Benjamin Barber travels the world explaining democracy – even to Colonel Gaddafi. But democratic societies don’t just happen, he tells Clare Goff – they demand hard work from everyone
Ask Benjamin Barber what the key to good democracy is and his answer is clear and simple: ‘hard work’.
‘Undemocratic towns are often just lazy towns,’ he says. ‘They are places where people don’t want to try, they just let the bureaucrats run things and don’t worry about it, just go shopping.’
Good democracy, however, is demanding, requiring hard work from both leaders and citizens.
It requires councils that establish strong democratic processes, have ongoing conversations with communities, with business, and with voluntary organisations, and citizens who demand and use those processes.
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Benjamin Barber travels the world explaining democracy – even to Colonel Gaddafi. But democratic societies don’t just happen, he tells Clare Goff – they demand hard work from everyone
----- -------- TITLE: Turning the tide AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 11/03/2008 12:28:58 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Enterprise CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Nick Taylor explains how Scarborough has gone from being an ailing seaside town to the most enterprising place in Britain
Scarborough has enjoyed the title of Britain’s ‘first resort’ for generations, and for many years experienced a volume of visitors that sustained the town throughout the year.
The fishing industry flourished and, in the hinterland, agriculture was strong.
But with the development of affordable foreign holidays in the 1970s and fishing quotas in the 1980s, the fortunes of the town began to decline.
Many former hotels fell into the hands of the receivers and were turned into houses of multiple occupation; unemployment increased; the quality of education fell behind the rest of the region and we lost many of our educated young people.
Combined with little or no investment, the appearance of the place began to suffer and employment opportunities declined.
So, when the opportunity of becoming one of Yorkshire Forward’s renaissance towns came along, the local council seized it. Then things really started to happen.
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Nick Taylor explains how Scarborough has gone from being an ailing seaside town to the most enterprising place in Britain
----- -------- TITLE: Urban truths AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 10/27/2008 02:56:50 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Physical-Regeneration CATEGORY: ----- BODY:They’ve been around for nearly a decade, but how are urban regeneration companies (urcs) coping in the economic downturn and evolving for the future? New Start gathered seven chief executives around a table to find out.
Q How are the extreme market conditions of recent weeks affecting plans?
David Walker (Sunderland arc): Residential is a non-starter. We have one big site with a London based property company and they’ve put shutters down. Schemes have stopped already.
John Holmes (Hull Forward EDC): It’s hold your nerve time…
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They’ve been around for nearly a decade, but how are urban regeneration companies coping in the economic downturn and evolving for the future? New Start gathered seven chief executives around a table to find out.
----- -------- TITLE: Ticket to ride AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 10/20/2008 05:31:01 PRIMARY CATEGORY: CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Poor public transport continues to affect people at both ends of the age scale. But there’s never been a better time to come up with local solutions, argues Keith Halstead
Public transport is crucial to the lives of many people in this country.
We might take a bus to get to the doctor’s surgery, get a train to work or use a tram or the underground to go shopping.
Reliable, safe and affordable public transport is essential for people of all ages, living in both rural and urban communities. Good public transport helps a community to thrive.
But across the UK there is too much poor public transport and in some communities it compounds deprivation, isolation and disadvantage.
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Poor public transport continues to affect people at both ends of the age scale. But there’s never been a better time to come up with local solutions, argues Keith Halstead
----- -------- TITLE: Football focused AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 10/13/2008 12:02:07 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Community-CohesionDevelopment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Football clubs across the country will unite next week to campaign against discrimination. Piara Powar tells Emily Ford why the beautiful game remains a potent weapon against racism
On Christmas Day in 1915, British and German troops left their trenches to play a game of football on no man’s land, still littered with bodies from the previous day’s fighting.
Almost 93 years later, football’s ability to bring together disparate ages and geographies remains unchanged. But it divides as fiercely as it unites. Up until the 1990s, the game was notorious for racially charged violence. So in 1993 the Commission for Racial Equality launched a campaign to purge the game of racist abuse: ‘Let’s kick racism out of football’.
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Football clubs across the country will unite next week to campaign against discrimination. Piara Powar tells Emily Ford why the beautiful game remains a potent weapon against racism
----- -------- TITLE: Keeping it pure AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 10/01/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Community-CohesionDevelopment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:It has taken years to work its way into mainstream thinking. But having got there, community development is now fighting for its life, Amanda Greenwood tells Clare Goff
The Community Development Exchange (CDX) was born in 1987, the same year Margaret Thatcher proclaimed ‘there is no such thing as society’.
As the UK’s membership organisation for community development comes of age, it often finds itself at odds with ever more individualistic notions of democracy.
Celebrating 21 years this month, CDX is still housed in the city in which it was born – Sheffield. One of the few national voluntary organisations outside of London, it enjoys a healthy distance from an establishment it sees as often intent on undermining its raison d’etre.
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It has taken years to work its way into mainstream thinking. But having got there, community development is now fighting for its life, Amanda Greenwood tells Clare Goff
----- -------- TITLE: Elephant sightings AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 09/24/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Physical-Regeneration CATEGORY: Economic-Development ----- BODY:It’s the biggest ever regeneration project to be carried out by a single London borough. Will Hatchett searches for signs of progress on the redevelopment of Elephant and Castle
What is the Elephant? Two traffic islands, an ugly shopping centre, an elevated street market and some 1970s slab blocks that seem to grip the area like giant concrete pincers.
Throw in a couple of tube stations, a scary pedestrian underpass and a row of Victorian railway arches.
The current layout evolved from the late-1950s – the roundabouts, the crime-friendly subway, Europe’s first covered shopping centre and new housing for the old slum dwellers in gigantic ‘barrier blocks’.
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It’s the biggest ever regeneration project to be carried out by a single London borough. Will Hatchett searches for signs of progress on the redevelopment of Elephant and Castle
----- -------- TITLE: A share of the action AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 09/17/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Empowerment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Inviting people to own a share of local assets is one great stride towards empowerment. Giles Simon explains how Britain is getting wind of community share issues
Devolving power to communities to run services and control local assets has been on the minds of some activists and local government and regeneration professionals for years.
