five - Micro-solutions for mega-problems: what works in urban regeneration policy?

Summary

Introduction

This chapter sets ‘Connected Communities’ in the context of current thinking on urban regeneration and local economic development, in particular, the state of area-based policies in the current ‘post-regeneration’ era (see Chapter One, this volume). The chapter first provides a brief run-through of post-1997 state-led regeneration in the UK, tracing the shift in England from holistic neighbourhood-level social inclusion initiatives to economically focused local growth programmes. As noted by Wilks-Heeg in Chapter Two, the role for ‘community’ in all these programmes is ambiguous. Next, the chapter highlights the political, policy and structural ‘shocks’ that have hit these regeneration models since 2007, and discusses where this leaves neighbourhood-level activity in particular. In theory, localism should set the scene for a flowering of neighbourhood-level, community-led regeneration activity. However, spending cuts, and regeneration's refocusing on economic outcomes leaves challenges for holistic neighbourhood programmes. The theories of change invoked in such interventions, ‘Connected Communities’ included, suggests that economic impacts will be small; however, in principle, such programmes can provide crucial public ‘goods’, and so have an important non-economic rationale. Demonstrating causal impacts on well-being seems beyond much of the existing evidence, however. Getting a sense of ‘what works’ in urban regeneration is extremely challenging given the multifaceted nature of the programmes and the complex socio-economic processes in which they intervene. The UK's emerging experimentalist paradigm could help generate a convincing evidence base for neighbourhood-level urban regeneration, but there are also real constraints to what localism and the ‘what works’ agenda can do, particularly under austerity. Structured forms of evidence need to be layered alongside local, contextual knowledge.

Basics

‘Regeneration’ is surprisingly tough to define. Conceptually, it involves seeking to improve one or more of the social, economic and physical conditions in a given place or places, typically urban, and generally in the context of some economic shock or deeper trend. Real-world regeneration programmes typically try to combine these goals. Roberts and Sykes (2000: 10–17) define such holistic strategies as:

a comprehensive and integrated vision and action which leads to the resolution of urban problems and which seeks to bring about a lasting improvement in the economic, physical, social and environmental conditions of an area that has been subject to change.