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For Margaret
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v
Ctt
List o tables, gures and boxes vii
Acknowledgements xList o abbreviations xi
one i arc cmc rvval 1
Introduction 1
Identiying the problem: spatial concentrations o deprivation 4
Recognising deprived neighbourhoods 9
Tackling localised deprivation 18
The evolution o policy practice 25
Rationales or intervention 34
Conclusions 42
two i at a r prlm? 47
Introduction 47
The economic eatures o deprived neighbourhoods 48
Placing deprived neighbourhoods in context: the case 53
study areas
Economic change and uneven development 61Dierences between neighbourhoods 67
Area or neighbourhood eects 75
Cycles o decline: producing and maintaining localised 77
deprivation
Conclusions 89
three wrk a rkl 95
Introduction 95
Employment and unemployment in the case study areas 97
Conceptualising local labour markets 102
Demand-side considerations 104
Supply-side considerations 111
Institutional barriers 117
Policy responses 123
Conclusions 137
our etrpr a trprrp 143Introduction 143
Exogenous versus endogenous investment 145
The enterprise demographics o deprived neighbourhoods 148
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Policy responses 166
Conclusions 183
fve ittt a vrac: trat a 189
crat plcyIntroduction 189
The institutional and governance context: complexity, 190
ragmentation and decentralisation
Integrating the policy agenda 193
Coordinating spatial levels o intervention 202
Factors constraining policy integration and spatial
coordination 223
Conclusions 228
six dprv r: tr prpct r 231
cmc trvt
Introduction 231
Spatial dierence 234
People andplace 237
Rationales or intervention 240
The governance challenge 247
Final thoughts 251
Reerences 253
Index 279
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vii
Lt tal, r a x
Tal
1.1 Super Output Areas (SOAs) in the most deprived 20% 13
o SOAs in England, by region, 2004
1.2 Evolution o British urban policy 21
1.3 Major developments in urban policy and governance since 1997 30
2.1 Rankings o the ve case study local authority districts on 57
the Index o Multiple Deprivation, 2004 and 2007
2.2 Levels o deprivation within the case study areas, 2001 60
2.3 Sectors experiencing the largest employment decline in the 64
case study areas, 19972004
2.4 Population change in the case study LADs, 19942005 66
2.5 Sectors experiencing the largest employment growth in the 68
case study areas, 19972004
2.6 Population age structure in the case study areas, 2001 71
2.7 Population turnover and deprived areas 73
2.8 Ethnic composition o the population in the case study 74
areas, 20013.1 Employment change in the case study areas, 19972006 98
3.2 Employment rates or those o working age in the case 99
study areas, 200007
3.3 Unemployment and Incapacity Benet claimants in the case 100
study areas, 2006
3.4 Employment deprivation in the case study areas: 101
2007 IMD employment domain index
3.5 Highest level o (NVQ) qualication, or those 113
aged 1674, 2001
3.6 Government programmes or tackling unemployment 125
and worklessness
4.1 Business start-ups by region and level o deprivation, 200005 150
4.2 Business ormation rates in the case study areas 152
4.3 Factors aecting the entrepreneurial potential o 177
disadvantaged groups and communities
4.4 Types o intervention in successul Round 1 LEGI bids 181
4.5 Social groups targeted in successul Round 1 LEGI bids 1825.1 Levels o economic intervention 204
5.2 RDA spending compared with total government spending in 222
English regions, 200506
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Fr
1.1 Level o deprivation by individual city in England, 2004 7
1.2 Local concentration district level summary o the IMD 16
(England) 20042.1 Cycles o decline in areas o multiple deprivation 78
2.2 The residential lettings spiral 83
2.3 Pressures on public services in deprived areas 88
3.1 Infuences on levels o unemployment and worklessness 102
3.2 Causal links in the reproduction o concentrated 112
unemployment
4.1 Business start-ups and deprivation in English local authority 149
areas (excluding London boroughs)
4.2 Business survival rates and level o deprivation, 19952002 151
5.1 Governance structure relating to enterprise, employment 192
and neighbourhood renewal, 19972007
5.2 Manseld local economic development policy map: 206
enterprise and business investment
5.3 Manseld local economic development policy map: 207
employment and skills
5.4 Manseld local economic development policy map: 208
area and community regeneration5.5 Newham local economic development policy map: 209
enterprise and business investment
5.6 Newham local economic development policy map: 210
employment and skills
5.7 Newham local economic development policy map: 211
area and community regeneration
bx2.1 Case study local authorities 53
2.2 Case study neighbourhoods 58
2.3 Sectoral change in Manseld 65
2.4 Housing in Hathershaw and Fitton Hill (Oldham) 82
3.1 Economic restructuring and inactivity in East Brighton 106
3.2 Educational attainment and labour market participation 114
in Newham
3.3 Example o Sunderlands Job Linkage programme 1323.4 Example o NDC employment initiatives in Newham 134
4.1 Social Enterprise Sunderland (SES) 162
4.2 East Brighton Business Support (ebbs) 172
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4.3 Asheld, Bolsover and Manseld LEGI 182
5.1 Deprived areas and Regional Economic Strategies and 197
Employment Frameworks in the North East
5.2 Oldham: joining up local and neighbourhood-level programmes 200
5.3 Local authority approaches: the case o Manseld 2155.4 Local authority approaches: the case o Newham 216
5.5 Subregional dierences and partnerships in the East Midlands 218
List o tables, fgures and boxes
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Acklmt
While we have been involved in researching and teaching in the eld
o local economic development and urban policy or many years, theinspiration or this book largely stemmed rom our involvement in
two particular pieces o research over the last ve years, which have
ocused on policy developments under New Labour. The rst o these
comprised a series o evidence-based reviews or the governments
Neighbourhood Renewal Unit (NRU) on the changes aecting the
economies o deprived neighbourhoods. As well as a review o the
literature relating to business and regeneration, worklessness and the
inormal economy, the research also involved a closer eamination o
what was happening in ve deprived localities within England. The
second was a study unded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as
part o its Transorming the Prospects o Places programme on the
implications o devolution and regional governance throughout the UK
or policies concerned with addressing the economic needs o those
living within deprived neighbourhoods. We are most grateul to the
many individuals who made these research projects possible including
the many policy makers, regeneration proessionals, community activists
and local residents who gave their time to answer our questionsand share their eperiences and insights with us. Although these
are too many to mention, we would particularly like to thank the
two research project managers, Andrew Maginn (o the Department
or Communities and Local Government) and Katharine Kno (o
the Joseph Rowntree Foundation), or their support and interest in
discussing the issues raised by the research, as well as Mel Evans, Ian
Sanderson and Colin Williams or their work on the original reports
produced or the NRU. Special thanks are due to our colleagues Rob
Baldock, Ian Vickers, Stacey Clit and David Etherington in the Centre
or Enterprise and Economic Development Research (CEEDR) at
Middlese University or their assistance with carrying out many o
the interviews and analysis o secondary sources on which the book
is based. We also need to say a special thank you to Sue Engelbert and
Pamela Macaulay, also o CEEDR, or their painstaking work in putting
the typescript together. And nally, as always with such endeavours, this
work could not have been completed without the unending support
and understanding o our amilies, to whom we owe our biggest debto gratitude.
