Welfare Reform on the Web (December 2009): Community regeneration and development - UK

Regeneration works? Disabled people and area-based renewal

C. Edwards

Critical Social Policy, vol.29, 2009, p. 613-633

Historically, disabled people have rarely been seen as part of the urban renewal agenda. However, the Labour government's key strategy on tackling neighbourhood deprivation, the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal, identifies disabled people as victims of poor services and as one of the communities that ought to be engaged in the regeneration process. This paper draws on a case study of an employment project for young people with learning difficulties funded as part of the Single Regeneration Budget to explore how such projects operate in the context of area-based renewal, and what gains, if any, they offer to disabled people.