Urban Change and Conflict: Evaluating the Role of Partnerships in Urban Regeneration in the UK

Abstract

Over the past twenty or so years, the focus of urban regeneration in the UK has changed from being based on outcomes that primarily involved property redevelopment – by either the public or private sectors – to a broader mix of issues and a far greater emphasis on the process of urban regeneration and the partnership ideal. The evaluation undertaken here takes a critical stance towards the ways in which the partnership principle has been adopted and the policy guidance that requires it as a near-compulsory model. It is argued that, to date, there is little interest in the managerial effectiveness of partnerships and the broader implications of this for regeneration policy. A survey of the contemporary regeneration literature is undertaken to highlight the partial and inconclusive nature of most existing evaluations of partnerships, particularly given the emphasis on the role of local community leaders in the formulation and implementation of partnership projects. Then, some wider issues of the ‘political economy’ of urban policy are considered in the context of the partnership approach. This is followed by a juxtaposition of trends in property development in general with urban regeneration partnership management processes. Finally, it is concluded that the partnership ideal is a useful policy device but that it has to be thought through more clearly and applied in specific contexts, rather than seen as the best and universally applicable model of urban regeneration.

Keywords:

• Urban regeneration
• partnerships
• UK

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous referees of this journal for their helpful comments. Any remaining errors and omissions are our responsibility alone. Support was provided by the RICS Educational Trust, London and the UK Economic and Social Research Council under grant number RES 000220038.

Notes

1 The term ‘urban regeneration’ is used here as a catch-all term to encompass terms such as ‘urban renewal’, ‘urban revitalisation’ or ‘urban rejuvenation’ as used in British, American and European discourses. In its broadest terms, urban regeneration refers to policies directed at tackling social, economic, physical and environmental problems within inner-city areas (see Blackman, 1995 ).

2 The Central Government department responsible for urban regeneration policy has undergone a series of name changes – Department of the Environment (DoE), Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions (DTLR) and the Office for the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) over the last decade reflecting changes in ministerial portfolio remits.

3 Figures based on our own analysis of projected outputs for all London-based SRB schemes (Rounds 1–6) (for more details see Ball and Maginn, forthcoming ).

4 The problem in this argument, even on purely environmental grounds, is that it is a partial equilibrium argument that ignores changes in people's work and residential location choices and resultant travel patterns. It is no surprise, for example, that the UK has one of the most restrictive planning systems and also one of the greatest number of kilometres travelled per head in Western Europe.