The 2007 publication of the Quirk review of community ownership, and the recent publication of DCLG’s empowerment white paper Communities in control, are the firmest signs yet that central government is also interested in giving community organisations and social enterprises the power to run local services.
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Inviting people to own a share of local assets is one great stride towards empowerment. Giles Simon explains how Britain is getting wind of community share issues
----- -------- TITLE: A common interest? AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 09/10/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Community-CohesionDevelopment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:When partnerships fail, trust has a way of disappearing without a trace. Susan Downer finds out how one community group learned its lesson the hard way
The story of Witton Lodge Community Association is a salutary tale for those who believe that partners say what they mean and do what they say; who tend to forget that on the rollercoaster of government policy what goes up often comes down.
But when it started back in 1989 in Perry Common, north Birmingham, it seemed to be a straightforward tale of poor quality homes and a council’s desire to get its tenants and right-to-buy owners out of a rut as steel rods in the 1920s estate’s concrete-built homes corroded and bent, creating serious structural problems.
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When partnerships fail, trust has a way of disappearing without a trace. Susan Downer finds out how one community group learned its lesson the hard way
----- -------- TITLE: What's mine is yours AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 09/03/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social-Enterprise CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Social enterprises in Wales are having to share their ideas with the very organisations they are expected to compete against. Shannon Robinson explains why many feel disadvantaged
Naz Malik is lead partner in a Welsh equality partnership’s bid for European Objective 1 funding.
Curiad Calon Cymru is among those who have been hit with force by a reinterpretation of guidance on state aid and procurement that threatens to derail their attempts to deliver services more effectively across the country.
The Welsh European Funding Office (Wefo) describes the change as ‘a more rigorous application of the guidance’. But its additional rigour has left many social enterprises in Wales in severe difficulty.
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Social enterprises in Wales are having to share their ideas with the very organisations they are expected to compete against. Shannon Robinson explains why many feel disadvantaged
----- -------- TITLE: All under one roof AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 08/27/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Economic-Development CATEGORY: Employment ----- BODY:Councils are increasingly expected to help tenants find work. Rosie Niven finds out how town hall bureaucrats are preparing to beat the poverty trap
In the government’s attack on worklessness, local authorities have been placed on the front line to confront an aggressive and tenacious opponent.
More than half of working age social tenants are out of work, with the figure rising to 80% for people under 25 years of age.
And recent figures show that the proportion of long-term worklessness among social housing residents has increased by almost 20% over the past 27 years.
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Councils are increasingly expected to help tenants find work. Rosie Niven finds out how town hall bureaucrats are preparing to beat the poverty trap
----- -------- TITLE: Walking taller in the top tier AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 08/13/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Economic-Development CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Stoke and Hull are about to experience life in football’s richest league. But will it kick off an economic revival in the two cities? Brendan Nevin and Alan Harding give their pre-season predictions
The promotion of Stoke City to the Premier League after 23 years in the lower divisions of English football was greeted by an explosion of joy in the city and its wider North Staffordshire hinterland.
After decades of decline in the local economy, finally here was something to uplift the soul, an event which could unify a proud but downtrodden population.
Stoke City Football Club is the second oldest professional club in the world, located in an area which was at the heart of the industrial revolution.
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Stoke and Hull are about to experience life in football’s richest league. But will it kick off an economic revival in the two cities? Brendan Nevin and Alan Harding give their pre-season predictions
----- -------- TITLE: Grand designs revisited AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 07/30/2008 05:04:29 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Physical-Regeneration CATEGORY: Urban-Renewal ----- BODY:A TV series will this month tell the story of what happened when Channel 4 decided to help transform an ex-mining town. Austin Macauley returns to Castleford to discover how it’s changed five years on
‘It must be Castleford’s turn now and I hope this Channel 4 thing underlines that – we’ve waited long enough.’
It was with these words that local campaigner Alison Drake provided the ideal quote to round off an article in New Start on 1 August 2003. She summed up the anticipation among local people in a former mining town that had been sidelined and neglected but which found itself picked to star in what may well be the world’s first regeneration TV series.
So what happened? Did the tortuously slow and complicated processes involved drive the cameras away? Was the West Yorkshire town left with little more than a series of Changing Rooms-style mini makeovers? Or is Castleford a town transformed?
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Solving the housing crisis may mean turning Britain into a nation of renters, Liz Peace tells Rosie Niven
For Liz Peace, the UK housing industry is at a pivotal point. The chief executive of the British Property Federation (BPF) believes the credit crunch may force us to abandon our long held belief that property ownership is the only way of having somewhere decent to live.
In a society where people have derided renting as ‘throwing money away’, the fact that more of us will have to be satisfied with being tenants might be hard to swallow.
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Solving the housing crisis may mean turning Britain into a nation of renters, Liz Peace tells Rosie Niven
----- -------- TITLE: Showing its hand AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 07/16/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Empowerment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:The government has finally unveiled its plans on empowerment. But how much difference can the white paper realistically make? Rosie Niven reports
These times are unlikely to go down in history for being revolutionary, though reading the conclusion of the empowerment white paper, you might be convinced otherwise.
Quoting from Thomas Paine, a noted supporter of the French revolution of 1789, the paper describes how UK society is now changing ‘faster than at any time in our nation’s history’.
According to the paper, the increasing choice and power people have as consumers in their everyday lives is raising their expectations of the influence they should have over public services.
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The government has finally unveiled its plans on empowerment. But how much difference can the white paper realistically make? Rosie Niven reports
----- -------- TITLE: The secrets to longevity AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 07/09/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Neighbourhood-Renewal CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Clydebank has seen many regeneration initiatives come and go in recent years, but one organisation has continued to tackle poverty against all the odds. Chik Collins explores the secrets of its success
Lately there has been some
interesting debate about community development and empowerment. It’s by no means a new discussion, but it remains very important.
Briefly, in the late 1960s and 1970s the idea of community development came to the fore – promoting the emergence of independent and assertive community organisations which could get their voices heeded in the corridors of power.
But from the late 1980s this increasingly gave way to the idea of communities working in partnership with politicians and agencies.
This was the new ‘approved’ route to empowerment. Community action gave way to community engagement.