Stephen Syrett and David North
CEEDR, Middlesex University
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xi
Lt arvat
A8 Accession 8
ABG Area-Based GrantABI area-based initiative
ATJ Action Teams or Jobs
BIC Business in the Community
BL Business Link
BME black and minority ethnic
BMEB black and minority ethnic businesses
CBI Conederation o British Industries
CDC City Development Company
CEEDR Centre or Enterprise and Economic Development
Research
CGS City Growth Strategy
CLG Communities and Local Government
DBERR Department or Business, Enterprise and
Regulatory Reorm
DCLG Department o Communities and Local
Government
DCSF Department or Children, Schools and FamiliesDDEP Derby and Derbyshire Economic Partnership
DES Department or Education and Skills
DIUS Department or Innovation, Universities and Skills
DoT Department o Transport
DTI Department or Trade and Industry
DWP Department or Work and Pensions
eb4u East Brighton or You
ebbs East Brighton Business Support
EC European Commission
emda East Midlands Development Agency
EMRA East Midlands Regional Assembly
ERDF European Regional Development Fund
ESF European Social Fund
ESRC Economic and Social Research Council
EU European Union
EZ Enterprise Zone
GDP Gross Domestic ProductGEM Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
GO Government Oce
GOEM Government Oce or the East Midlands
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IB Incapacity Benet
ICIC Initiative or a Competitive Inner City
IDBR Inter-Departmental Business Register
ILM intermediate labour market
ILO International Labour OrganisationIMD Inde o Multiple Deprivation
JCP Jobcentre Plus
JSA Jobseekers Allowance
LA local authority
LAA Local Area Agreement
LAD local authority district
LEGI Local Enterprise Growth Initiative
LETS Local Echange Trading Systems
LFS Labour Force Survey
LSC Learning and Skills Council
LSEP Leicester Shire Economic Partnership
LSP Local Strategic Partnership
MANSKEP Manseld, Sutton and Kirkby Enterprise
Partnership
MASP Manseld Area Strategic Partnership
NDC New Deal or Communities
NDLP New Deal or Lone ParentsNDU New Deal or the Unemployed
NDYP New Deal or Young People
NEET not in education, employment or training
NHS National Health Service
NRF Neighbourhood Renewal Fund
NRU Neighbourhood Renewal Unit
NVQ National Vocational Qualication
ODPM Oce o the Deputy Prime Minister
PDF Phoeni Development Fund
PSA Public Service Agreement
PtW Pathways to Work
RDA Regional Development Agency
REF Regional Employability Framework
RES Regional Economic Strategy
SDC Sheeld Development Corporation
SES Social Enterprise Sunderland
SEU Social Eclusion UnitSIMD Scottish Inde o Multiple Deprivation
SME small and medium-sized enterprise
SOA Super Output Area
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xiii
SRB Single Regeneration Budget
SRBCF Single Regeneration Budget Challenge Fund
SRP subregional partnership
TTWA Travel to Work Area
TUC Trade Union CongressUDC Urban Development Corporation
USM Under-Served Markets
VAT Value Added Ta
WIMD Welsh Inde o Multiple Deprivation
WNF Working Neighbourhoods Fund
WNP Working Neighbourhoods Pilot
List o abbreviations
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1
ONE
i arc cmc rvval
itrct
The persistence o poverty, social inequality and social eclusion
spatially concentrated in certain localities and neighbourhoods is a
longstanding and prominent eature o urban landscapes. Such spatially
concentrated deprivation is largely tolerated and ignored on a day-
to-day basis, yet comes into political ocus during periods o social
unrest, whether in the orm o riots, gangland activity, terrorism or
more everyday antisocial behaviour. These events revive, albeit oten
only temporarily, well-rehearsed debates concerning the dangers o
concentrated deprivation in undermining social and community
cohesion and creating political instability, as well as the moral issues o
permitting the eistence o severe social inequalities and the costs o
spatial inequalities to wider economic perormance.
The shit towards a liberalised global economy has been characterisedby not only the persistence but also the entrenchment o concentrated
urban deprivation within the advanced Western economies. The
contemporary presence o spatially ocused poverty is not just an issue
or cities and regions eperiencing economic decline and readjustment,
but also or those that are economically competitive and prosperous. In
recent years London, Paris and Los Angeles cities that are commonly
seen as central hubs o the global economy have all had their own
traumatic eperiences o high-prole social unrest within deprived
inner or outer urban neighbourhoods.
It is against this background that policy makers have been ormulating
and implementing an array o policy interventions that seek to address
the problem o these so-called disadvantaged neighbourhoods. In
Britain, the link between social eclusion, community cohesion
and spatially concentrated deprivation has given rise to a plethora
o policy initiatives. Since 1997, the New Labour governments have
placed area-based initiatives (ABIs), such as the National Strategy or
Neighbourhood Renewal and the New Deal or Communities (NDC),at the centre o their social eclusion agenda. Yet despite considerable
investment in policy development and eperimentation there is no sign
that localised deprivation is set to disappear. Poor areas persist and new
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areas o deprivation emerge. Even when areas do undergo regeneration
or gentrication, the evidence demonstrates that the majority o local
residents o such areas ail to benet.
The problems o deprived areas are multiaceted, with residents
commonly eperiencing higher levels o crime, poorer health,environmental degradation and poorer housing than those in less
deprived areas. However, it is the ailure o the residents o such areas
to benet rom processes o economic development that remains at the
core o the problem. Within liberal, market economies, labour market
eclusion remains central to issues o poverty and deprivation and
entering employment remains the most eective route out o poverty.
Issues o high levels o unemployment and low economic participation
rates, along with low levels o investment, are consequently dening
eatures o deprived neighbourhoods.
Yet tackling the economic basis o this problem remains problematic.
Despite an array o approaches that have centred upon varying
combinations o interventions related to physical redevelopment,
enterprise promotion and labour market integration, success has
been largely elusive. In this regard a eature o the high-prole
neighbourhood renewal and NDC initiatives in England has been their
relative ailure to address the economic dimension o the problems
besetting deprived neighbourhoods. These area-based approaches haveemphasised an integrated and holistic approach to neighbourhood
renewal including issues o employment and economic development
but the evidence suggests that the economic dimension o such
policy interventions has been weak and governance arrangements have
been poorly positioned to deliver eective economic development to
deprived areas. Recognition o this act has led to recent changes in
policy, unding and institutional arrangements, which have moved the
economic aspects o neighbourhood renewal centre-stage.
The ailure to date to address the economic needs o deprived
neighbourhoods suggests that a number o questions remain to be
answered i this most recent shit in policy direction is to be successul.
What are the lessons rom the last 40 years o intervention and have
they been learnt? Is there an adequate understanding o the dierences
between deprived neighbourhoods and how they are linked into the
wider economies in which they are embedded? Are the relative merits
and limitations o various place-based and people-based interventions
ully understood? Is there clarity over the rationale or interventionwithin deprived neighbourhoods and what is trying to be achieved?
What are the most appropriate governance arrangements or delivering
eective intervention in these areas and at what spatial scales should
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In search o economic revival
they operate? Are there other models o sustainable local development
that oer eective alternative paths to the current neoliberal inormed
policy agenda?
This book seeks to address these questions through critically analysing
the economic nature o the problems o deprived neighbourhoods andthe policy responses that have developed to this within Britain. The
analysis centres upon understanding contemporary economic change
and the post-1997 period o the New Labour government, but is
placed within a wider contet o longer-term processes o economic
restructuring and a history o policy intervention that dates back or
well over 40 years. The arguments advanced draw upon both ndings
rom recent academic research and policy practice combined with
empirical evidence rom ve case study local areas within England,
selected to demonstrate dierent economic contets within which
deprived neighbourhoods are embedded in the contemporary
socioeconomic landscape.
The book ocuses on three elements that have dominated policy
development and implementation in relation to tackling concentrated
deprivation in recent years: work, enterprise and governance. The other
major element relating to the economic development o deprived areas
the physical redevelopment o such areas is here considered in
relation to the wider policy agenda and the issues o work, enterpriseand governance, but is not pursued as a separate theme. In terms o
the element o work, intervention aimed at reducing high levels o
worklessness and shiting residents o deprived areas in receipt o
welare benets into paid employment has been a predominant
ocus o activity. Alongside this, the promotion o enterprise and an
entrepreneurial culture within deprived areas, through both attracting in
businesses and developing indigenous businesses and sel-employment,
has been pursued as a means o developing the economic base and
competitiveness o such areas. With respect to governance, repeated
changes in institutional rameworks and governance arrangements
have attempted to improve the eectiveness o strategy development
and policy delivery o economic activity in deprived neighbourhoods.
