Area-based regeneration partnerships and the role of central government: the New Deal for Communities programme in England

Abstract

The New Deal for Communities (NDC) is an ambitious English area-based initiative (ABI) designed to transform 39 deprived areas in relation to five outcomes: crime, education, health, worklessness, and housing and the physical environment. Change data are now available for 2002–08. NDC areas continue to see positive change, but show only modest improvements against other benchmarks, notably similarly deprived comparator areas. Regeneration has been complex because of a range of ‘barrier sets’ of which the most insistent has been the relationship between NDC Partnerships and central government. This relationship informs wider debates surrounding interpretations of the programme.

New Localism, Old Retrenchment: The “Big Society”, Housing Policy and the Politics of Welfare Reform

“…In practice, Labour's attempt to modify local government fell short of expectations -levels of inequality were not materially affected (Power, 2009) and Neighbourhood Renewal initiatives delivered highly variable results (Beatty et. al., 2009); despite the rhetorical commitment to community governance the NDC programme was primarily a top down initiative, defined and driven by central government (Lawless, 2011, p.57).…”

The role of stakeholder collaboration in culture-led urban regeneration: A case study of the Gwangju project, Korea

“…Regeneration partnerships demonstrate a collective attempt to add value to, or derive some mutual benefits from, activities that individual actors or sectors would be unable to attempt alone (Kort & Klijn, 2011). Furthermore, partnerships can generate a real and sustainable impact at both the local, regional and national levels, taking into account potential long-term impacts on the environment (Beatty, Foden, Lawless, & Wilson, 2010). As demonstrated by Ozcevik, Beygo, and Akcakaya (2010), participatory collaboration, involving not only national but also local and regional governments as well as the local community, has a vital role and value in cultureled urban regeneration; however in academic literature, local and regional studies tend either to lack a rationale for measuring the impacts of collaboration with stakeholders in relation to regeneration or, at best, the rationale does not appear to be defined clearly and hence may not be valued by governments.…”

Partnerships: survey respondents’ perceptions of inter-professional collaboration to address alcohol-related harms in England

“…(Wildridge et al 2004, Zacocs and Edwards 2006, Perkins et al 2010). In particular, previous studies have documented the resistance of professional 'tribes' to the behaviour changes needed for collaborative working (Beatty et al 2010) and have highlighted the complications for partnerships arising from members' involvement in competing markets and hierarchies within and between their organisations. Thus, to think of partnerships as operating separately from the more traditional governance forms is unrealistic and may set partnerships to fail (Rowe and Devanney 2003).…”

“…Seen as a way of tackling what has been called 'wicked issues' -problems which are complex and cross traditional organisational boundaries (Wildridge et al 2004, p.6) -partnerships have become accepted and normalised as necessary and inevitable across programmes aimed at improving health and reducing health inequalities as well as in other policy areas (Health Development Agency 2000, Smith et al 2009, Beatty et al 2010. The briefing paper, Health Improvement Programmes: research into practice (Marks and Hunter 2000) and Elston's (2000) analysis of 50 HImPs, indicates the extent to which such initiatives had spread during the 1990s and the extent to which partnership working had already become a requirement.…”