----- EXCERPT:Clydebank has seen many regeneration initiatives come and go in recent years, but one organisation has continued to tackle poverty against all the odds. Chik Collins explores the secrets of its success
----- -------- TITLE: In full bloom AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 07/02/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Empowerment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Pam Stewart isn’t afraid to speak her mind and tells Barry McCarthy she’ll use her new role to help others stand up for their communities
Pam Stewart was, in her own words, ‘thrown on the scrap heap’ by doctors at the age of 40 in 1994.
The new chair of Urban Forum, an umbrella body for voluntary and community groups, was forced to leave her position as assistant manager of an elderly persons’ care home near Wigan because of chronic asthma and arthritis.
What followed was two years off work where she sank into depression.
‘I didn’t know who I was,’ she says. ‘I didn’t know what I represented. I had lost my identity.’
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Pam Stewart isn’t afraid to speak her mind and tells Barry McCarthy she’ll use her new role to help others stand up for their communities
----- -------- TITLE: On the campaign trail AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 06/25/2008 05:07:21 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: ----- BODY:*If communities are given practical political skills they will help spark the innovation needed to tackle disadvantage, argues Titus Alexander *
Campaigning has brought about huge improvements in people’s lives, but many voluntary organisations are wary of being ‘political’ or campaigning.
Yet it is only because people took a stand on slavery, child labour, public health, the vote and countless other issues that society has made progress. Effective political action could tackle the causes of crime, family breakdown, child poverty, global warming and other social problems than decades of good work coping with the symptoms.
The third sector has a good record of pioneering and running people-centred services. But one of its most important roles is influencing policy and practice at all levels. Recent guidance on charity law makes it clear that ‘charities may undertake campaigning and political activity as a positive way of furthering or supporting their purposes’.
The government and opposition both recognise the campaigning role of the voluntary sector as an essential part of democratic life.
But our current political system and style of politics turn people off, so that they feel powerless and excluded. People complain or become demoralised about the way things are instead of campaigning to make them better. Society therefore loses the energy and ideas of people who could make a difference. Politics needs to be more accessible, effective and enjoyable for ordinary citizens to have real power to influence decisions.
To open politics up, we need more opportunities for people to take part in collective decision making; support for practical political education around issues that concern people; democracy champions to open up decision making at all levels.
In Learning power, a contribution to the national skills strategy, I argue that practical political skills are basic skills for a democratic society, more important than skills for enterprise and business. Practical political education is essential for grass-roots communities to make public services more responsive and effective.
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The money has dried up and businesses are beginning to feel the squeeze. Rosie Niven asks whether social enterprises have less to fear from the credit crunch than mainstream firms
This time last year, anyone using the term credit crunch would have met with a blank look. But now we are all feeling the effects of the squeeze on credit, brought on by ill-advised lending in the US.
World financial markets have been in a tailspin since the summer of last year. UK consumers have been hit in the pocket as a result of the withdrawal of cheap loans and mortgages.
Businesses are struggling to access the finance they need to grow or survive.
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The money has dried up and businesses are beginning to feel the squeeze. Rosie Niven asks whether social enterprises have less to fear from the credit crunch than mainstream firms
----- -------- TITLE: The seeds of change AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 06/11/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Enterprise CATEGORY: ----- BODY:The local enterprise growth initiative (Legi) is bigger than its predecessors, more flexible than its forebears and, programme managers say, is achieving a greater depth of support
than ever before.
When managers describe the ten-year enterprise development programme, it’s with words such as inspirational, exciting, adventurous.
Legi could, they believe, help to genuinely transform the lives of people in disadvantaged areas.
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The local enterprise growth initiative (Legi) is bigger than its predecessors, more flexible than its forebears and, programme managers say, is achieving a greater depth of support
than ever before.
Penalising people who help to regenerate their communities makes about as much sense as paying them to stay out of work. But campaigners believe they have a solution. Susan Downer reports
Gwen from north Wales admits to being a liar and a cheat.
She lied in order to keep her housing and council tax benefit while working for her community.
She cheated to put food on her table, take her daughter on outings and get what she calls ‘a decent life’.
‘I just wanted to go out and work, but be able to have some help with rent and council tax while I was learning new skills and getting my confidence up,’ she says.
The risk paid off: she now works full time and is no longer dependent on benefits.
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Penalising people who help to regenerate their communities makes about as much sense as paying them to stay out of work. But campaigners believe they have a solution. Susan Downer reports
----- -------- TITLE: Stepping in off the street AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 05/28/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Employment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:If you’re homeless, the prospect of getting a job must seem like an impossible journey. But by taking it step by step, it’s a far less daunting prospect. Rosie Niven reports on a new model aiming to help people do just that
When New Labour came to power in 1997 the then prime minister, Tony Blair, made getting more people into work a key priority.
The following year, with more than 73% of the working age population in work, the government set the ambitious goal of increasing the employment rate to 80%.
Ten years on and the employment rate is now pushing 75%. But it is becoming clear that the government will have to put far more effort into getting those furthest from the labour market into employment if it wants to reach its 80% goal.
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If you’re homeless, the prospect of getting a job must seem like an impossible journey. But by taking it step by step, it’s a far less daunting prospect. Rosie Niven reports on a new model aiming to help people do just that
----- -------- TITLE: Access all areas AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 05/21/2008 03:51:37 PRIMARY CATEGORY: CATEGORY: ----- BODY:The theory of ‘the commons’ offers solutions to many of our economic and social problems, says Matt Jarratt. And you don’t have to look far to see it working in practice
Our interpretations of what it takes to create and sustain a healthy, developing nation are changing; they have to.
Where once the chief priorities of government were to promote and facilitate the financial, personal and social security of its citizens, the language of governance has altered to include less easily measured, arguably more complex priorities. Happiness, health and wellbeing, environmental sustainability, community cohesion and integration, social justice and collective civic responsibility are concepts occupying policymakers from across the political spectrum.
The driver of that change is clear. While it may be political hyperbole to argue, as David Cameron has, that society is ‘broken’, his comments strike a chord with many across Britain. In Scotland, as across much of the rest of the UK, the equality gap is growing; crime continues to evolve and become ever more sophisticated; we are increasingly aware of the damage we are doing to our environment, yet we keep doing it; fewer people feel part of their local community; and businesses are perceived, despite their often meaningful nods to corporate social responsibility, to be pursuing financial gain to the detriment of all else. While the so-called ‘softer’ government priorities listed above have been around for a while, the desired outcomes of a healthier, happier nation remain elusive.
