Closing the gap - a regeneration strategy for Scotland?

There is a lengthy list of Scottish regeneration initiatives going back many years. Despite this, progress in bringing about lasting change often seems to have been limited. Indeed one of the more depressing things is how closely the distribution of deprived communities in 2002 matches that from the 1930s, something that Pacione comments upon in connection with Glasgow (Pacione, 1995). A cynic might be tempted to say that the main achievement of public policy since the 1930s has been not to solve the problems of deprivation, but to create new deprived areas through the social housing programmes of the 1950s and 1960s. Whilst there are many reasons for this limited success it may be that, as Edwards says, "somewhere along the way, the purpose of inner-city policies - to improve the quality of life and the life chances of people who live in the worst urban areas - has been lost sight of," (Edwards, 1995, p.697). Running various programmes and ensuring that budgets were spent by the end of the financial year all too often seems to have become the goal of policy. The means have become synonymous with the ends. However, if the aspirations of the Scottish Executive are now to be met this may change. In June 2002 the Executive published its Community Regeneration Statement, "Better Communities in Scotland: closing the gap" (Scottish Executive, 2002). This aims "to close the gap between our poorest communities and the rest of the country", (ibid, p. 1) and "turn round disadvantaged communities and create a better life for those who live in them", (ibid, p. 3). These ambitious and, as is argued below, ambiguous goals are to be attained through action in two areas. First, measures are to be taken to ensure that public services "have as much effect as possible on disadvantaged areas" (ibid, p.7). This means that, increasingly, mainstream services are to be used to tackle the problems faced by disadvantaged communities, rather than, as has tended to happen in the past, relying upon time-limited, spatially-targeted initiatives with dedicated budgets. Secondly measures are to be introduced to build social capital ("the skills, confidence, support networks and resources" (ibid, p. 7)) so that available opportunities can be taken, and created, by individuals and communities. A variety of managerial tools are to be used to attain these goals, the key one being community planning

Explicating the role of partnerships in changing the health and well-being of local communities: a profile of neighbourhood renewal activity focused on promoting health and well-being in Salford and the north west region and the north east of England

This scoping and mapping report is one of three outputs from a project: Explicating the role of partnerships in changing the health and well-being of local communities, one of a number of projects in a larger Higher Education Funding Council Strategic Development Fund project ( HEFCE ) entitled: Urban Regeneration: Making a Difference. This was a collaborative venture between Manchester Metropolitan University, Northumbria University, University of Salford and University of Central Lancashire. Bradford University was an affiliated partner

Pathways to physical activity legacy: assessing the regeneration potential of multi-sport events using a prospective approach

Urban regeneration is now commonly cited as the rationale for hosting multi-sport events. However, the concept of legacy arising from these events is contested and the evidence base in relation to benefits for the host community is weak, especially in respect of increasing physical activity and sports participation. A theory-based assessment framework is developed to provide a robust prospective assessment of the likely impacts of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games on physical activity for the host community in the East End of the city. We identify scope for change, anticipated causal pathways and propose supporting physical activity though better designed environments as a means of generating legacy benefits at population level

Mind the gap? The persistence of pathological discourses in urban regeneration policy

Urban regeneration policy has historically framed policy problems using a discourse that pathologises areas and spatial communities. Since 2001 in England, and 2002 in Scotland a structural change in policy has occurred where citywide partnerships are now meant overcome structural spatial inequalities, countering pathological explanations. This paper uses historical and discourse analysis to evaluate one of the major community regeneration strategies developed by the Scottish Executive in 2002: Better Communities in Scotland: Closing the Gap. It seeks to ask whether structural change in policy was paralleled by discursive change; what discursive path dependence is evidenced? The text is placed in the historic context of UK urban renewal policies dating back to the launch of the Urban Programme in 1968 and particularly the policy discourse created by the influential Conservative government policy of 1988 New Life for Urban Scotland and the wider discourses of poverty and neighbourhood renewal policy created by Labour governments since 1997. The close textual analysis of the text shows that Better Communities in Scotland continues to pathologise spatial communities. Although this suggests a degree of historical path dependency, the historic breadth of the analysis also problematises simple historical determinism

