Observatory PASCAL

This Hot Topic paper looks at the British Governments new approach to community regeneration initiates in England where ring fenced expenditure is focused on the most deprived neighbourhoods within a wider community. The paper explores how multi-agency partnerships in 88 of the most deprived municipalities in England receive Neighbourhood Renewal Funding (now in its third year) to tackle the key causes of deprivation.

The paper raises four key questions:
Can neighbourhoods be transformed?
What counts as success?
What are the success factors?
What are the issues for public policy?

It explores and to some extent redefines the three key elements of the PASCAL mission of place management, social capital and lifelong learning. These new definitions should help to broaden debate and move us beyond the tight boundaries which have contained much of the discussion so far. The paper, using these broader definitions, considers how they relate to current policy development at all levels of government.

The paper then goes on to look at the delivery vehicles which have been used to drive regeneration and to the importance attached to engaging the community at all levels of decision making and the influence that this empowerment has on the outcomes and ownership of decisions within the community.

It describes the growing body of evidence from national evaluations undertaken by the Government and others to develop an understanding of what works and the critical success factors.

The paper uses five case studies drawn from across England to illustrate how a multi-agency approach to regeneration with full community involvement can lead to better outcomes for society. Martin Yarnit draws the conclusion that when it is properly executed, a pluralist approach to regeneration can lead to improvements in outcome in key indicators for such fields as decent homes, health, education, employment/worklessness, community cohesion etc.

Interestingly all the case studies are built on initiatives that began up to fifteen years ago and well before the current Government policies for neighbourhood renewal had been developed and launched. The case studies in some respects are only now showing the full benefit from the interventions on which they are based and where decent homes is seen to play a fundamental part in the improvement of community outcomes.

The case studies also illustrate the long lead-in time for measurable improvements in outcome and it is likely that the current Government's early policies on regeneration are based at least in part on the early experience gained from the case study areas with more recent policy development informed by the new information now available from the national evaluation.

Readers will note that some mention is made in the paper of leadership and governance, important in any programme delivery framework and which remain key areas for further consideration. However they may question whether another area for further examination may the relationships between Central Government, local government, partner agencies and the other stakeholders.

This an interesting paper which clearly sets out much of the recent developments in community regeneration but in many ways the paper raises more questions than answers and illustrates that short term government can't deliver long term transformation. It is clear from all the evidence that the measure of success for regeneration, whether it is in education outcomes or health indicators will only materialise well beyond the lifetime of a single government and must be an unattractive option for politicians for whom a week in politics is a long time.

With short term success remaining illusive, how can politicians be persuaded to stay in there for the long haul?

Chris Shepherd is a member of the PASCAL Executive Board