Welfare Reform on the Web (August 1999): Community Regeneration - UK

CHALLENGE FUNDING, CONTRACTS AND AREA REGENERATION: A DECADE OF INNOVATION IN POLICY MANAGEMENT AND COORDINATION

S. Hall and J. Mawson
Bristol: Policy Press with Joseph Rowntree Foundation 1999

Report charts the evolution of area regeneration policy in the 1990s. A key focus of this activity has been to improve co-ordination of local initiatives. Central government departmentalism is an important cause of fragmentation of policy at local level. The Single Regeneration Budget has proved useful in drawing together central and local agencies, and recent changes in its management are beginning to tackle previous weaknesses.

SOCIAL REGENERATION

D. Page
Housing and Planning Review, vol.54, April/May 1999, p.7-8

Shows how, in both the US and the UK, the policies of targeting scarce public housing resources on the poorest and raising social housing rents to market levels led to council housing estates becoming sinks of poverty and deprivation. Article suggests that to tackle these problems there must be a focus on bringing education, skills training and job placement to existing public housing tenants. In addition, the social balance of sink estates needs to be changed by attracting higher income working families.

TALKING 'BOUT REGENERATION

A. Margolis
Public Finance, April 30th-May 6th 1999, p.24-25

Regeneration is a key part of the government's agenda for tackling social exclusion and deprivation, but, for local authorities, securing funds is no easy task. Many of the councils that receive grants from the European Union Structural funds are facing losing their eligibility under the EU's Agenda 2000 budget changes. At the same time the UK's Single Regeneration Budget has been revamped, since regeneration responsibilities in England have been devolved to the eight Regional Development Agencies. There are new criteria heavily emphasising partnership and involving a retargeting of funds to the areas of greatest deprivation.