Although strongly interrelated and potentially mutually reinorcing, the
pursuit o these dierent elements also reveals tensions between them,
rooted within the wider dominant discourse o urban development
that has inormed recent policy development.
The rest o this chapter sets out the scope and terms o debateor the rest o the book. The chapter rst locates the nature o the
problem o deprivation concentrated in particular neighbourhoods
within wider trends evident in spatial patterns o deprivation within
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advanced Western economies generally and the UK in particular. The
chapter then outlines what constitutes a deprived neighbourhood and
the issues involved in mapping localised concentrations o deprivation.
Arguments or dierent styles o response, whether through the delivery
o mainstream policies or via area-based interventions, are introducedand an overview presented o how UK urban policy has addressed the
issue o neighbourhood deprivation in the post-Second World War
period. The nal part o the chapter ocuses on policy development
under successive New Labour governments and the varying rationales
that have inormed policy intervention, to identiy a number o key
themes to be eplored throughout the remainder o the book.
ity t prlm: patal cctrat prvat
The spatial concentrations o deprivation that are such a highly visible
component o contemporary urban landscapes in advanced industrial
economies are by no means new. Concentrated disadvantage has been a
eature o urban capitalist development throughout its history, not least
in the cities that grew out o the early phase o industrial capitalism in
the late 17th century. In the 20th century, epectations that economic
growth might remove such concentrated poverty, either on its own orin concert with a variety o state interventions, were seen to be largely
misplaced. Indeed what is impressive is the persistence o poverty in
certain neighbourhoods over decades and in some cases centuries.
That low-income, disadvantaged neighbourhoods persist through
successive periods o economic development indicates the structural
role they perorm within the operation o the wider urban economy
via the production and reproduction o low-cost labour to provide
cheap services to businesses and residents (Fainstein et al, 1993; Sassen,
2001). Indeed the original rationale or the building o many low-
income neighbourhoods was specically to provide low-cost labour
to particular industries or urban areas (Lupton, 2003).
Yet these patterns o spatial deprivation are not ed. Alongside
neighbourhoods o longstanding deprivation are other narratives o
change, o ormerly prosperous areas spiralling into dereliction, or the
much-vaunted gentrication and regeneration o previously deprived
neighbourhoods. This process o capitalist uneven development is
memorably described by Harvey (1985, p 150):
Capitalist development must negotiate a knie-edge
between preserving the value o past commitments made at
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In search o economic revival
a particular place and time, or devaluing them to open up
resh room or accumulation. The inner contradictions
o capitalism are epressed through the restless ormation
and re-ormation o geographical landscapes.
Historically dierent phases o economic development produce
particular spatial and temporal es with their own geographic patterns
o growth and deprivation. In the current era o an increasingly
globalised economic arena, processes o structural and technological
change have interacted with state-sponsored processes o deregulation
and reregulation to create new landscapes. Signicantly, the current
phase o neoliberal, global economic development is characterised by
the continuation and, in certain cases, intensication o concentrated
deprivation. Indeed a prominent and repeated eature o the economic
heartlands o the global economy, the major global cities and economic
motor regions, is the close proimity o areas o great wealth to areas
o intense deprivation (Sassen, 2001).
Current landscapes o deprivation and social eclusion within
advanced industrial countries are rooted within, and constitutive
o, an increasingly apparent widening o social inequalities. This is
a particular characteristic o those countries that have aggressively
pursued neoliberal economic agendas. In Britain, successive studies havedemonstrated the trend towards increased levels o social inequality,
whether in terms o incomes, skills, education or health. Dorling et
al (2007), in their major study o changing area patterns o poverty
and wealth in Britain, conclude that, since 1970, area rates o poverty
and wealth have changed signicantly, with Britain moving back
towards levels o inequality in wealth and poverty last seen more
than 40 years ago. Green and Owen (2006), in their comprehensive
analysis o the changing landscape o work and skills in England and
Wales over the period 1991-2001, similarly conclude that the picture
is one o increasing polarisation in skills demand and supply across
the country.
In policy terms the pursuit o a competitive position within a
liberalised global economy has seen undamental shits in the role
o nation states towards a policy emphasis on supporting economic
competitiveness and away rom more traditional concerns with welare
and social justice. This transition has been characterised as a shit rom
a Keynesian welare state to a Schumpeterian workare state thatdates rom 1970s and intensied rom the early 1980s (Peck, 2001). In
Britain, this shit has been characterised by a major deregulation and
reregulation o state activity to promote economic competitiveness,
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Renewing neighbourhoods
innovation and eibility. Such an emphasis has remained a dening
eature o economic, urban and welare policy under the New Labour
governments that came to power rom 1997, despite their introduction
o a range o high-prole policies related to poverty and social eclusion
that have struggled to promote a more equal society (Hills and Stewart,2005).
Against this background o economic liberalisation, rising social
inequalities and state activity increasingly ocused on promoting
economic competitiveness, it is perhaps not surprising that spatial
divergence has been evident. Recent years have seen the UKs regional
and local economies become more divergent, with divides evident not
only at the regional level between the ast-growing South East and a
ew other major cities, and the rest o the country, but also within cities
and regions. At the level o major English cities, there is a consistent
pattern o better-perorming cities, measured on the basis o indices
such as education, low worklessness, low poverty, average house prices
and lie epectancy, being located within the South and particularly
South East o England, and only a limited number o northern cities
showing similar levels o perormance (Dorling, 2006; Parkinson et
al, 2006).
In terms o levels o deprivation, this is generally a larger problem in
cities, rather than in towns and rural areas, with the metropolitan, largerand smaller cities o the North and West consistently demonstrating
the highest levels o deprivation (Parkinson et al, 2006, p 111). Levels
o deprivation across English cities show considerable disparities rom
the highest levels o deprivation in Liverpool through to the lowest
levels in southern cities such as Reading, Crawley and Aldershot (see
Figure 1.1).
Within cities themselves, research ndings demonstrate the persistence
o patterns o poverty and deprivation, and in certain cases indications o
increasing concentration, which are present even within cities enjoying
strong economic growth (Buck et al, 2002; Boddy, 2003; Boddy and
Parkinson, 2004; Turok et al, 2004; Parkinson et al, 2006). Overall, the
evidence across UK cities is, as Boddy and Parkinson (2004, p 416)
conclude, one o major variations in levels o social and economic
advantage and the concentration in particular neighbourhoods o
high levels o persistent disadvantage. Furthermore, the evidence also
suggests that these trends towards increasing geographical inequalities in
wealth, which started under the Thatcher period, have in act intensiedunder the New Labour government (Dorling, 2006).
Central to understanding the diering trajectories o the UKs
regional and local economies is an awareness o how processes o
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In search o economic revival
Fr 1.1: Lvl prvat y val cty ela,
2004
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
York
Warrington
Preston
Telford
Blackpool
Wakefield
Burnley
Bolton
Grimsby
Doncaster
Blackburn
Barnsley
Rochdale
Aldershot
Crawley
Cambridge
Milton Keynes
Worthing
Southend
Swindon
Medway
Norwich
Oxford
Gloucester
Northampton
Luton
IpswichPeterborough
Plymouth
Derby
Mansfield
Hastings
Huddersfield
Birkenhead
Coventry
Wigan
Stoke
Middlesbrough
Bradford
SunderlandHull
Reading
Portsmouth
Bournemouth
Southampton
Bristol
Brighton
Leicester
Nottingham
Leeds
Sheffield
ManchesterBirmingham
Newcastle
Liverpool
London
Mean IMD Score
Source: Parkinson et al (2006, p 113)
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Renewing neighbourhoods
economic restructuring and sectoral change, most notably the decline
o traditional manuacturing industry and the rise o new service
industries, have created new patterns o job growth and job loss
(Martin and Morrison, 2003). Although nationally the period o job
loss and mass unemployment o the 1980s was replaced by rising levelso employment and declining unemployment in the 1990s, processes
o labour market change have seen high levels o unemployment and
inactivity becoming entrenched within certain groups and certain
areas. Groups such as single parents, people rom minority ethnic
communities, older men and those with low skills are much less likely
to be in work. Spatially it has been the large cities in northern Britain,
Inner London, as well as ormer coaleld areas and some seaside towns
where levels o unemployment have remained well above, and economic
activity rates well below, the national average (Beatty and Fothergill,
1996; Green and Owen, 1998; Turok and Edge, 1999; Beatty et al, 2000;
Green and Owen, 2006). These relationships between sectoral and
labour market change and the perormance o selected local economies
are eplored in greater detail in the ollowing chapter.
