How Can Local Authorities Contribute to the Economic Regeneration of Deprived Areas?

Members' Publication

Author: Localis   |   01/10/2008

This paper is the first in a series of publications, with submissions by leading figures across a number of Councils across the UK, aided by Localis, with the aim of creating a dialogue between Local Authorities and policy makers about some of the most important issues and experiences that Councils have encountered in their daily work. This issue explores some of the experiences that Kent, Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea have had with rejuvenating their most deprived neighbourhoods. They have each had very different
experiences.

Being one of the largest and most dispersed Counties in the UK, Kent’s approach to regeneration has been to use innovative and wide-ranging methods, from encouraging new businesses to developing empty properties, creating more jobs, improving transport and capitalising on the large tourist industry in the area.

In a ‘Borough of contrasts’, Hammersmith and Fulham’s core vision for regeneration has been to create a ‘Borough of Opportunity’. Their past experience has been that despite significant central government investment, there has been little return. With the reins firmly in the Councils hands, they have begun to find that with their vision for the future, and the willingness for change, fortunes are beginning to turn.

In the seemingly wealthy Kensington and Chelsea, the approach to regeneration has been targeted at the relatively unknown swathe of deprived land to the north. With hundreds of years of failed regeneration, the solution has required tackling the fundamental and entrenched problems in the area.