[Ssf] Today's exercise...

[Dan]

OK class, is everyone sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin.

Your task: you have one hour to read through the excerpt below, from the 
catchily entitled:

The road to renewal: The early development of the Housing Market Renewal 
programme in England
by Ian Cole and Brendan Nevin

It's been written by Sheffield's very own Centre for Regional & Economic 
Research: the body that does all the government's research into New Deal 
as well. So - what do they have to say about the Pathfinder Programme? 
(That's the programme of which the Burngreave and Fir Vale Masterplan is 
a part, if you don't know.)

Well, this is just one little bit from it. the task is to:

a) Manage to read it without falling asleep
b) Translate it into easily understandable sentences.
c) Fall off your chair when you realise what they're saying.

The bit I've cut out says some bloody startling things: of course, it 
wasn't written for the unwashed masses, but for policy wonks, so it 
takes some unpicking. But give it a go - I'll send my interpretation 
tomorrow or the day after; I look forward to reading other people's!

p.s. I'm really getting into this patronising, teacher-like 
control-freak role. I think it suits me. :)

Dan
----

In a review of programmes in the mid-1990s to assist peripheral housing 
estates, Peter Hall made a general distinction between ‘inward-looking’ 
and ‘outward-facing’ approaches to regeneration (Hall, 1997; see also 
Hastings, 2003). The first type of approach tends to emphasise the 
dynamics, resources and priorities within the neighbourhood concerned; 
the second approach concentrates on how such neighbourhoods might be 
better connected to nearby areas of growth and economic vitality. The 
implications at neighbourhood level for ‘outwardly focused’ sub-regional 
strategic market assessments undertaken by Pathfinders may therefore 
look quite different from those derived from community consultation and 
discussion in resident-led and ‘inward’ neighbourhood renewal programmes.

The ‘inward-looking’ approach to regeneration will tend to give a high 
priority to an ‘action-oriented’ approach, through the appointment of 
new staff for the programme, a commitment to ongoing community 
involvement, a visible inter-agency presence in the neighbourhood and so 
on. It will focus on building up the capacity of the existing community 
through initiatives focused on developing training and skills. The need 
to make a clear difference to the area, often through physical changes 
and new investment, will be highlighted, in order to set in train, it is 
hoped, a virtuous circle of rising aspirations, community stability and 
more responsive local governance and service delivery. These objectives 
operate, however, within a clearly bounded geographical area, and so the 
impact of any programmes may be limited, or even undermined, if the 
problems are simply displaced to adjacent neighbourhoods.

‘Outward-looking’ approaches tend to operate on a more strategic plane, 
structuring their interventions around a future-oriented conception of 
the neighbourhood, so that the views and priorities of members of the 
existing community need to be balanced against those of households who 
need to be attracted into the area in the future. This approach is 
focused on connections – actual and potential – between the 
neighbourhood and other resources, services and opportunities in the 
wider district, city or sub-region. The HMR programme clearly has more 
in common with this kind of approach.

This perspective offers a more calibrated view of how much progress can 
be made in improving the circumstances of a specific neighbourhood if it 
is framed by social and economic disadvantage in the wider geographical 
area. This approach may be better attuned to assessing the possibilities 
of creating change locally given the constraints of underlying long-term 
trends. However, the initial strategic focus may struggle to gain 
support from members of the community in question, as they will 
understandably be more exercised about improving conditions in the here 
and now than in more ethereal visions of their neighbourhood in ten 
years’ time.

Some of the tangible consequences of these differing philosophies to 
effecting neighbourhood change have been explored in a recent review of 
the links between some HMR Pathfinders and New Deal for Community 
partnerships, undertaken as part of the national evaluation of the NDC 
programme (Cole et al ., 2003). This study found that relationships 
between NDCs and Pathfinders were still at a formative stage, but, in 
some cases, joint approaches had already begun to develop (notably, in 
Liverpool Kensington, East Manchester and Newcastle). However, there was 
evidence of a different interpretation of the causes of urban decline 
and the interventions required in response. The HMR programme stemmed 
from an appreciation of the effects of spatially uneven economic 
development and the housing and labour market dislocations that follow 
in its wake. NDCs, by contrast, were more focused on immediate community 
priorities and how internal resources could be enhanced to strengthen 
community dynamics and help ‘reconnect’ the ‘excluded’ neighbourhood.

Recently, a joint approach by ODPM and NRU has suggested that the Chairs 
of Pathfinders and NDC partnerships should be ex officio members of each 
other’s Boards to help strengthen links between sub-regional and 
neighbourhood working, and harmonise forward planning. This is an 
important step in attempting to bring together these contrasting 
perspectives.

In many areas, it will be a major task to bring together the prognosis 
for a neighbourhood stemming from the application of these contrasting 
approaches. The prospect of considerable demolition for some parts of 
Pathfinder areas, for example, may crystallise these tensions – 
especially where such schemes include private sector properties or 
dwellings (in any tenure) that are unpopular but otherwise sound. A 
forceful justification for radical intervention at neighbourhood level 
is likely to be needed to carry any chance of community support. More 
than any other issue, demolition is likely to bring forward the contrast 
between ‘private troubles’ and ‘public issues’ (Wright Mills, 1959, p. 
8) in market renewal – between the immediate community interest and the 
wider strategic imperative.