Yet while this undamental restructuring o the economic base and
the resulting winning and losing local and regional economies is a
crucial starting point to understanding the etent and nature o area
deprivation, it is not enough to eplain the patterns o intense spatialconcentration o deprivation that are evident within prosperous and less
prosperous regions alike. For this, understanding is required o how these
new patterns o job growth and loss interact with a range o economic
and social processes that cumulatively act to reduce employment
prospects o residents and depress local economic activity. As is discussed
in detail in Chapter Two, these processes include the operation o
housing markets, local labour markets, and public and private sector
investment markets, as well as the particularities o neighbourhood
eects and ormations o local social capital. It is only through seeking
to understand how these diverse processes interact within and through
specic places that we can begin to understand the particularities,
patterns and dynamics o concentrations o deprivation.
It is or these reasons that the policy challenge presented by
deprived neighbourhoods is particularly dicult. Conceptually, policy
intervention requires understanding o how deep-seated economic
processes o change interrelate with a range o economic and social
processes across spatial scales operating rom the neighbourhood tothe global. Translating this into policy practice consequently requires
an integration and coordination o policy development and delivery
across spheres, sectors and levels o the political and policy-making
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system; a means o working that the state apparatus has traditionally
ound dicult to achieve.
Rc prv r
In the UK over the past 10 years, deprived neighbourhoods have
become a well-established and central notion within the policy
agenda. This idea rose to particular prominence as a result o the
work o New Labours Social Eclusion Unit (SEU) in the late 1990s,
which identied concentrations o deprivation at the neighbourhood
level as a dening eature o the contemporary landscape o social
eclusion. The subsequent response to this analysis through the
creation o the National Strategy or Neighbourhood Renewal
ensured that prominence was given to the identication and targeting
o deprived neighbourhoods. Such an approach is not unique to the
UK. In the US, where polarisation between prosperous and deprived
neighbourhoods in urban conurbations is particularly stark, there has
been a longstanding identication o poor neighbourhoods as a ocus
or policy intervention (Galster et al, 2003). In Europe too, there has
been a range o programmes within member states and at the level o
the European Union (EU) oriented towards concentrated deprivation
within urban areas (Madanipour et al, 1998; Atkinson and Carmichael,2007).
Common to these agendas is the recognition that social eclusion is
concentrated in relatively small pockets, predominantly within urban
areas, not only within cities and regions undergoing economic decline
and readjustment, but also within those eperiencing strong economic
growth. These highly localised concentrations o various groups at r isk
o eclusion migrants, people rom minority ethnic communities, the
long-term unemployed, one-parent amilies, older people and young
people are characterised by an intensity o mutually reinorcing
processes o social eclusion that produce marked spatial polarisation.
In the most etreme eamples, social and spatial deprivation can
come together to orm ghettos o intense eclusion and an associated
underclass, as identied within many US cities (Massey and Denton,
1993; Wilson, 1996). However, the intensity o deprivation and racial
segregation that characterises US cities is not readily apparent within
European cities, where dierent social-spatial ormations mean that
the circumstances o spatially concentrated deprivation are qualitativelydierent (Wacquant, 1996; Marcuse and Van Kempen, 2000). Studies
o poor areas within the UK, or eample, have shown that despite a
high presence o ecluded people within poor neighbourhoods, overall
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labour and housing markets are less divided, particularly in terms o
race. In addition, the continuing role or the welare state and amily
and community relations urther prevents the ormation o a ghetto
underclass (Buck et al, 2002; Watt, 2003; see also Chapter Two).
In the European contet, the analysis o spatially concentrateddeprivation, particularly inormed by the eperiences o inner-city areas
and peripheral housing estates, has centred on the multiple dimensions
o deprivation and social eclusion. The ocus here is how dierent
elements o deprivation come together, in specic areas, to produce a
mutually reinorcing process. The diculties that arise rom having a
large number o deprived individuals concentrated in a particular area
are compounded by associated area-based eects (or eample, lack
o inormation about jobs, lack o contact with the world o work,
area-based discrimination and stigma) and the particularities o any
given locality (or eample, peripheral location, poor inrastructure,
poor-quality local services and lack o transport). Together these actors
produce processes that act to maintain eisting poor areas in a state
o relative deprivation or create a cycle o decline in ormerly more
prosperous areas (see Chapter Two or a more detailed discussion). The
resulting policy emphasis is on how low levels o economic activity, and
poor housing, local environment, and public services combined with
the characteristics o the local populations, produce relative deprivationin terms o income, health, saety and quality o lie. It is also one that
recognises important dierences between areas and neighbourhoods
and the need or place-based interventions that are place sensitive.
What is a deprived neighbourhood?
Although the term deprived or disadvantaged neighbourhood acts as a
useul descriptor o what is an important eature o the urban landscape,
as an analytical term, what constitutes a deprived neighbourhood is
considerably more problematic. Conceptually, there are diculties
here both in dening what constitutes a neighbourhood as well as
how the relationship between deprivation and its spatial epression
is conceived.
The notion o neighbourhood is heavily contested (Galster,
2001; Kearns and Parkinson, 2001). There is no single, accepted and
generalisable denition as to what constitutes a neighbourhood; rather,
what emerges rom academic debate is a view o neighbourhoods ascomple, dynamic, multidimensional and subjective constructs with
identities and governance capacities that go beyond preconceived
geographical or administrative boundaries (Lepine et al, 2007, p 2).
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Beneath this compleity, two key themes are apparent. First is the
idea o a neighbourhood as a bounded physical entity, eisting at a
particular localised scale. In this respect a neighbourhood is normally
seen as a small district pitched between a wider local area and the
narrower connes o a particular street or housing block. Yet there isno clear agreement as to what constitutes the scale o a neighbourhood.
In practice it may range rom an area that is little more than a street, to
a much larger area based around shops or a school that may comprise
several thousand people. While some neighbourhoods may be distinct
physical places clearly bounded by roads or rivers, more generally there
is an absence o obvious boundary lines, with those living in an area
likely to have strongly varying perceptions o the physical etent o
their neighbourhood.
A second theme is the neighbourhood as a socially constructed space.
Here the neighbourhood is signicant as an everyday lived space o
social interaction and reproduction and a source o attachment and
identity, eperienced dierently by individuals depending on their
particular characteristics (Sullivan and Taylor, 2007). As a socially
constructed place, the notion o neighbourhood is requently conated
with that o community, through the eistence o common identities,
practices and interests within a small shared space (Forrest and Kearns,
2001). Yet although eamples o strong place-based communities doeist, more commonly areas are characterised by the eistence o
multiple communities o interest and ragmented populations. This
makes any neat and tidy relationship between neighbourhoods and
community deeply problematic, instead pointing to a messy, comple
and dynamic relationship between individuals, communities and the
neighbourhoods in which they live.
