‘On the side of the Angels’: community involvement in the governance of neighbourhood renewal

Abstract

Community involvement in regeneration is far from easy, and is difficult to define. The New Deal for Communities programme has directly involved residents in the governance of neighbourhood renewal with some success. However, community capacity has proved to be limited, adequate representation is difficult to achieve and there has been friction with local government. Community empowerment has to be enabled and supported by getting the structures and processes right, and supporting community representatives.

Keywords:

• Community involvement
• neighbourhood renewal
• urban regeneration
• governance
• community representation
• empowerment

Acknowledgement

The Neighbourhood Renewal Unit in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is sponsoring the 2002–2005 national evaluation of New Deal for Communities. This evaluation is being undertaken by a consortium of organisations coordinated by the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit. Those wishing to know more about the evaluation should consult the evaluation's web site http://ndcevaluation.adc.shu.ac.uk/ndcevaluation/home.asp.

Notes

Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gill Davidson

Email: [email protected]