release
Date: 2012-Oct
An article said that regeneration should in future be driven by local people as agents of neighbourhood change, connected through solidarity networks, with the state and markets as enablers. It defined regeneration as the unleashing of trapped resources to nurture transformational local change.
Source: Jess Steele, 'Self-renovating neighbourhoods: unlocking resources for the new regeneration', Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, Volume 6 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Oct
An article examined the experience of the government's policy of housing market renewal in England from the perspective of spatial justice. 'Gentrification' critiques of housing market renewal were only partial in their evaluation of justice, and lacked 'normative power'.
Source: Ed Ferrari, 'Competing ideas of social justice and space: locating critiques of housing renewal in theory and in practice', International Journal of Housing Policy, Volume 12 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Sep
The equality and human rights watchdog in Scotland published a rapid review of place-based policies and equality, highlighting their relevance for Scotland. Policies that were aimed at tackling poverty in the most deprived areas did not always benefit the poorest people, particularly those in minority communities. Although many of those experiencing the greatest poverty did live in the poorest areas, some did not. This meant that policies that targeted particular areas, or 'place-based policies', did not always benefit everyone equally.
Source: Peter Matthews, Gina Netto, and Kirsten Besemer, 'Hard-to-Reach' or 'Easy-to-Ignore'? A rapid review of place-based policies and equality, Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland
Links: Report | EHRC press release
Date: 2012-Sep
An article examined some of the issues raised by the governance of housing market renewal, and more specifically demolition, in areas of England suffering from long-standing economic decline and housing market weakness. It considered the experiences of the Housing Market Renewal (HMR) Pathfinder initiative in England, which ran from 2003 to 2011. Some strands in the critique of the programme might have tended to overstate the professional and institutional power of the agencies involved to 'deliver' their programmes in the face of media or community resistance. The underlying fragility of the 'partnership' governance model on which HMR was founded had caused a retreat from demolition as an option in housing market restructuring, and wider uncertainty about the focus of the programme.
Source: Ian Cole, 'Housing market renewal and demolition in England in the 2000s: the governance of "wicked problems"', International Journal of Housing Policy, Volume 12 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Sep
A think-tank report said that, in order to make legacy aspirations for the 2012 London Olympics a reality, the Greater London Authority, the Olympic boroughs, and the London Legacy Development Corporation should: create a 25-year plan and stick to it; make a long-term commitment to fund the Olympic legacy; develop a clear legacy vision for the Olympic Park; and do more to deliver a social legacy for east London.
Source: Dmitry Sivaev, A Marathon Not a Sprint? Legacy lessons for London, Centre for Cities
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Sep
An article compared two government-led 'flagship' area-based initiatives targeting deprived neighbourhoods – the New Deal for Communities (launched in England in 1998) and the Communities First programme (launched in Wales in 2001). In England, a shift in the national paradigm from 'big state' interventions towards the 'Big Society' agenda had heralded the decline of the area-based approach. In Wales, the approach remained but had recently been re-launched. The shift in the emphasis of both initiatives from holistic, place-bound strategies to broader, service-influencing efforts pointed to the up-scaling of neighbourhood governance, despite the renewed policy emphasis on localism.
Source: Madeleine Pill, 'Neighbourhood initiatives in Wales and England: shifting purposes and changing scales', People, Place & Policy, Volume 6 Issue 2
Links: Article
Date: 2012-Aug
A series of journal articles examined the impact of the 2012 London Olympic Games on regeneration in east London.
Source: Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, Volume 5 Number 4
Links: Table of contents
Date: 2012-Jul
The Northern Ireland Executive began consultation on a new policy framework for urban regeneration and community development.
Source: Urban Regeneration and Community Development Policy Framework, Northern Ireland Executive
Links: Consultation document | NIE press release
Date: 2012-Jul
An article examined outcomes from the New Deal for Communities (NDC) Programme – an intensive area-based initiative in deprived neighbourhoods in England during the period 1998–2011. The official evaluation pointed to only modest net change for NDC areas and their residents, much of which reflects improving attitudes towards the area, rather than for the people-related outcomes of health, education, and worklessness. Community engagement reaped fewer benefits, and proved more problematic, than had been anticipated; working with other delivery agencies was complex, providing less in the way the way of direct financial support than was true for other English ABIs; central government affected change through an initial over-emphasis on spending annual financial allocations combined with a later marginalization of ABIs; and outcome change at the neighbourhood level was anyway largely beyond the control of local regeneration schemes. Nevertheless, there were reasons why area-based regeneration schemes might be pursued, including evidence that individuals benefited from local interventions, even if such effects were difficult to measure.