These problems in dening what constitutes a neighbourhood lead
some to preer to talk only in terms o concentrated deprivation. But
this too is problematic, as it removes entirely the very sense o place
that is a critical element to the phenomenon under consideration.
Importantly, whether localised spatial patterns o deprivation are
discussed in terms o neighbourhoods or concentrations, they need
to be understood in terms o the spectrum o social processes that are
constituted in and through particular places rather than being in any
sense separate or isolated. These social processes distinguish themselves
in deprived neighbourhoods principally by the extentand degreeo
their impact and the problems that result, rather than being dierentby nature.
As a result, there are no simple cut-o points between deprived
neighbourhoods and others. Although a signicant proportion o
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individuals eperiencing deprivation is resident in what may be classied
as disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the majority is not. Spatial scales are
not ed. When considering the operation o socioeconomic processes
attention should be ocused on the relations between places and scales,
rather than seeking to delimit and place borders around them (Massey,2005). A relational concept o both space and deprivation is critical or
any meaningul understanding o spatial concentrations o deprivation
and how policy should respond to them. The considerable danger o an
analytical and policy ocus on deprived localities or neighbourhoods
is the etishisation o a particular spatial scale; seeing it as a distinct
and separate entity, when in act problems o concentrated deprivation
need to be viewed as part o a particular epression o the operation
o socioeconomic processes over space and through time.
Within such a relational view o places and spaces, looking at
deprivation at dierent spatial scales whether internationally,
nationally, regionally, locally or at the neighbourhood level is
important because it produces dierent patterns and interpretations o
the etent and nature o the problem. A ne-grained neighbourhood
ocus, or eample, brings into ocus particular issues (or eample,
housing type and environmental quality), while a broader analysis at
the subregional/local levels brings insight into the operation o labour
markets and the interaction between labour supply and demand, aswell as the relationships between Travel to Work Areas (TTWAs) and
housing markets that predominantly operate at these levels.
Analysis at the level o individual English cities, or eample,
demonstrates high levels o city-wide deprivation (measured in
terms o a mean score on the Inde o Multiple Deprivation; IMD)
in cities such as Liverpool (45%), Hull (42%), Sunderland (34%)
and Rochdale (33%) (Parkinson et al, 2006, p 113) (see Figure 1.1).
Similarly, in the city o Glasgow in Scotland, 48% o the population
live within the most deprived areas. When eamined at the regional
level, every city or town in the South and East o England has less than
its share o poorest areas (Parkinson et al, 2006, p 114). In contrast,
regions such as the North East and North West o England have high
proportions o their population, 38% and 33% respectively, living in
deprived neighbourhoods, demonstrating the importance o a regional
dimension to understanding the location o deprived neighbourhoods
(see Table 1.1). When regions, subregions or cities have such a large
proportion o their population living within a large number o deprivedneighbourhoods, the issue is rather less about the neighbourhoods per
se and rather more about the economic conditions at the level o the
city or wider region in which they are situated.
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The appropriate scale or analysis and policy intervention is aparticularly important issue with regard to the economic dimension
o deprived areas and is discussed urther in Chapter Five. The roots
o the economic problems that aect such areas, and the economic
processes that are maniest within them, stretch ar beyond a highly
localised area, pointing to a policy response that needs to be sensitive
to, and coordinated across, a range o dierent scales. In this contet,
the deprived neighbourhood needs to be conceptualised as a particular
socially constructed place embedded in various economic and social
processes operating within and between dierent scales.
Mapping deprivation at the neighbourhood scale
The lack o denitional clarity relating to deprived neighbourhoods
ensures that its operationalisation or policy terms is problematic.
Denitions rom the British government ocus on deprived areas, and
the people who live within them, as disadvantaged relative to other
more prosperous areas:
People living in deprived areas are more likely to be worse
o than similar people living in more prosperous areas
Tal 1.1: spr otpt Ara (soA) t mt prv 20%
soA ela, y r, 2004
Number o SOAsin most deprived
20% o SOAs inEngland
Number o SOAsin the region
% o SOAs in eachregion alling in
most deprived 20%o SOAs in England
East 220 3,550 6.2
East Midlands 482 2,732 17.6
London 1,260 4,765 26.4
North East 631 1,656 38.1
North West 1,461 4,459 32.8
South East 271 5,319 5.1
South West 278 3,226 8.6
West Midlands 917 3,482 26.3
Yorkshire and theHumber
976 3,293 29.6
Total 6,496 32,482 20.0
Source: Department or Communities and Local Government, NeighbourhoodStatistics
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[they] ... are less likely to work, more likely to be poor and
have lower lie epectancy, more likely to live in poorer
housing in unattractive local environments with high levels
o anti-social behaviour and lawlessness and more likely
to receive poorer education and health services. Living ina deprived area adversely aects individuals lie chances
over and above what would be predicted by their personal
circumstance and characteristics. (PMSU, 2005, p 10)
The more general challenges in identiying and measuring poverty
and deprivation are well recognised. The geographical mapping o
national patterns o relative deprivation can be conducted at a range
o spatial scales rom the regional through to the neighbourhood
level. Within the current UK policy discourse, the strong emphasis on
pockets o localised deprivation has produced a ocus on the small-
scale, neighbourhood, level.
The Index o Multiple Deprivation
In order both to capture the multiple dimensions o deprivation and
how these come together at the small-area level, and as a means o
operationalising the National Strategy or Neighbourhood Renewalin England, the UK government produced the Inde o Multiple
Deprivation (IMD), initially published in 2000 (DTLR, 2000) and
subsequently in revised orm in 2004 (ODPM, 2004) and urther
updated or 2007 (DCLG, 2008a).
The IMD is based on the concept o distinct dimensions o
deprivation that can be recognised and measured separately, and
are eperienced by individuals living in an area. The overall IMD is
conceptualised as a weighted area-level aggregation o the specic
dimensions o deprivation. The Inde is made up o seven distinct
dimensions o deprivation, called domains. Each domain contains a
number o indicators (37 in total), which comprise (with their relative
weighting indicated in brackets):
income deprivation (22.5%);
employment deprivation (22.5%);
education, training and skills deprivation (13.5%);
health deprivation and disability (13.5%); barriers to housing and services (9.3%);
living environment deprivation (9.3%); and
crime (9.3%).
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Both Scotland and Wales have developed their own modied versions
o the IMD the Scottish Inde o Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) and
the Welsh Inde o Multiple Deprivation (WIMD).1 Across all three
indices o multiple deprivation, the three domains o employment,
income, and education, training and skills are weighted as the mostimportant dimensions, together accounting or between 58.5% to 70%
o the aggregate weighting.
In identiying deprived areas the IMD uses a relative measure o
deprivation, commonly dening them in terms o the 10% most
deprived wards in the 2000 IMD, and the 10% or 20% most deprived
Super Output Areas (SOAs) in the 2004 IMD. I deprived areas
in England are dened in terms o the 20% most deprived SOAs,
9.8 million people live in these areas, just under 20% o the population.
However, not all people living in deprived areas eperience deprivation
individually. On average just under a third o those people living in
deprived areas are likely to be income deprived.
Figure 1.2 displays the distribution o the 20% most deprived
SOAs in England in 2004. Concentrations o deprivation reect the
processes o economic restructuring eperienced over the last 30 years,
with job losses in manuacturing and coal-mining sectors having had
major impacts on inner cities, large metropolitan cities, one-industry
towns and coaleld areas. As a result, deprived neighbourhoods in theUK are disproportionally ound in inner-city areas, mining, industrial
and seaside towns, and outer urban areas o industrial and residential
epansion. Most such neighbourhoods are located within deprived
urban wards, but within England, at least 16 o the 88 most deprived
districts also contain substantial rural areas (SEU, 2001).