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The theory of ‘the commons’ offers solutions to many of our economic and social problems, says Matt Jarratt. And you don’t have to look far to see it working in practice
----- -------- TITLE: What the Dickens? AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 05/14/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Employment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Abusive employers, long hours, paltry wages – working conditions in some countries border on the Dickensian. Unfortunately, the UK is one of them. Susan Downer reports on fresh efforts to fight for the working poor
There are an estimated two million vulnerable workers in the UK, which, in the opinion of trade unions, is about the size of a national disgrace.
Where there’s money to be made and an unequal balance of power between employees and employers, fuelled by ignorance, fear and insecurity, exploitation will never be far away.
In the words of the TUC’s commission on vulnerable workers: ‘If you increase the supply of vulnerable workers, the unscrupulous will come along to exploit them.’
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Abusive employers, long hours, paltry wages – working conditions in some countries border on the Dickensian. Unfortunately, the UK is one of them. Susan Downer reports on fresh efforts to fight for the working poor
----- -------- TITLE: Going up in the world AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 05/07/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Economic-Development CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Government wants to hand council economic development officers a bigger role than ever before. But are they too far down the pecking order to deliver? Rosie Niven reports
Economic development has come a long way since its origins in the early 1970s when it emerged as a reaction to the tardiness of other council officers in taking on the economic agenda.
Since then economic development specialists have cemented their place in most local authorities and created a discipline with a clear focus.
At the moment, most economic development officers working in local authorities have concentrated on delivering services to local businesses and encouraging inward investment.
But all that is set to change with the implementation of last year’s sub-national review of economic development and regeneration.
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Government wants to hand council economic development officers a bigger role than ever before. But are they too far down the pecking order to deliver? Rosie Niven reports
----- -------- TITLE: Examination and revision AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 04/30/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Education CATEGORY: ----- BODY:After a ministerial review, regeneration areas look set to move to the top of the list in the government’s £45bn school building programme. Susan Downer reports
Given £45bn it should be a cinch to create a modern secondary school system that inspires learning, nurtures staff and pupils and benefits communities across England.
Building Schools for the Future (BSF) was launched in 2004 to do precisely that. Despite considerable slippage which saw the first BSF school delayed until September 2007 (ministers had originally hoped for 100 completed schools by the end of last year), 1,000 projects in 72 local authorities are now under way.
Widely admired for the breadth of its vision and its long-term commitment to making schools better places in which to learn, the programme has, however, never quite managed to shake off one persistent question: given the need to improve attainment, is this huge rebuilding programme really the best way to spend £45bn on education?
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After a ministerial review, regeneration areas look set to move to the top of the list in the government’s £45bn school building programme. Susan Downer reports
----- -------- TITLE: Cash in hand AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 04/23/2008 06:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Employment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:It’s worth billions of pounds and yet regional and local agencies are doing little to capitalise on it. Aaron Barbour argues why it’s time to help the informal economy go legit
For more than ten years government has attempted, with increasing sophistication, to prevent people working informally.
Their efforts were reported in this month’s National Audit Office (NAO) report on the ‘informal’ or ‘hidden economy’ (New Start, 11 April).
But harnessing enterprise, not curtailing it, would reap more rewards.
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It’s worth billions of pounds and yet regional and local agencies are doing little to capitalise on it. Aaron Barbour argues why it’s time to help the informal economy go legit
----- -------- TITLE: Standing up for cohesion AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 04/16/2008 04:14:07 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Community-CohesionDevelopment CATEGORY: Urban-Renewal ----- BODY:Inner city riots and fear that immigrants would destroy British society were as much a sign of the 1960s as mini skirts and the Rolling Stones. Chloe Stothart visits Smethwick to find out whether racial tensions have ever really gone away
‘I was at school in 1968 and then there was open racism,’ says Horace Rodney, recalling life in the west midlands town of Smethwick. ‘It was: “Where do you come from? Get out of here.” That was the norm.’
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Inner city riots and fear that immigrants would
destroy British society were as much a sign of the 1960s as mini skirts and the Rolling Stones. Chloe Stothart visits Smethwick to find out whether racial tensions have ever really gone away
The race is on to become the next mayor of London. New Start asked candidates for their views on some of the major regeneration issues in the capital
Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson, Brian Paddick and Sian Berry answer questions on everything from affordable homes to the future of London’s regeneration centre of excellence.
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The race is on to become the next mayor of London. New Start asked candidates for their views on some of the major regeneration issues in the capital
----- -------- TITLE: Postcode lottery AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 04/02/2008 05:17:28 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Neighbourhood-Renewal CATEGORY: Community-CohesionDevelopment ----- BODY:It’s made a real difference to deprived communities and it doesn’t cost the earth. But who benefits from neighbourhood management could soon be a game of chance, warns Micah Gold
It’s sometimes hard to understand why, when you know that something works and the evidence shows it can really make a difference, it is not more universally retained and delivered in a form that maintains the features that make it work. For me, neighbourhood management (NM) is one of those things.
The neighbourhood management pathfinder (NMP) programme was announced in 2001 by the former ODPM. Pathfinders were funded through government offices and launched in 2002 primarily by local authorities in 35 deprived neighbourhoods.
New Labour’s policy action team four wanted to test the idea that neighbourhood management might be an effective tool to ‘enable deprived communities and local services to improve local outcomes, by improving and joining up local services, and making them more responsive to local needs’.
I was lucky enough to get a pathfinder job as a neighbourhood manager and was responsible for establishing the Changes in Common NM programme in the London borough of Greenwich. It seemed the perfect opportunity. After years of working in disadvantaged neighbourhoods, here was a programme that made sense. Bottom-up would meet top-down. The effective involvement of a community in expressing its priorities would be combined with service improving, problem solving and joining up at a neighbourhood level. It was the first proper experiment since the costly attempts at devolution by Tower Hamlets and Islington in the 1980s.
