Introduction

New Labour has lost faith in the capacity of standalone, special initiatives to address urban poverty and disadvantage (Stewart, 2002a). Of all its breaks with the neighbourhood regeneration policy of previous administrations, this is one of the most significant. Since the late 1960s, programmes of specially funded, short-life initiatives have been deployed in successive waves in residential neighbourhoods across Britain's cities. These spatially targeted or area-based initiatives (ABIs) have been charged with reversing the fortunes of declining and disadvantaged localities. Initially focused on single issues, ABIs have attempted, since the late 1980s, an integrated approach. They have done this by trying to identify and address the connections between problems such as environmental decline, unemployment and poor health for example, and through harnessing the resources of a range of public institutions, working in ‘partnership’ with community bodies and private sector representatives (Robson et al, 1994). By the late 1990s, the number of ABIs had mushroomed. As a result, the governance of neighbourhood regeneration came to be characterised by a kaleidoscope of interlinked and spatially overlapping partnerships (Dean et al, 1999).

However, New Labour's neighbourhood renewal policy (see SEU, 2001; Scottish Executive, 2002a) seems to provide for a different approach. The reliance on short-life, special initiatives and projects appears to have been replaced by a more ‘strategic’ approach that emphasises the role of mainstream government and public sector activity in determining the trajectory of neighbourhoods. Rather than depend largely on initiatives at the neighbourhood level, the new policy advocates a ‘multilevel’ approach, in which the importance is recognised of governance arrangements operating at a range of spatial scales. The central level or tier of the new strategic, multilevel approach is to be local authority-led, multi-agency partnerships of public service providers, private sector institutions and lay community representatives: Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) in England and Community Planning Partnerships (CPPs) in Scotland. However, rather than working at neighbourhood level, LSPs and CPPs will be responsible for coordinating efforts to achieve neighbourhood renewal at the local authority spatial scale.

Thus, LSPs are to devise a strategic neighbourhood renewal strategy that will identify and prioritise problem neighbourhoods, as well as develop appropriate solutions.