Severely deprived areas are ound in all regions, as are areas among
the least deprived. However, as Table 1.1 demonstrates, the localised
distribution o the most deprived 20% o SOAs within England
does show strong regional variation. The North East has the highest
percentage o its SOAs in the most deprived 20% (38.1%), compared
with only 8.6% in the South West. London has a high number o SOAs
in the most deprived 20% o SOAs (1,260) accounting or a large
population o 1,934,000 people.
Constraints o the IMD
Identication o area-based deprivation using the IMD and its use asa means o targeting resources raises a number o issues related to the
manner in which it identies and prioritises certain types o deprived
areas.
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First, such indices are constrained by the statistics routinely available at
the lowest spatial scales. In the UK, initially the electoral ward level was
used simply because it was the only unit at the sublocal authority levelor which there were adequate small-area statistics available nationally
with which to construct an IMD. Wards were ranked using the IMD
and the 10% most deprived wards, a total o 841, were then designated
Fr 1.2: Lcal cctrat trct lvl mmary t
iMd (ela) 2004
Source: ODPM, 2004
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as the poorest neighbourhoods, 82% o which were concentrated in 88
local authority districts (LADs). From the outset there was a recognition
that electoral wards relatively large, variable in size and subject to
constant boundary changes were a poor proy or the neighbourhood
scale and as a means or reporting small-area statistics. Given that wards,particularly in urban areas, could be large (containing populations o
up to 30,000 people), small pockets o deprivation (or indeed wealth)
remained hidden within the Inde. Such problems were a major actor
in the creation rom 2004 o a new means or reporting small-area
statistics in England and Wales SOAs which were rst used in the
revised IMD in 2004. Super Output Areas have a consistent size, with
lower-level SOAs having an average population o 1,800 people, making
them more amenable to capturing the neighbourhood scale.2 However,
such statistics still remain only a proy; they are a statistical geography
that makes no attempt to capture or delimit neighbourhoods.
In terms o economic change at the neighbourhood scale, there
also remain severe limitations on available economic statistics. There
is a notable lack o data related to key issues such as levels o private
and public investment, enterprise start-ups and certain aspects o the
labour market, and no statistics at all related to the important arena
o inormal activity. In act, in relation to the economic dimension o
neighbourhood deprivation, much o the ocus has related to patternso worklessness.
Second, the manner in which the dierent elements o deprivation
are weighted within a composite inde produces dierent outcomes.
The manner in which the IMD is constructed makes it relatively
strong in identiying multiple deprivation in urban areas, where the
vast majority o the population reside. However, it is less eective in
identiying deprivation dispersed across more geographically sparse
populations as occurs in rural areas, and where the basis o deprivation
is also dierent, especially with regard to problems o accessibility to
jobs and services. Consequently, in areas with larger rural populations
there has been concern over the underreporting o rural deprivation
and both Scotland and Wales have revised their indices to include a
greater recognition o this issue.
Third, the ocus on identiying small-area-based deprivation
illustrates the tensions over the choice o scale at which the issue o
deprivation is looked at, the indicators used and the nature o the
problem subsequently identied. In a region such as the South West oEngland there is only a relatively small number o SOAs in the worst
20% nationally (8.6%). However, analysis at a higher spatial scale can
capture wider structural problems, related to processes o economic
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Renewing neighbourhoods
development and labour market supply and demand in the subregional/
regional economy. In this regard, or the South West, the EU, using
cruder and more restricted criterion (Gross Domestic Product [GDP]
per head o population at 75% or less o the European average) applied
at the subregional/regional level, identies Cornwall as a priority area(Objective One) or assistance, even though relatively ew localities are
highlighted within the IMD.
Finally, although the IMD identies deprivation at the small scale it
is unable to say anything about the nature o the problem. For eample,
an SEU report (SEU, 2004)pursued the issue o worklessness through
small-area analysis down to the level o the street and the housing
block. While such an analysis permitted the identication o small-scale
pockets o labour market deprivation, it also amply demonstrated the
limitations o such an approach. Such maps o localised worklessness
were in act little more than maps o the distribution o public/social
housing.
Merely mapping localised economic deprivation provides only
very limited insights into the nature o the phenomena and how it is
embedded within the wider economic development process. Across
England, Scotland and Wales the IMD identies ormer coaleld
areas, older industrial areas, urban centres, one-industry towns and
some seaside towns,as particular oci o concentrated deprivation.However, the nature o the problems o deprived neighbourhoods is in
practice very dierent. The labour market challenges posed by a highly
stable, largely homogenous white population that has eperienced
intergenerational unemployment in a ormer coaleld area, such as
Easington in the North East or Manseld in the East Midlands, are
quite dierent rom those o an ethnically diverse, younger and more
transient population living in inner-city areas, such as Newham or
Tower Hamlets, within the economically thriving London region.
Generalisation across localities may obscure more than it reveals. The
dierences between deprived neighbourhoods are eplored in urther
detail in the net chapter.
Tackl lcal prvat
People versus place
A central policy concern in relation to tackling concentrateddeprivation is whether deprived neighbourhoods should be seen
either as a problem in their own right, and thereore in need o place-
based interventions, or as a maniestation o wider problems that
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should be dealt with by people-oriented mainstream employment,
education, training and business support policies (among others)
ocused on individuals, households or rms. Given that the economic
problems eperienced within deprived neighbourhoods reect wider
socioeconomic processes (or eample in terms o deindustrialisation,rising inequality, labour market segmentation and so on), it might
seem appropriate that the problems o such areas are addressed through
mainstream programmes and policies. But deprived neighbourhoods are
not merely empty spaces within which these wider processes are played
out, but partially constitute these processes o change. Thereore the
particular characteristics o a given place and the manner in which they
are embedded within wider local/regional economies matter and policy
responses must thereore be responsive to such local dierence.
The argument or a place-based element to tackle the problems
o deprived areas is rooted within two actors. The rst relates to the
etent to which place-based actors, or what are commonly reerred to
as area or neighbourhood eects, eacerbate problems o deprivation
and social eclusion. There is considerable disagreement between
academics on the importance o neighbourhood eects in perpetuating
social eclusion. There are those who argue that they are o minor
importance in relation to other actors, while others argue that they play
an important role in compounding the eects o multiple dimensionso deprivation concentrated within a given locality. These arguments
are eplored in urther detail in Chapter Two. Although the problems
o deprived neighbourhoods are in the main the same in nature as those
suered elsewhere, the degree o poverty and deprivation concentrated
in particular places and its persistence over time and across multiple
dimensions, clearly produces a set o additional problems that justies
a place-sensitive approach.
The second is rooted in the act that a whole range o mainstream
policies consistently nd it dicult to address eectively the problems o
residents concentrated in deprived neighbourhoods. There are a number
o related reasons or this. First, mainstream policies generally target
on the basis o population characteristics and nd it dicult to take
account o the particular needs o areas acing concentrated deprivation.
Second, there is a generally poor take-up o mainstream programmes
by residents living within deprived neighbourhoods, whether this is in
terms o training schemes, business support or employment services.
This reects both a lack o trust and engagement with such servicesand oten also the absence o opportunities or incentives to seek
employment or develop entrepreneurial activity. Third, levels o public
spending rarely eectively compensate or the high unit cost involved
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in tackling social eclusion within deprived areas, while prosperous
areas requently eert pressure to maintain their relatively high level
o service provision. Although ependiture within deprived areas
may be higher on a per capita basis, such spending is concentrated on
benet regimes, operating to maintain the status quo, rather than oneducation and training, which might lead to individuals competing
more successully in the labour market and attaining higher levels o
earnings. Finally, the poor coordination o mainstream programmes
at national and regional levels makes it dicult to integrate these
eectively at the local or neighbourhood level.
The role o area-based initiatives
The combination o the particular problems o deprived neighbourhoods
and the inability o mainstream programmes to address them eectively
has led to the development o a variety o area-based initiatives (ABIs).
