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Appendix A: Building on experience - key lessons
Our regeneration policy statement builds on the experience and lessons of regeneration in Scotland and the rest of the UK over the last two to three decades. Some of that evidence, and some of these lessons, are summarised below.
Physical investment is important but not enough
Poor quality housing, a lack of local facilities, and problems with crime, vandalism and the quality of the local environment compound the problems of our most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. They damage the quality of life of the people who live there. Programmes such as the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund ( BNSF) 3 in Scotland and the Neighbourhood Renewal Programme 4 in England have therefore placed an increasing emphasis on tackling these issues by improving the built and natural environment. Yet, while earlier regeneration initiatives, such as the Glasgow Eastern Area Renewal ( GEAR) 5 project and New Life for Urban Scotland ( NLUS) 6 delivered significant improvements to local housing and the physical environment, the underlying problems of economic and social decline were not addressed.
There is also an increasing recognition that the suitability and liveability of our towns and cities, in terms of well-built and well-served commercial premises, the public realm and overall quality of life can attract people and investors to - or discourage them from - particular locations. Programmes like the Cities Growth Fund and Scottish Enterprise's focus on creating competitive places have therefore helped deliver major physical and environmental improvements such as Glasgow's digital media park, the medi-park campus in Dundee and the Edinburgh waterfront project. And it is important to learn from earlier initiatives like Urban Development Corporations ( UDCs) 7 in England which transformed large areas of vacant, derelict or under-utilised land into busy commercial centres: but did not always fully capture the economic benefits for local communities.
In other words, whether in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, city centre locations or unused swathes of land, physical investment is a crucial aspect of regeneration. Indeed, such investment can often be the trigger for more wide-ranging regeneration. But it will not, on its own, deliver the combination of outcomes that make for sustainable regeneration.
Making investment work for people: linking opportunity and need
Although NLUS delivered significant physical improvements, the evaluation of the initiative found that the importance of labour markets and the need to link skills and employability with problems around access to jobs was underestimated. More recently, while programmes like Social Inclusion Partnerships ( SIPs) and BNSF have helped people into work through employment and training projects and by tackling barriers to work such as transport and childcare issues, underlying issues around low economic activity rates still remain.
Similarly, a review of the UK Government's National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal 8 in England found that, whilst programmes such as the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and New Deal for Communities had made progress on issues like health, education, housing and worklessness, more needed to be done to address the large-scale economic forces behind deprivation and the resultant concentrations of unemployment and persistent lack of local economic activity. So stimulating economic growth while at the same time helping people - especially those in the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods - to gain lasting employment from this growth is one of the key challenges for sustainable regeneration. Action to support the development of work skills and wider employability, both through the Community Regeneration Fund ( CRF) and through the forthcoming Employability Framework for Scotland, will be critical in this respect.
Drumchapel - making investment work for people |
 The contract to regenerate 124 acres in the west of Glasgow was recently awarded to New City Vision. The proposals for Drumchapel will see the transformation of eight brownfield sites. Over a 5-year period 1,208 new family homes will be built along with neighbourhood shops, new roads, footpaths, lighting and greenspaces.
The project will deliver a priority purchase scheme for first-time buyers and key workers. The tendering process also included a requirement for the winning consortium to work with Drumchapel Opportunities, the local economic development company, to operate an apprenticeship scheme on the site and employ local people. Once the project is complete New City Vision will establish a £1m community endowment fund to ensure local people are employed to maintain the site. |
Taking an integrated approach
Experience suggests that progress on the economic, social, physical and environmental aspects of regeneration requires an integrated approach which 'joins up' planning and delivery across these aspects, so that change is mutually reinforcing. Indeed, a recent report on regeneration by the Wales Audit Office 9 found that a key factor in the success of recent initiatives was the extent to which councils and their partners had developed clear strategies that integrated economic, environmental and social issues.
In Scotland, some SIPs succeeded in taking an integrated approach at neighbourhood level: but our overall assessment of the SIP programme is that it was less successful in terms of integrating local approaches into wider strategic planning and delivery of services; and that it did not fully address the impact of wider relevant issues like housing. The recent move to Regeneration Outcome Agreements, developed and delivered at the local authority level by each of Scotland's 32 Community Planning Partnerships ( CPPs), seeks to address these issues by putting neighbourhood regeneration into the strategic (and statutory) context of community planning.
Successful regeneration requires an integrated approach which joins up economic, social, physical and environmental issues at the local level. But integration at local level is not enough. Regeneration initiatives must also be integrated into the wider geography of regeneration at the local authority, city and regional level. And, whilst regeneration opportunities should not be missed or held up in order to achieve a perfect fit with the wider strategic jigsaw, strong links with strategic planning processes, like those for land use, transport, housing and public services, must be established.
Leadership and clarity of purpose
The complexity and long-term nature of regeneration demands effective leadership and clarity of purpose.
