CUE: Urban Policy And Regeneration

Question 1

What are the 7 urban regeneration policies?

Answer 1

1. Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) -1980s
2. Enterprise Zones - 1981
3. City Challenge -1991
4. Single Regeneration Budget - 1997
5. Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) - 1997
6. Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) - 2010
7. New Homes Bonus - 2010

Question 2

What is the urban development corporations (UDCs) policy?

Answer 2

-1981 -13 UDCs established to physically, socially and economically regenerate brownfield and vacant sites. UDCs had wide-ranging powers and resources and aimed to lever investment from the private sector

Question 3

What was the Enterprise Zones policy?

Answer 3

1981 - small areas of land opened up (via new planning legislation and tax incentives). The aim was to attract new growth industries

Question 4

What was the City Challenge policy?

Answer 4

1991 - funding by competitive bids rather than those most in need. A change in emphasis away from unelected boards towards partnership with the private sector and local communities. 30 city challenge partnerships were established.

Question 5

What is the single regeneration budget policy?

Answer 5

1997 - competitive bidding for funds continued. Disparate funding from more than 20 sources was administered by the department for the environment.

Question 6

What is the regional development agencies policy?

Answer 6

1997 - coordination of regional economic development and regeneration. Wide ranging powers

Question 7

What’s the local enterprise partnership policy?

Answer 7

2010 - based on ‘real functioning economic areas’, ‘business led’ and tasked with creating jobs and driving growth. Replaced RDAs whose functions largely passed to central gov.

Question 8

What was the New Homes Bonus policy?

Answer 8

2010 - part of wider approach to promote house building, including the relaxation of planning controls on home extensions. The ‘bonus’ is an incentive to local authorities to accept housing growth (councils receive double the council tax per home for 6 years)

Question 9

How is Hulme in Manchester a good example of a city challenge?

Answer 9

• It was built in Victorian times to house workers in the Cotton factories and dock workers on the Manchester Ship Canal
• In the 1960s it was redeveloped and the terraced houses were replaced with large flats called crescents
• These crescents had many social problems and in the 1990s were pulled down
• Hulme has been redeveloped using city challenge

Question 10

What was Hulme like in the 1930s?

Answer 10

1930s - 130,000 people lived there
- Traditional working class area
- Very poor housing, including back to backs
- Slum clearance 1950s and 1960s

Question 11

What was Hulme like in 1960s?

Answer 11

1960s: redeveloped for 12,000 people
–deck-access flats
–vehicular-pedestrian segregation
Major problems:
–infestation
–poor heating
–unemployment - 39%
–98% housing council owned
–By 1980 30% were vacant
- No consultation with the residents
–Many of those who lived in the cleared terraced houses were dispersed to Wythenshawe or other overspill estates
It become a national symbol of the failures of 1960s system-built housing.
- Manchester City Council began offering upper-storey flats to students, all-adult households and, later, to single homeless people.

Question 12

What was the city challenge policy for Hulme?

Answer 12

£35m budget for City Challenge. Also benefited from other UK area-based initiatives.
•1992
•Spent £37.5 million

Question 13

What did the city challenge achieve in Hulme?

Answer 13

• the crescents were demolished
• 600 new homes constructed and 400 homes had been refurbished. This was mainly terraces and low rise flats
• shopping area was completely refurbished, with an ASDA superstore
• the Zion community centre was built with crèche facilities
• crime has been greatly reduced through neighbourhood watch and CCTV.
• Birley Fields park was re-landscaped to give green space. An office block was also added to provide more jobs

Question 14

How was Hulme a major public investment?

Answer 14

• mixed tenure - 37% now privately owned
• high quality design housing
• increase pop (doubled since 1991)
• 1300 businesses are now registered
• integration with the rest of the city

Question 15

What is Hulme like after the city challenge?

Answer 15

Hulme became a much more attractive area to live – still seeing 3.3% growth
- New housing association homes remain as affordable as council homes
- The price of new private homes has risen far faster than in the city as a whole. Many more professional households moved to the area pricing Hulme residents out of the private sector. (SURF, 2002)
- 25% in 2011 had a managerial or professional occupation

Question 16

What are still some issues with Hulme after the city challenge?