Source: Paul Lawless, 'Can area-based regeneration programmes ever work? Evidence from England's New Deal for Communities Programme', Policy Studies, Volume 33 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jul
The coalition government published a discussion paper on increasing parental and community involvement in Sure Start children's centres.
Source: Increasing Parental and Community Involvement in Sure Start Children s Centres, Department for Education
Links: Paper | 4Children press release
Date: 2012-May
A think-tank report called for a new locally driven approach to regeneration. It analyzed the lessons from a number of case studies of successful regeneration programmes, and concluded that local authorities were best placed to provide the local leadership that was crucial to drive successful regeneration. It advocated an expansion of community budget pilots across the country, and the introduction of bolder funding mechanisms to allow councils to co-ordinate and fund regeneration programmes from the bottom up – despite the challenging financial climate.
Source: Steven Howell, Grow Your Own Way: Taking a localist approach to regeneration, Localis
Links: Report | Summary | Inside Housing report
Date: 2012-May
An article said that, compared with the rest of the country, quality-of-life outcomes in deprived neighbourhoods in England had not improved significantly despite 30 years of policy-based intervention. Over the previous decade, in particular, the importance of involving communities in regenerating their neighbourhoods – creating sustainable places where people positively chose to live – had been at the heart of policy. However, the realities of delivering community-led regeneration had proved complex, and the benefits difficult to capture in terms aligned to the requirements of evidence-based policy-making. Despite this, failure to engage communities made sustainable regeneration challenging and less likely to result in positive outcomes. Through a case study, the authors offered evidence of the crucial nature of community engagement in providing the building blocks for sustainable neighbourhood regeneration.
Source: David Jarvis, Nigel Berkeley, and Kevin Broughton, 'Evidencing the impact of community engagement in neighbourhood regeneration: the case of Canley, Coventry', Community Development Journal, Volume 47 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Apr
A report examined approaches to tackling social exclusion, segregation, and associated decline in urban neighbourhoods in 11 European cities (including Liverpool, United Kingdom).
Source: Rotraut Weeber, Petra Nothdorf, and Reinhard Fischer, CoNet s Guide to Social Cohesion: Integrated Approaches in Disadvantaged Neighbourhoods, URBACT (European Programme for Sustainable Urban Development)
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Mar
A report examined the impact of public spending cuts by the coalition government on the local voluntary sector. It called for a further wave of transition funding to help regenerate the most deprived areas. For the first time since the 1960s there was no government regeneration programme to support areas of deprivation.
Source: Focus on Deprived Communities: Evidence to support the call for a second wave of transition funding in the 2012 Budget, National Association for Voluntary and Community Action
Links: Report | NAVCA press release
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined why 'neighbourhood' had been important to the New Labour project (1997-2010), why and how this had changed under New Labour itself, and new agendas emerging in policy for sub-national governance. Since 2006, the appeal and use of 'neighbourhood' had waned as evidence of the impact of neighbourhood interventions over the previous decade had emerged, along with the active re-scaling of policy for regeneration and economic development.
Source: Catherine Durose and James Rees, 'The rise and fall of neighbourhood in the New Labour era', Policy & Politics, Volume 40 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Feb
An article used Sure Start as a case study to explore the reasons why large-scale, complex, national initiatives often failed to adequately evidence the impact of their work. It explored a range of structural, cultural, methodological, and practical factors that had acted to inhibit effective evaluation of the impact of the initiative.
Source: Nigel Lloyd and Louise Harrington, 'The challenges to effective outcome evaluation of a national, multi-agency initiative: the experience of Sure Start', Evaluation: The International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, Volume 18 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jan
An article questioned the effectiveness of the switch from area-based initiatives to local partnerships (local strategic partnerships in England and community planning partnerships in Scotland) in tackling problems of concentrated deprivation and dereliction.
Source: Peter Matthews, 'From area-based initiatives to strategic partnerships: have we lost the meaning of regeneration?', Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy, Volume 30 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jan
The coalition government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on its regeneration strategy in England. It said that the previous government's strategy had had little effect, and that under the new 'localism' agenda it was for local partners – local authorities, communities, businesses, and civil society organizations – to determine their own priorities and strategies for driving their own area forward.
Source: Government Response to the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee Report of Session 2010-12: Regeneration, Cm 8264, Department for Communities and Local Government, TSO
Links: Response
Notes: MPs report (November 2011)
Date: 2012-Jan