Some of the success of UDCs in England in the 1980s and 90s, particularly in terms of levering large amounts of private sector investment, is attributed to their clarity of purpose - the economic and physical renewal of geographic areas - and the fact that they were free-standing organisations with significant planning powers.
This approach has been taken forward through Urban Regeneration Companies ( URCs) in both England and Scotland which, whilst taking a more partnership oriented approach, have a tight geographical focus - in Scotland's case on Clydebank, Craigmillar in Edinburgh and Raploch in Stirling. Early evaluation of the English URCs 10 shows that clarity about the aims and objectives of partners, a commitment from key decision makers and efficient use of public funding to kick-start initiatives can raise investor confidence and allow regeneration to become self-sustaining.
It is also worth noting that, whilst governance arrangements vary from case to case, both UDCs and URCs are about harnessing private-sector led approaches to regeneration. Such approaches are sometimes more easily understood in terms of their objectives and have private sector credibility in the eyes of potential investors.
The importance of leadership and clarity of purpose is not, of course, restricted to private sector delivery models such as UDCs and URCs. In the City Challenge 11 programme in England (1992-98), strong leadership and an acknowledged champion for change were seen as key drivers for success. Meanwhile, the Wales Audit Office's report on regeneration found that clear political and senior management leadership were key ingredients of successful regeneration.
In Scotland, many of the lessons from the most successful SIP and BNSF programmes were captured by the Executive's Community Regeneration Statement published in June 2002. This emphasised the importance of taking a more strategic approach to regenerating the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods; of core services, such as health, education, transport and housing, working together more effectively; and of genuine and effective community engagement. This is now being taken forward through Regeneration Outcome Agreements under the Community Regeneration Fund.
The wider importance of public sector leadership in delivering better outcomes for Scotland's people is highlighted in the Executive's discussion document on public sector reform to be published early in 2006. The relationship between regeneration, renewal and public sector reform is a complex but critical one: we will bear it firmly in mind in the context of the forthcoming debate on the future of public services in Scotland.
Linthouse Urban Village - involving communities |
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 The urban community of Linthouse in Greater Govan, Glasgow, suffered when its major industries of ship-building and heavy engineering fell into decline. The concept of Linthouse Urban Village, or LUV, has been developed by Linthouse Housing Association, with support from the local economic development company, Govan Initiative Ltd. The project took a grass roots, cultural planning approach to regenerating the local area, rebranding positively and creatively the image of Linthouse as a place of dilapidated and neglected shops to a vibrant local community.
A catalyst for the whole LUV project was the Creative Shop Fronts Project which used art and artists as a way to lift aspirations, engage with local people and businesses and create innovative physical changes to the area. The new LUV Café is a much needed social meeting place for the Linthouse community and will be used for a programme of community activity including film nights, poetry and book groups and healthy eating classes. The Urban Village Gallery and Training Facility is a focal point and show shop for LUV providing a community gallery and exhibition space, supporting locally-based creative industries. It also provides a learning centre with computers and training facilities. |
Partnership working
No one organisation or agency can deliver the range of outcomes required for successful regeneration. Regeneration must involve a variety of players from the private, public and voluntary sectors as well as communities themselves. Establishing and maintaining effective and strong partnerships among agencies working to regenerate an area, and between these agencies and the range of private sector operators active there, is therefore a key element of the regeneration process. This is a theme which runs through much of the experience of regeneration.
SIPs had some success in bringing together agencies and communities to align their activities and funding in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, the more successful City Challenge initiatives were characterised by strong partnerships which enabled the local areas to benefit from the know-how, resources and enthusiasm of a range of public, private and voluntary sector organisations.
These approaches are now being taken forward at a strategic level by Community Planning Partnerships in Scotland and Local Strategic Partnerships in England. Both are still at the relatively early stages of development and beginning to move from developing strategies together to delivering together - a major challenge but one which is crucial to achieving successful outcomes.
Involving Communities
Experience of regeneration in Scotland and elsewhere shows clearly that there are sound reasons for ensuring effective community engagement in planning and delivering services. Some of the regeneration mistakes of the past can be attributed to imposing a particular approach to regeneration on local people, or to spending inadequate time and effort on building local capacity to be fully involved in the design and implementation of regeneration plans. Other evidence indicates that involving communities of place and interest pays dividends in terms of delivering effective and lasting regeneration. For example, recent research by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister ( ODPM) 12 found that there were considerable benefits from involving communities in service delivery in terms of better local knowledge about needs, greater potential for joined-up solutions and enhanced motivation of front line staff leading to innovation in service delivery.
Programmes like SIPs and BNSF have built on the pioneering approaches to community engagement developed through NLUS. Effective community engagement, backed up by funding from the Community Voices programme, is also at the heart of our approach to Regeneration Outcome Agreements under the Community Regeneration Fund ( CRF).
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