Could better intelligence, an agile team, a community development process, and emphasis on delivery (rather than delivering) make the difference? Could real change in outcomes be delivered in disadvantaged communities for less than 10% of the cost of previous regeneration programmes with a new focus on ‘bending the mainstream’?
Many of us running the round one pathfinders felt instinctively that this approach would make a difference. Not only would services be better joined up and more relevant and accessible to local communities, but communities themselves would be engaged in their delivery. Step change might really be possible.
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A debate ensued when developers unveiled the name of a major new development in Bristol city centre. Drawing on the identity of a place is a tricky business, says James Symonds
Cabot Circus is Bristol’s largest post World War Two regeneration programme. When the scheme is completed this autumn it will provide around one million sq ft of retail and leisure uses, as well as apartments, offices and public spaces in the heart of the city.
The drab single storey buildings of the 1950s Broadmead centre stand in stark contrast to the affluence and style of the neighbouring suburb of Clifton, and most people would agree that the redevelopment is long overdue.
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A debate ensued when developers unveiled the name of a major new development in Bristol city centre. Drawing on the identity of a place is a tricky business, says James Symonds
----- -------- TITLE: Silicon valleys AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 03/12/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Neighbourhood-Renewal CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Digital technology can open the door to a world of possibilities. Varya Shaw discovers a Welsh success story that’s finding fun ways to give communities new skills
In deprived parts of Wales, there are too many people who feel there is no shame in being technologically illiterate.
This is the situation that Communities@One, a scheme run by the Welsh Cooperative Centre in partnership with the Welsh Assembly Government, set out to change.
The scheme has shown just how transformative digital technology can be for hard to reach groups, if you take the right approach.
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Digital technology can open the door to a world of possibilities. Varya Shaw discovers a Welsh success story that’s finding fun ways to give communities new skills
----- -------- TITLE: Cultural icon AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 03/05/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Arts-and-Regeneration CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Gateshead’s most famous landmark, the Angel of the North, has just celebrated its tenth birthday. But local people had recognised culture could be a catalyst for regeneration long before the sculpture spread its wings. Iain Lynn explains
The 1980s were a time of crisis for Britain’s traditional industries and for the communities which depended on them.
For local authorities, the challenges their decline created were formidable.
Faced with mass unemployment and economic collapse, many local councils looked for investment in business parks, factory units and office developments in an effort to attract new economic life to their towns.
Gateshead Council, however, chose to adopt an altogether different approach.
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Gateshead’s most famous landmark, the Angel of the North, has just celebrated its tenth birthday. But local people had recognised culture could be a catalyst for regeneration long before the sculpture spread its wings. Iain Lynn explains
----- -------- TITLE: Growing your own AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 02/27/2008 04:52:46 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Enterprise CATEGORY: Economic-Development ----- BODY:It’s almost three years since the local enterprise growth initiative was launched to boost the economic potential of deprived areas. A round-table discussion with those involved reveals it’s getting results, but not necessarily in the way many anticipated. Susan Downer reports
Alan Sugar, Richard Branson, Bill Gates… A survey in Sheffield found high-profile businessmen hitting the radar of children as young as eight. They know what it means to be an entrepreneur, recognise famous names and almost all believe self-employment is attractive and desirable.
But by the age of 14 when young people start making choices about their GCSEs, that enthusiasm begins to wilt. ‘The legitimacy of enterprise has been squeezed out of the system,’ says Vince Taylor, interim director of Sheffield’s local enterprise growth initiative (Legi) scheme. ‘We need to plant the seed and keep it there.’
Sheffield is one of 29 authorities to receive millions of pounds of government money to improve the prospects of deprived areas over the course of a decade. The city aims to increase start-ups by 50% by pursuing what Mr Taylor calls a ‘pure model’ of enterprise.
‘This is not about job shops or getting unemployed people into work, it is very much about enterprise and our private sector led board is determined to keep it that way. It is about finding the people who have that spark.’
For him, it is vital that the programme maintains a sense of individuality rather than just doing more of the same. He adds: ‘There’s a risk of Legi being sucked into that great miasma of skills and worklessness, getting people into jobs. We’ve got a small number of millions and I can see it all going.’
When the then chancellor, Gordon Brown, first announced the Legi programme in March 2005 it seemed this ‘pure model’ was its raison d’etre. However, it soon became clear that schemes approved under the initiative were taking a more holistic approach in which getting people into jobs was just as legitimate as getting them to run businesses, and growing existing businesses was considered as, if not more important, than creating media friendly ‘unemployed to entrepreneur’ stories.
In Croydon, which won the London region Enterprising Britain award last year, programme director Stella Okeahialam makes no apologies for taking an approach which sees getting people into work as part of the programme’s success. This, she contends, is not just legitimate but necessary.
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Rosie Niven finds out why Shaks Ghosh ended a ten year relationship with her begging bowl to help private equity firms express their humanity
Private equity chiefs are not the first people you would associate with philanthropy.
Described in some quarters as money-grabbing asset strippers, the bosses of some private equity firms have made a fortune buying companies with borrowed money.
But Shaks Ghosh has seen a softer side to these oft-vilified individuals.
For the past year, the former head of homelessness charity Crisis has worked with private equity companies and other city firms to try to change society for the better.
As chief executive of the Private Equity Foundation (PEF), Ms Ghosh is helping the leaders of 70 city firms develop a collective mission to empower young people and encourage them to achieve their potential.
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----- EXCERPT:Rosie Niven finds out why Shaks Ghosh ended a ten year relationship with her begging bowl to help private equity firms express their humanity
----- -------- TITLE: New world order AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 02/13/2008 04:05:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Community-CohesionDevelopment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:The time has come to tear down the walls of a world where people from different ethnic backgrounds live separately. Phil Wood explains why Britain needs to wake up to the European year of intercultural dialogue
Leading businesses have long known that to get ahead you have to mix things up.
In the words of Steve Miller, former chief executive of Royal Dutch/Shell: ‘You get some really neat ideas generated from creating a culture where people of different ethnicities, cultures, backgrounds and countries come together. The best ideas come from this mosaic of players working together in a team on a project. They will come up with an answer that is different from what any one of them would have come up with individually.’
