Urban regeneration

The impact of urban regeneration in the UK has been visible in a great many areas of the country. Urban regeneration is a complex combination social, economic, planning, construction and management activities. These elements of urban regeneration are brought together to improve the social sustainability, economic stability and the infrastructure of a geographical location and so help improve the sustainability of the urban landscape it occupies.

It is frequently claimed that UK urban regeneration initiatives have largely improved the quality of life in UK regeneration areas, although urban regeneration is not without its critics. This is in part because urban regeneration has in the past involved the purchase of residential property in run down areas of residential accommodation with low and very low market values by local authorities using Compulsory Purchase Orders. Regeneration areas frequently encompassed long-standing communities from lower income groups. Frequently, family housing was replaced by flats and apartments which were priced too highly to be affordable for the people who used to live in these areas and which appealed to a totally different type of home buyer.

There is no doubt that over the past 30 years the nature and construction of urban regeneration projects has reflected wider government policy. The high profile construction of innovative but exclusive waterside regeneration developments at London's Canary Wharf or Liverpool's Albert Dock in the 1980s reflected, in part, the hopes and aspirations of the Conservative government at that time. Labour government thinking leans towards more partnership approaches to urban regeneration and sees regeneration having a wider remit, which can include health, education, community integration and regeneration as well as the regeneration of the physical fabric of an area.

There has been a trend towards including agencies outside the local authority in urban regeneration strategies. Experiences of successful regeneration demonstrated that urban regeneration is most effective when it is delivered in partnership with those groups and organisations best placed to influence the success of urban regeneration projects. This means that local authorities deliver urban regeneration in partnerships which can include Central Government, construction companies, other private sector organisations and, perhaps most importantly, local communities.

Consultation with local communities about urban regeneration plans has been recognised as being vital to the success of urban regeneration projects. This is because urban regeneration has direct links to, and affects directly, the communities living in the areas where regeneration is planned. As a consequence community regeneration is an integral part of urban regeneration and it is now hard to imagine the success of any regeneration project involving residential property where the views of local communities were not taken into account. Successful urban regeneration will not only work at the physical level but will result in successful, viable, vibrant and sustainable communities.