Answer 16

Local deprivation is still high in national terms.
- Hulme compares badly with more successful areas of the city on employment, education and child poverty
- Not the full range of local services, lack of self-generating businesses.

Question 17

Why was a regeneration necessary for London Docklands?

Answer 17

There was lots of damage done to the Docklands during the bombing in WW2 and a lot of infrastructure damaged, some beyond repair.
- after a brief resurgence in the 1950s, the Docklands were basically empty by the start of 1980s

Question 18

What were some of the reasons for the Dockland decline?

Answer 18

• containerisation - meaning fewer dockers were needed
• Unemployment was high, especially among unskilled, former dockers. 21% unemployment.
• boats became too big as the river Thames became increasingly silted, so difficult to come so far upstream, therefore docks were moved downstream to places like Tilbury.
• general decline in primary and secondary industries, so many industries were forced to close down.
• lack of recreation and green areas
• transport networks were inadequate
• between 1970 and 1980, there was 30,000 jobs lost, and in 1981, 50% of the Docklands were derelict
• houses built to a poor standard

Question 19

What type of scheme was the regeneration for the docklands?

Answer 19

• Urban development corporation scheme (UDC)
• set up by UK gov in 1981 with the aim to regenerate the derelict and depressed docklands area of East London
• transformed a depressed industrial areas into one of the most thriving financial hubs in the world

Question 20

Who did the dockland scheme involve and how was it funded?

Answer 20

The London dockland development cooperation ran the scheme (1981-1998)
- funded by a central gov grant and the sales of land

Question 21

What were the characteristics of the docklands regeneration project?

Answer 21

• 17 conservation areas created
• 160,000 trees planted
• 130 hectares of open space
• 728 hectares of derelict land reclaimed

Question 22

What were some of the successes of the London docklands scheme?

Answer 22

• 14 m2ft of office and retail space. Many buildings include a canteen, gym, etc. which help businesses attract staff
• now over 2500 companies
• pop has increased from 30,000 to 79,000
• contain the worlds biggest banks (e.g. HSBC, Barclays, etc.)
• major tourist attraction, attracting 2 m visitors a year

Question 23

What were some of the failures of the London dockland scheme?

Answer 23

• 30,000 people lost their jobs
• 50% was left derelict and 1/3 of housing was unsatisfactory for human habitation
• inadequate infrastructure of roads, rails, telephone and cable line had made the situation even worse

Question 24

What’s an overall evaluation of London Docklands scheme?

Answer 24

• very successful overall, the once rundown area now satisfies most family and tourist needs. Pop increase and so did employment
• however houses becoming more expensive may have forced people out of the area.

Question 25

What’s some current regeneration policies in place for future cities?

Answer 25

Some examples of policies is: Local Enterprise Partnership - the North East LEP wants to create 100,000 jobs in digital, advanced manufacturing, health and life science, and energy by 2024: and new homes bonus (a grant paid by central gov to local councils from 2010)

Question 26

Why is regeneration still needed for future cities?

Answer 26

• important as we need to ensure our cities, living spaces and out working spaces are fit for future and enable citizens to live a sustainable lifestyle
• former industrial areas are transformed into up to date places that have everything people need for work and leisure - to promote economic growth (increase employment, attract residents and investors, etc)

Question 27

What are places doing to protect their future?

Answer 27

• the California Air Resource Board has formally approved the states plan to Bain sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035
• the Gondola Plans - last year, the Griffith Park Aerial Transit Study released the 4 potential routes that could shuttle tourists from the Valley to a perch near the Hollywood sign in minutes - helps with traffic and air pollution issues in the city

Question 28

Can we learn from other countries for future schemes?

Answer 28

• cities can learn from each other about the pros and cons of different approaches to engaging with the long-term future
• exchanging insights will provide evidence of the value added by different approaches in different contexts and should make city foresight a more effective

Question 29

Parkhill?