In the UK there is a long history o such interventions, ranging rom
the Community Programme o the 1960s, to the Enterprise Zones
o the 1980s, to the National Strategy or Neighbourhood Renewal
introduced in the late 1990s (see Table 1.2).
As a policy response, ABIs have a number o common eatures.
Central is an emphasis on partnership working. Since the 1980s thishas broadened rom an emphasis on working in partnership with the
private sector to include the community and dierent public bodies
and government departments, to try to ensure the engagement o a
broad base o epertise and resources better directed to the needs o
deprived areas. Also crucial to ABIs is the encouragement o greater
eibility in local delivery, sensitivity to local needs and autonomy
in the management and delivery o local schemes. This element is
particularly important within the UK contet o a historically highly
centralised state system with limited devolution o power to regional,
local and neighbourhood levels. An additional eature o ABIs in the
UK contet is that, since the early 1990s, unds have normally been
allocated on a competitive basis, with the intention o providing an
incentive or actors to engage in partnership working and to pursue
more innovative solutions.
Despite the established history o ABIs and the prolieration o
this approach under the New Labour governments, there remains
considerable debate over their relative eectiveness (Griggs et al, 2008).Criticisms o ABIs are o two broad types. The rst ocuses on the act
that such initiatives are seeking to address wider social and economic
processes o change. Given that the problems o social inequality and
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Tal1.2:
evolutoobrthurapolcy
Perio
d
Policies
Key
ea
tures
Mainactors
/partners
Spat
iallevelso
inter
vent
ion
1940s
1960s
New
Towns
Urbanclearance
Reconstruct
ionan
dphys
ical
regeneration
Improv
emento
hous
ingan
dliving
stan
dards
Nat
iona
land
loca
lgovernment
Publicsector-
ledinvestment
Privatesector
deve
lopersan
d
contractors
Rep
lacementorun-
down
inner-
cityareasw
ithdevelopmento
suburbanareasan
dN
ewTowns
Someattemptstore
habilitate
depr
ivedne
ighbourh
oods
Emphas
isonregiona
lpo
licyto
decentra
lisean
drelo
cate
industry
away
romthe
South
East
Late
1960s
1970s
Urban
Programmes
Commun
ity
Development
Pro
jects
Insiturenewal
andcommun
ity-
basedactionan
dgreater
empow
erment
Extens
iverenewal
oolderur
ban
areas
Resourceconstraintsonpu
blic
sector
andgrowtho
private
investm
ent
Loca
laut
horities
Some
decentra
lisat
ionan
d
commun
ityinvo
lvement
Grow
ingro
leo
privatesector
Focusonne
ighbourh
oodsc
hemes
within
loca
llevel
policies
Ongoingregiona
lpolicy
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Perio
d
Policies
Key
ea
tures
Mainactors
/partners
Spat
iallevelso
intervent
ion
Late
1970s
Urban
Partners
hips
Recogn
itionostructural
pro
blems;
risingu
nemploymentan
dsocial
unrest
Rad
icalalternatives
rom
Right(ree
mar
ket
)an
dLet(pub
licowners
hip
andmo
dern
isat
ion)
Nat
iona
land
loca
lgovernment
Shittowar
dsmoreloca
lised
ocus
Decentral
isat
ionand
New
Towns
policies
halted
1980s
Urban
Development
Corporations
Enterprise
Zones
Majorsc
hemeso
physica
l
replace
mentan
dnew
deve
lopment
ofagsh
ippro
jectsan
douto
town
developments
Emphasisupon
laissez-
aire
approach,s
timulat
ionoenterprise
anddom
inantro
leorpr
ivatesector
Privatesector
led
Select
ivesupport
romnationa
l
government
Margina
lisat
iono
loca
lgover
nment
Lim
itedcommun
ity
invo
lvement
Emphas
isuponmajorregeneration
pro
jects
ininner-city
andormer
industrial
areas
Loca
l-level
intervent
ions
part
icular
lyrom
Lab
our-c
ontro
lled
authorities
Majorwea
keningoregiona
lpo
licy
Late
1980s
Act
ion
or
Cities
CityAct
ion
Teams
Task
Forces
Focusoncoor
dinationo
po
licies
withincitiesan
dsu
breg
ions
Nat
iona
lgovernmentan
dpr
ivate
sector
Recogn
itiono
ro
leo
local
authorities
Loca
l/city
leve
l
Subreg
iona
lact
ivityr
elated
toprogrammes
unded
byEU
Structural
Fun
ds
Tal1.2:
evolutoobrthurapolcy(cotu)
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In search o economic revival
Perio
d
Policies
Key
ea
tures
Mainactors
/partners
Spat
iallevelso
intervent
ion
1990s
CityChallenge
Sing
le
Regenerat
ion
Budget
Partners
hip
dom
inantw
ithgreater
balance
betweenpu
blic
,privatean
d
volunta
ryan
dcommun
itysectors
Shitto
more
integratedan
d
comprehensiveresponse
Compe
tition
or
und
ing
Moree
mphas
isuponcommun
ity
engagement,
lessuponphys
ical
redeve
lopment
Partners
hip
betweenal
lkeyactors,
widenedto
include
loca
lauth
orities
andcommun
ity,v
oluntarysectors
Primar
ilyloca
llybase
dinterventions
Somere
introduction
ostrateg
ic
perspect
ivean
dgrow
tho
regiona
lact
ivity
(egviacreation
oGovernment
Oc
esorthe
Reg
ions
)
Late
1990s
early
2000s
New
Dea
lor
Commun
ities
(NDCs)
/Nat
iona
l
Strategy
or
Neigh
bour
hoo
d
Renewal
Multipleexamples
oABIs
Sustaina
ble
Commun
ities
Plan
Work
ing
Neigh
bour
hoo
d
Fund
/City
Strategy
Path
nders
Centra
locusonsocial
exc
lusion
andconcentrated
depr
ivat
ion,
particu
larlywork
lessness
Experimentationw
ithnew
approachesviamultiple
ABIs
Emphasisuponcitycompetitiveness,
innovationan
denterprise
Somed
evo
lutionopoweran
d
attemp
tsto
increase
loca
l-level
fexibil
ity
Partners
hipapproachcentra
l(egvia
Loca
lStrateg
icPartners
hips)
Increase
dcommun
ityinvo
lvement
andpart
icipat
ion
Keyro
leor
Reg
iona
lDevelopment
Agenc
ies
(RDAs)an
ddevelopment
osubregiona
lpartnersh
ips
Increase
dro
leor
loca
lautho
rities
in
econom
icdeve
lopment
Strong
ocusonneig
hbour
hood
leve
l
Recongure
dloca
l-le
velro
levia
Loca
lStrateg
icPartnersh
ipsan
d
Loca
lArea
Agreements
Variab
ledevo
lutiona
nd
decentra
lisat
ionopowerto
nationsan
dregionsan
dcities,
Attempttostrengthensu
breg
iona
l
leve
lviaMulti
AreaA
greements
Source:Expan
dedan
dadapte
drom
Atk
inson
andMoon
(1994);
Aud
itComm
ission
(1999,
p95);Ro
bertsand
Sykes,
(2000;
,p14)
Tal1.2:
evolutoobrthur
apolcy(cotu)
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Renewing neighbourhoods
deprivation in deprived neighbourhoods are maniestations o patterns
o inequality set nationally and internationally, the impacts o area-
based policies are likely at best to be marginal (Townsend, 1979). Thus
Kleinman (1998) argues that in tackling poverty and deprivation the
ocus should not be on place per se, as the problems o poverty areonly in limited instances localised in character. Rather, such problems
are more generally widely distributed in relation to national and
international economic and social actors and hence require more than
local action as a solution. In act a danger with area-based policy is
that problems are mis-specied, with the risk o making the particular
locality appear to be responsible or its particular economic problems
and hence absolving national governments rom taking action.
