Neighbourhood Management and the Future of Urban Areas

This paper is about low-income neighbourhoods, their organisation and management. It is not a study in deprivation, but is about problem-solving, about the reforms in delivery underway in Britain, about long run attempts to change neighbourhood conditions and environments, about the central role of local government and housing organisations in tackling ground-level problems. It addresses environmental and social problems within neighbourhoods as part of a wider understanding of social exclusion, sustainable development and the need for greater care of our urban communities. Although its perspective is shaped by British examples, many of the issues are relevant to other countries. Although its focus is on low-income urban neighbourhoods of predominantly rented housing, the ideas can be applied to any neighbourhood of whatever tenure, size or location. This revised up-dated edition takes account of the ODPM's Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, and the Neighbourhood Management and Neighbourhood Warden Schemes they are supporting.social housing, neighbourhoods, area regeneration

Social exclusion and the future of cities

In both Britain and the United States, people have been moving away from the inner cities to suburban developments, often leaving behind concentrations of poverty and decaying neighbourhoods. Anne Power's paper focuses on the British situation. As Britain comes to terms with the implications of urban renaissance, a new way must be found of looking at regeneration based on rebuilding urban neighbourhoods. The key points for the future are: limiting suburban land supply and creating higher density in depleted urban neighbourhoods; equalising the incentives to recycle old buildings and used land rather than greenfield sites; improving public transport; managing neighbourhoods to encourage a social mix; and protecting green spaces. William Julius Wilson, looking at the American situation, addresses the rediscovery of 'metropolitan solutions' as answers to the common problems of America's cities and suburbs. This rediscovery reflects the recognition that metropolitan areas constitute the real competitive units in the new economy and that competitiveness requires a healthy urban core; the growing awareness that complex issues such as pollution and traffic congestion cross boundaries and are immune to localised fixes; and the co-existence of persistent joblessness in the central cities and labour shortages in the suburbs

Neighbourhood Management

The way we run urban neighbourhoods in Britain is a key to reversing social exclusion, crime and poor performance on almost every front in our cities. This study for the Social Exclusion Unit of seven models of neighbourhood management analyses the reason for its key position in the national strategy for neighbourhood renewal. We explore the need for it, its function and remit. It hinges on three core ideas: someone in charge at neighbourhood level to ensure reasonable conditions and co-ordinate the many inputs already flowing into neighbourhoods; the practical relevance of the core idea across almost any area; the immediate and longer-term impacts on conditions of a clearly focussed, truly local neighbourhood management service. To work well, there must be a dedicated budget, a senior manager in control locally, immediate security and environmental targets, resident involvement. The costs are relatively modest but must be properly funded; the benefits are indispensable as the experiments show and continental experience underlines.Social housing, neighbourhoods, area regeneration