A step change or a step back? the thames gateway and the re-birth of the urban development corporations

Abstract

The delivery of the government's Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future proposals in the Thames Gateway area will be spearheaded by two new Urban Development Corporations (UDCs). During the 1980s and 1990s, UDCs were at the forefront of property-led regeneration in Britain and their impacts were extremely controversial. For some they represented a necessary institutional form that successfully facilitated and delivered regeneration to areas with chronic social and economic problems. For others they embodied a broader Thatcherite programme that marginalised local authorities and local communities from the heart of development planning. This paper examines their reintroduction and compares and contrasts the new agencies with those that existed in earlier decades. It argues that although the new UDCs will have broadly similar powers, the political contexts in which they are being established differ markedly. They are now expected to embed themselves into regional and national strategic development agendas and work in development partnerships with local authorities and local communities. The paper outlines the possible political and practical impacts that they will have and what their emergence tells us about the nature of Labour's broader modernisation agendas for local governance.

Keywords:

• Sustainable communities
• urban governance
• Thames Gateway
• regeneration

Acknowledgements

The research for this paper was funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through the Sustainable Urban Brownfields: Integrated Management (SUBR:IM) research consortium, of which the author is a member (Grant Reference number: GR/S148809/01). The author would like to thank Gethin Edwards, Andrew Jones, Stephen Joseph, and Ines Newman for their insightful and helpful comments on an earlier draft. Responsibility for the final product is, of course, the author's alone and does not represent the collective view of the SUBR:IM consortium.

Notes

The paper draws on research conducted between January and December 2003 in which the author interviewed a range of key actors and players in the Thames Gateway and collected and analysed a range of public and archival policy documents.

The 1980 Local Government, Planning and Land Act, section 136 set out the powers and responsibilities of the UDCs: ‘to secure the regeneration of its area by bringing land and buildings into effective use, encouraging the development of existing and new industry and commerce, creating an attractive environment and ensuring that housing and social facilities are available to encourage people to live and work in the area’. They were established in the aftermath of urban disorder in London and Liverpool. Two UDCs were established using the act in 1981, one in London Docklands, the other in Merseyside. In the following decade another 11 were established in inner city areas in England and Wales.

The six key agencies are the London Boroughs, ODPM, Department of Transport, English Partnerships, London Development Agency, and the GLA and Mayor's Office.

The proposals for the London UDC have been dogged by problems and delays. After a delay of six months and following a range of negotiations with local agencies, the ODPM changed its mind about the boundaries in November 2003 and reduced the scale of the UDC's area from 11 priority areas to only six.

Lorraine Baldry has been chair of the Central London Partnership since 2001 and Invent Partners since 2002, as well as working in executive or non-executive capacities for St Ives plc and Chesterton International plc. She has also been an Advisor to Morgan Stanley and has a range of honorary memberships with other organisation both inside and outside of the property development industry (see ODPM, 2004b, for a full description).