The benefits of this creative process result in what’s known as the ‘diversity advantage’. But it isn’t easy or straightforward.
One of the less desirable side effects of mixing people in a competitive environment is they can disagree, argue and sometimes even fight.
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Mighty creator of jobs or feared destroyer of community-based regeneration? This Rapid Research explains how to overcome the fear and make the most of the working neighbourhoods fund
Last November the government announced a new approach to regeneration centred on boosting economic development and enterprise in England’s most deprived areas.
Central to the policy shift was the creation of the working neighbourhoods fund (WNF).
The fund will replace the neighbourhood renewal fund (NRF) from April to tackle worklessness, increase enterprise and employment and address low skills.
However, these changes have been controversial.
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----- EXCERPT:Mighty creator of jobs or feared destroyer of community-based regeneration? This Rapid Research explains how to overcome the fear and make the most of the working neighbourhoods fund
----- -------- TITLE: Carrots, clout and confusion AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 01/30/2008 03:05:28 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Neighbourhood-Renewal CATEGORY: Community-CohesionDevelopment ----- BODY:Communities First isn’t being scrapped but partnerships are being challenged to work harder, move faster and do better. Susan Downer reports
The gift was valuable and undoubtedly well-meant, but in 2001, when 142 disadvantaged areas unwrapped Communities First, compliments of the Welsh Assembly, few were sure what it was or how it was supposed to work.
According to the official evaluation of the assembly’s community-led regeneration initiative, published in September 2006, the instructions were missing. ‘This led to considerable confusion amongst coordinators and institutional partners as to whether this was a regeneration or a capacity building programme.’
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----- EXCERPT:Communities First isn’t being scrapped but partnerships are
being challenged to work harder, move faster and do better.
Susan Downer reports
Thirty years since Britain’s first urban policy was launched, its impact is still felt. Rosie Niven and Julian Dobson find that it’s not just the football world that returns to the same solutions
For some, reaching thirty is something to keep quiet about. For regeneration practitioners it’s an excuse for a celebration, and next week will see an event in Liverpool to mark 30 years since the first joined-up urban policy.
Back in 1977, a white paper, Policy for the inner cities, was published by the newly formed Department of the Environment. It was followed a year later by the Inner Urban Areas Act 1978.
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----- EXCERPT:Thirty years since Britain’s first urban policy was launched, its impact is still felt. Rosie Niven and Julian Dobson find that it’s not just the football world that returns to the same solutions
----- -------- TITLE: Beware of imitations AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 01/17/2008 10:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Social-Enterprise CATEGORY: ----- BODY:You won’t get anywhere pretending to be something you’re not, says David Newton. It’s time to distinguish between public sector social enterprise and the real thing
I was having a rant the other day. It was one of my favourite ones – you might have used it yourself – it’s the one about the public sector fleecing the third sector by establishing pseudo social enterprises to mop up funding.
‘They shouldn’t be allowed to call them social enterprises,’ I proclaimed. Cue nods and grunts of approval from my companions – who were also from the voluntary sector.
And then something strange happened. Maybe it was because I’d just banged my head on a display board or maybe it was because I was on a rare excursion out of the office, but for some reason I suddenly saw things from the other side.
‘Okay,’ I thought, with my public sector colleagues in mind, ‘You’re faced with a problem: you need money to sustain a service but the snag is you’re going to have to pretend to be something a little different to what you actually are to get your hands on the cash.’
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----- EXCERPT:You won’t get anywhere pretending to be something you’re not, says David Newton. It’s time to distinguish between public sector social enterprise and the real thing
----- -------- TITLE: Occupational hazards AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 01/09/2008 05:00:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Employment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Will a funding regime focused on tackling worklessness leave the achievements of the neighbourhood renewal fund dangling? Barry McCarthy reports
‘I want a welfare state that is built round the work ethic.’ Those were the words of Gordon Brown a decade ago – and he remains a man convinced that getting more people into the labour market is the best route out of poverty.
This philosophy has helped shape the new working neighbourhoods fund (WNF), a £1.5bn programme to turn around long-term unemployment in the most disadvantaged communities in England.
Announced last month, the scheme replaces the neighbourhood renewal fund (NRF), the non ring-fenced scheme launched in 2001 to narrow the gap between the most deprived areas and the rest of the country by improving services.
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----- EXCERPT:Will a funding regime focused on tackling worklessness leave the achievements of the neighbourhood renewal fund dangling? Barry McCarthy reports
----- -------- TITLE: Against all odds AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 12/12/2007 04:35:25 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Economic-Development CATEGORY: ----- BODY:How can regeneration projects survive when government funding is divorced from the realities of rising costs and delays? Susan Downer finds out from an award winning initiative helping former mining communities
When Gary Kirk describes how Margaret Thatcher’s government stood and watched as British Coal haemorrhaged jobs in the 1980s it’s like listening to the story of David and Goliath minus the fairytale ending.
More than 12,000 jobs were lost in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire alone, but deeply wounded communities weren’t offered so much as a sticking plaster.
‘Margaret Thatcher wanted to get her own back on the miners and did not invest in the area so there was no subsidy available,’ explains Mr Kirk, chief executive of Meden Valley Making Places.
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----- EXCERPT:How can regeneration projects survive when government funding is divorced from the realities of rising costs and delays? Susan Downer finds out from an award winning initiative helping former mining communities
----- -------- TITLE: Mother of invention AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 12/05/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Enterprise CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Can a run-down housing estate become the birthplace of dozens of new businesses? Julian Dobson visited Luton to find out
The birth of the world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, caused a sensation in 1978.
Thirty years on, a rather different experiment could lead to Britain’s first test-tube economy.
Since 1978 hundreds of women have benefited from in vitro fertilisation, which enables embryos to be formed outside the womb.
A comparable process is now under way in Luton, where local residents hope to create embryonic businesses outside of the usual market conditions.
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----- EXCERPT:Can a run-down housing estate become the birthplace of dozens of new businesses? Julian Dobson visited Luton
to find out
Local authorities and regional development agencies are heavyweights on the changing economic development scene, but deciding on new shared responsibilities will be a challenge, says Phil Northall
The Treasury’s publication of the sub-national economic development and regeneration review in July sparked debate around repositioning the roles of regional development agencies and local authorities towards more strategic and delivery type roles respectively.