Evaluation of the main achievements of cohesion policy programmes and projects over the longer term in 15 selected regions: case study North East England

This report presents the Pilot Case Study for North East England as part of the study ‘Evaluation of the Main Achievements of Cohesion Policy Programmes over the Longer Term in 15 Selected Regions (from 1989-1993 Programming Period to the Present)’ which is being managed by the European Policies Research Centre and London School of Economics

Is Targeting Deprived Areas an Effective Means to Reach Poor People? An assessment of one rationale for area-based funding programmes

Area-based programmes have long been a feature of urban policy in the UK. One rationale is that they are an effective means to target poor people. Area deprivation indices are used to identify areas for targeting. This paper reviews the different results produced by these indices. It then examines the effectiveness of the current Index of Multiple Deprivation in targeting the poor, demonstrating that area targeting using the IMD 2000 is a more complete way of reaching the poor than has been claimed by opponents of area-based targeting in the past. However, it is more effective in reaching some sub-groups, particularly children, than others, and is also relatively inefficient. There is a trade off between efficiency and completeness. The use of area targeting should depend on the type of intervention, the costs and benefits of producing complex targeting mechanisms, and the particular balance between completeness and efficiency in each case.area targeting, deprivation, area-based initiatives, neighbourhoods

The Glasgow 2014 Games: Regeneration and Physical Activity Legacy

Both the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council expressed an intention to use the 2014 Commonwealth Games to inspire more citizens to become physically active. This report looks at the prospect of this being achieved in the East End of Glasgow, which served as the 'host' community for the Games, and was an area particularly identified as potentially benefitting from legacy.<p></p> In order to conduct the evaluation of physical activity legacy prospects in Glasgow's East End, we reviewed the major legacy programmes from the CWG in order to identify initiatives which are intended by their sponsors to support increased levels of physical activity. Following this, we used policy documents and stakeholder interviews to understand the mechanisms through which the programmes were intended to work. As a result, we identified 39 legacy programmes relevant to a sports and physical activity legacy, which we have divided into four legacy pathways: sports facilities; social infrastructure; schools; and environment.<p></p> Pathway One - Sports Facilities: This pathway includes programmes relating to investment in new and improved sports and leisure facilities, so that people have the opportunity to take more exercise.<p></p> Pathway Two - Social Infrastructure: This pathway relates to the development of social infrastructure through sports clubs, events, coaching and volunteers in order to stimulate grassroots participation.<p></p> Pathway Three - Schools: This pathway includes programmes which involve schools in order to promote greater levels of physical activity for children.<p></p> Pathway Four - Environment: This pathway covers programmes which aim to supporting physical activity and active travel through better-designed local environments.<p></p> The report combines the information gathered on the legacy programmes with evidence from the 2012 GoWell East survey to present an assessment of the prospects for each of the four legacy pathways.<p></p&gt

Valuing Local Environmental Amenity with Discrete Choice Experiments: Spatial Scope Sensitivity and Heterogeneous Marginal Utility of Income

Using discrete choice experiments we examine preferences for the spatial provision of local environmental improvements in the context of regeneration policies. Amenities we consider are: improvements to areas of open space, recreation facilities and other public spaces; street cleanliness; restoration of derelict properties; and the provision of paths dedicated to cycling and walking. We include the spatial scope of the policy as an attribute, making the trade-off between environmental amenity and its spatial provision explicit. We employ a novel estimator for average willingness to pay (WTP) for mixed logit models with a random cost coefficient, which is robust to the presence of price insensitive respondents and performs well relative to mixed logit estimation in WTP space. We find that the spatial scope of the policy affects both the intensity and heterogeneity of preferences, and that these effects are of statistical and economic significance.Non-market valuation, Discrete choice experiments, Local environment, Spatial analysis, WTP estimation, Urban planning