The second criticism ocuses on the signicant challenges related to
the implementation and evaluation o area-based policy. O particular
importance here are issues o displacement and substitution, such that
the economic gains to certain rms and individuals as a result o a policy
intervention are oset by losses to others. This is particularly important
with regard to jobs, but also applies to service provision, money within
the local economy, and community participation. Similarly, the issues o
deadweight and non-additionality concern the problems o separating
out the impact o a particular policy intervention rom other inuences
and o estimating what would have happened in the local economywithout any intervention.
While such arguments provide or some a basis or the rejection
o ABIs tout court, in act they do not counter the rationale or ABIs
previously outlined. Rather, they point to the need or careul design o
such policies: or greater clarity about what can be achieved at the local
level, and greater emphasis on their coordination with interventions
at the national level and other spatial scales. As Kleinman (1998, p 3)
states, ABIs are highly important in terms o their role in providing
the appropriate level to organise eective partnerships operating with
a clear understanding o local conditions: But local initiatives cannot
alone provide solutions to problems whose causes are national or even
international. Local initiatives must be supported by the right kind o
policies at regional and national level.
Critically, the rationale or the use o ABIs is or them to addto the
positive impacts o mainstream policies and market mechanisms, not to
substitute them, in order to provide a more strategic and coordinated
approach to meeting the needs o deprived areas. For eample, as hasbeen demonstrated within evaluations o the City Challenge and Single
Regeneration Budget (SRB) programmes (DETR, 2000b; Rhodes et
al, 2002), the eectiveness o local employment and training initiatives
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In search o economic revival
is related to demand conditions in the wider labour market. So the
challenge or ABIs is to ensure that maimum labour market benets
accrue to residents o deprived neighbourhoods who ace additional
problems in the labour market and/or are poorly served by mainstream
provision. Similarly, as Moore and Begg (2004) conclude with regardto their study on the competitiveness o urban areas, policy that
simply ocuses on the regeneration o specic areas is unlikely to be
successul. Rather, they argue, attention needs to be given to the wider
urban system, and policy should primarily ocus on the engagement
o mainstream government programmes and how these impact on
dierent parts o the urban system, rather than a narrowly dened
urban policy ocused only on areas o deprivation.
In practice, this interace between mainstream programmes and ABIs
is a problematic one, with considerable diculties in seeking to ensure
that mainstream provision meets the needs o specic places alongside
ongoing problems over the design and implementation o ABIs. The
debate over people or place remains central to current policy agendas
and subsequent chapters will consider these issues in greater detail in
relation to enterprise and employment interventions and the system
o governance and delivery o policies aimed at tackling the problems
o deprived neighbourhoods.
T vlt plcy practc
The problem neighbourhood in the evolution o urban policy
The recognition o problems associated with intense spatial
concentrations o poverty within urban areas can be traced back to the
19th century. Since Engels writings rst provided vivid descriptions
o the terrible living conditions o workers in Britains northern
industrial cities in 1844 (Engels, 1987), rationales or intervention in
deprived urban neighbourhoods have reected various combinations
o political, social and economic anieties rooted within the dominant
ideologies o the time (see, or eample, Stedmen Jones, 1971, and
White, 2003). While such disquiet has maniested itsel in a variety o
orms, most commonly it has related to the destabilising impacts o
spatially concentrated deprivation on wider society, the negative impacts
and economic wasteulness o spatial inequality on processes o urban
economic development, and the morality o accepting intense socio-spatial inequalities. The specic constitution o the rationales inorming
intervention within dominant policy discourses under the New Labour
governments is considered in more detail later in this chapter.
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Renewing neighbourhoods
Responses to the problems associated with poor neighbourhoods
have resulted in a long and varied history o policy intervention in
the post-Second World War period (see Table 1.2). In reviewing the
development o urban and regional policy across this period it is readily
apparent that the nature o the problem o deprived neighbourhoodshas been conceived o and approached quite dierently and pursued
through a variety o dierent policy instruments. Yet underlying such
dierences there is also considerable continuity in terms o the basic
types o activity that have been pursued in relation to tackling the
economic dimension o the neighbourhood problem.
The rst o these relates to the physical redevelopment o deprived
areas; the so-called hard-based element o regeneration. Here the
emphasis is on land and property development and the improvement o
the physical environment: the demolition, rebuilding and renovation o
housing, industrial and commercial property, alongside improvements
in transport inrastructures to reduce marginality and increase access.
With respect to the non-physical or soter side o regeneration and
renewal, two main types o activity are apparent. First, an array o
instruments have ocused on the development o enterprise activity
related to such areas. These comprise both attracting inward investment
to the area and/or the stimulation o indigenous enterprise, either in
the orm o traditional business orms or through community andsocially based enterprise activity. Second, a variety o policy activities
related to the labour market have been developed. These have sought
to improve the employability o residents and better connect them to
available employment opportunities either through enhanced labour
mobility to jobs outside o the immediate vicinity, or through better
training and linkages to jobs available locally.
The balance between these dierent types o activity has shited
continuously over the last 60 years. In the immediate post-Second
World War period the reconstruction o towns and cities was the
priority emphasis. This ocus on the physical redevelopment o deprived
neighbourhoods, oten through the physical demolition o areas o
run-down housing and the decanting o residents in such areas to
new suburban developments or New Towns, continued throughout
the 1950s and 1960s as part o an era o city rebuilding, modernisation
and economic growth.
However, by the mid-1960s the limitations o this approach were
increasingly recognised. Rather than solving urban problems, suchapproaches oten merely transerred and reconstituted them in other
locations, such as in more peripheral housing estates. The emphasis on
slum clearance and relocation o inner-city populations was increasingly
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In search o economic revival
questioned, as communities were ractured and inner-urban areas let
redundant, and immigrant populations became concentrated in certain
inner-city areas. Greater engagement with the emerging realities o
inner-city areas led to the Urban Programme launched by the Home
Oce in 1968, ollowed by a number o other policy initiatives,notably the Community Development Projects. These marked a shit
in emphasis towards the renewal o inner-city areas through attempts
to integrate the previously separate element o physical, economic and
social policy, through an approach that involved greater community
participation and state decentralisation.
During the 1970s, the problem o inner-city areas became increasingly
apparent. The impacts o long-term economic restructuring, particularly
through processes o deindustrialisation, resulted in high levels o
unemployment concentrated in particular inner-city and ormer
manuacturing areas and there was increasing concern in relation to
social breakdown and unrest. This culminated in a series o urban
riots in 1981, initially in Briton, but subsequently in Handsworth,
Southall, Toteth, Moss Side and smaller incidents across a number o
other towns and cities.
While the approach o the Urban Programme and Community
Development Projects was more sensitive to local and community
dierences, the programmes were increasingly criticised or theirtendency towards social pathology; the blaming o the victims or
their problems rather than looking or the wider economic and social
causes. The shit o control o urban policy to the Department o the
Environment in 1975 marked a move towards greater recognition
o the structural economic causes o inner-city problems. The 1978
Inner Urban Areas Act saw urban policy or the rst time becoming
a mainstream element o the national government agenda, with a lead
role or local authorities in tackling inner-city problems in a number
o selected areas.
Yet the increasing scope, scale and ongoing nature o inner-
city problems led to a search or more radical alternatives and the
redenition o the ocus o urban policy on the structural problem
o economic decline (Eisenschitz and Gough, 1993; Cochrane,
2007). From the Right, the dominant argument was that tackling
the economic decline o cities required a shit in emphasis towards a
market-based, private sector-led approach in order to strengthen the
economic competitiveness o cities. The election o the Thatcher-ledConservative government in 1979 marked the beginning o a major
shit in direction towards such a neoliberal approach. Predominant local
authority public sector ways o working gave way to a lead role or the
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Renewing neighbourhoods
private sector working through privatepublic partnerships, alongside
the promotion o enterprise and large-scale physical
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