This has resulted in confusion among both RDAs and local authorities about what their role will be in future, with many councils interested in the idea of getting their hands on RDA programme funds and others worried about how they can develop a greater economic development delivery role through sub-regional partnerships and local area agreements.
This Rapid Research is based on a series interviews with RDA and local authority representatives to consider how this attempt to alter the current relationship might work and what challenges need to be overcome.
Rapid Research is a collaboration between New Start and the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, a not-for-profit think/doing organisation, consultancy and network of subscribing organisations specialising in regeneration, economic development and local governance. This is the latest report.
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----- EXCERPT:Local authorities and regional development agencies are heavyweights on the changing economic development scene, but deciding on new shared responsibilities will be a challenge, says Phil Northall
----- -------- TITLE: Essex pearls AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 11/21/2007 09:16:40 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Heritage CATEGORY: ----- BODY:What do the Spanish Armada, Julius Caesar and SS Empire Windrush have in common? As well as featuring in schools’ history curriculum, all have strong links with the county of Essex. Essex has played an important role in the history of England from the bronze age through Roman times to the last century. It’s easy to forget this when many of its main settlements are new towns, like Basildon, or places that grew mainly in the 20th century.
The county, along with Kent to the south, will soon be playing a major role in England’s future as part of the Thames Gateway growth area. This will accommodate some 200,000 homes over the next decade or so.
But some individuals and organisations are starting to question whether a focus on hard development will create communities people really want to live in. Others fear the approach risks repeating the mistakes of the past when the features that made communities distinctive were bulldozed. Such concerns have led to a growing number of initiatives to raise awareness of the heritage that exists in the Thames Gateway.
Wayne Hemingway, a partner in Hemingway Design, argues the Thames Gateway is a ‘tarnished brand’ that fails to capture the public’s imagination. ‘The Thames Gateway at the moment is all about numbers,’ he says. ‘But it’s full of towns that have a history.
‘I don’t think people really want to be seen as a number. If it’s something that’s closely associated with government – any government – then it’s seen as a political football. It’s a fantastic opportunity for growth in an area that’s been unloved and attacked by the media, but there are other ways of doing it.’
Mr Hemingway is participating in Ebb and flow, a project by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), to highlight the position of heritage in the redevelopment of the Thames Gateway. His contribution, along with those from photographer Jason Orton and musician Billy Bragg, is part of HLF efforts to put heritage in the minds of developers and encourage communities to think about what heritage means to them.
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----- EXCERPT:As the Thames Gateway bulldozers move into Essex, the Heritage Lottery Fund is lining up famous names to ensure the county’s heritage isn’t lost. Rosie Niven reports
----- -------- TITLE: It's good to talk AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 11/14/2007 04:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Health CATEGORY: ----- BODY:A multimillion pound investment in ‘talking therapies’ could be a breakthrough for the nation’s wellbeing, says Angela Greatley.
But it’s just one step down a long road to recovery for millions with mental health problems
Last month, the government announced a major new investment in psychological therapies on the NHS.
Immediately following the Treasury’s spending review, secretary of state Alan Johnson committed the government to an investment that will rise by 2010/11 to £170m in a scheme that is currently at a pilot stage to train some 3,600 therapists and treat 900,000 people a year.
This is an ambitious new departure for the NHS. At present, people with a range of mental health problems lack timely access to psychological therapy.
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----- EXCERPT:A multi million pound investment in ‘talking therapies’ could be a breakthrough for the nation’s wellbeing, says Angela Greatley.
But it’s just one step down a long road to recovery for millions with mental health problems
Tony Blair’s pledge to narrow the gap between the poorest neighbourhoods and the rest has disappeared from the government’s list of priorities. John Houghton asks whether Gordon Brown has abandoned his predecessor’s most radical commitment to social justice
Lost among the controversies over inheritance tax and ‘non-doms’ that accompanied the 2007 comprehensive spending review is a fundamental change to a central plank of the government’s strategy for tackling poverty.
The commitment to ‘narrow the gap’ between the poorest neighbourhoods and the rest of the country within a generation has – apparently at least – been dropped from the Treasury’s list of 30 priorities which will determine everything the government does until Gordon Brown calls an election.
This commitment is far less well known than the government’s other anti-poverty goals.
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----- EXCERPT:Tony Blair’s pledge to narrow the gap between the poorest neighbourhoods and the rest has disappeared from the government’s list of priorities. John Houghton asks whether Gordon Brown has abandoned his predecessor’s most radical commitment to social justice
----- -------- TITLE: Breaking through the boundaries AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 10/31/2007 04:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Economic-Development CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Multi-area agreements are a name without a face, but over the coming years they could become powerful economic development drivers. Susan Downer weighs up the challenges and opportunities
The public sector isn’t generally known for catchy jingles, glitzy marketing or celebrity endorsements, but when push comes to shove it can come up with a sexy sales pitch. Multi-area agreements (MAAs) are a case in point.
Despite a name that makes them sound like the annual general meeting of local area agreements in a civic car park just north of Anytown, MAAs are turning heads and capturing imaginations.
These boundary busting economic development agreements will enable local authorities to venture outside their administrative worlds and elevate their sphere of influence to the sub-region.
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----- EXCERPT:Multi-area agreements are a name without a face, but over the coming years they could become powerful economic development drivers. Susan Downer weighs up the challenges and opportunities
----- -------- TITLE: Labour pain AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 10/24/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Employment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:The arrival of workers from across Europe is injecting billions into the economy, but it has given birth to a whole new set of challenges for some local authorities. Rosie Niven reports
Britain’s booming economy is becoming increasingly reliant on overseas workers to keep it ticking over.
In an era of low unemployment, migrants from countries like Poland and Lithuania have been a welcome addition to a labour market starved of workers with the appropriate skills for the jobs available.
Government research published last week suggests between 2001 and mid-2006 migrant workers accounted for a 0.5% increase in the working age population every year and added around £6bn to the economy in 2006.
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----- EXCERPT:The arrival of workers from across Europe is injecting billions into the economy, but it has given birth to a whole new set of challenges for some local authorities. Rosie Niven reports
----- -------- TITLE: Examining the small print AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 10/17/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Economic-Development CATEGORY: ----- BODY:The government’s headline spending plans have already left a bitter taste in some regeneration quarters. But, says Susan Downer, a closer look at the finer details may make for even more unpalatable reading
For those working to improve life for the least well off, last week’s comprehensive spending review will be remembered for four things – a massive increase social house building, new funding vehicles and freedoms for local authorities, a further shift towards economic revival at neighbourhood level, and the sour taste of disappointment.
Describing councils’ 1% increase in funding between 2008-2011 as the ‘worst financial settlement for councils in a decade’, the Local Government Association warned the CSR had massively weakened councils’ ability to deliver their economic development role.
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----- EXCERPT:The government’s headline spending plans have already left a bitter taste in some regeneration quarters. But, says Susan Downer, a closer look at the finer details may make for even more unpalatable reading
----- -------- TITLE: University challenge AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 10/10/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Skills CATEGORY: ----- BODY:University towns and cities ought to feel the benefits of a highly educated workforce, if only they could hang on to their graduates. Barry McCarthy reports
If someone handed you a valuable asset, what would you do with it? Nurture it, watch it grow and then just as it’s about to bear fruit give it away? Now that would be daft.
Strange then that so many university towns and cities across the UK appear happy to do just that with their graduates.
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----- EXCERPT:University towns and cities ought to feel the benefits of a highly educated workforce, if only they could hang on to their graduates. Barry McCarthy reports
----- -------- TITLE: Obstacle course AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 10/03/2007 04:53:34 PRIMARY CATEGORY: CATEGORY: ----- BODY:The Northern Way launched three years ago amid high hopes of bridging England’s north-south divide. But it hadn’t banked on finding its path littered with government obstacles. Rosie Niven reports
It’s very difficult to define the north of England. A Londoner would argue it starts at Watford Gap, while a Geordie would swear that it starts at Washington services. The problem lies in its geographical vastness and the fierce rivalries between different localities.
So when the government called on northern towns and cities three years ago to put their local rivalries aside to work towards narrowing the economic gap between north and south, sceptics probably thought they were wasting their time. After all, the recent tussle over awarding the super-casino to Manchester shows how ugly local competitiveness can get.
The Northern Way is meant to avoid these sorts of quarrels and encourage authorities and agencies across northern regions to agree on priority projects that help to achieve growth. Set up in September 2004 and backed by a £100m growth fund, the programme’s aim was to help close the £30bn productivity gap between the north and the south.
The journey hasn’t been easy.
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----- ----- -------- TITLE: Power cut AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 09/26/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Empowerment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Could uncertainty over future funding leave community empowerment networks in obscurity? We asked those on the front line for their views. Rosie Niven reports
For the past six years, community empowerment networks (CENs) have been providing a voice for voluntary organisations seeking to influence local decision-making across England.
But despite notable successes in engaging with marginalised groups and building partnerships, their future looks uncertain.
CENs were set up in 2001 by the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit to enable community involvement in decision-making, particularly with local strategic partnerships (LSPs).
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----- EXCERPT:Could uncertainty over future funding leave community empowerment networks in obscurity? We asked those on the front line for their views. Rosie Niven reports
----- -------- TITLE: Windows of opportunity AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 09/19/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: CATEGORY: ----- BODY:It’s time to stop treating social housing like a poor relation and recognise its importance, say John Morris and Chris Handy
The social housing sector is today in a pivotal position to influence the direction of government housing and regeneration policies.
There is considerable room for optimism at recent government announcements, especially about increased social housing investment within the context of the new housing green paper.
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----- EXCERPT:It’s time to stop treating social housing like a poor relation and recognise its importance, say John Morris and Chris Handy
----- -------- TITLE: Passing the baton AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 09/12/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: CATEGORY: ----- BODY:No government has ever delivered on its promise to
create a lasting legacy from a national sporting event. Adam Brown says organisers of the London Olympics need to learn hard lessons from Manchester’s Commonwealth Games
In the euphoria around the successful London 2012 Olympic Games bid and in the furore about increasing budgets much has been made of the lasting legacy the games will bring London, and the UK as a whole.
The words of the great and the good couldn’t be bolder or clearer. Olympics ambassador Lord Coe called legacy ‘absolutely epicentral’ to the plans for 2012: ‘Legacy is probably nine-tenths of what this process is about, not just 16 days of Olympic sport.’
London 2012 insists that, ‘providing a sustainable legacy… is a driving force for all the agencies responsible for building, staging and hosting the games in 2012.’
But what do we really mean by delivering legacy from major events? And, perhaps more importantly, have we learned the lessons from Manchester’s staging of the widely acclaimed Commonwealth Games, billed as delivering a sporting, cultural and economic legacy?
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----- EXCERPT:No government has ever delivered on its promise to
create a lasting legacy from a national sporting event. Adam Brown says organisers of the London Olympics need to learn hard lessons from Manchester’s Commonwealth Games
Intimidation is a bigger factor in the growth of gangs than the lack of suitable role models, research suggests. Julian Dobson reports
There are teenagers in British cities who won’t attend college because criminal gangs control the area.
There are families who won’t sit in their front rooms because they’re scared of stray bullets. And there are girls who will not report rape or sexual abuse because they fear what else might happen to them.
This is the reality of neighbourhoods where gang culture is dominant, described in a book being written by a respected academic.
Research by John Pitts, professor of socio-legal studies at Bedfordshire University, has uncovered stark evidence of how far a small number of gang members can exert control over a neighbourhood.
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----- EXCERPT:Intimidation is a bigger factor in the growth of gangs than the lack of suitable role models, research suggests. Julian Dobson reports
----- -------- TITLE: Have we made our mark? AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 08/29/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Neighbourhood-Renewal CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Over the years the regeneration agenda has evolved. Policy has matured, groups and individuals have lost or gained influence, public demands have been heeded, and money is starting to run out. Rosie Niven, Barry McCarthy and Susan Downer look at how three key issues have shifted over time
3 themes: urban renaissance, economic inequality and neighbourhoods
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----- ----- -------- TITLE: Endangered species AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 08/15/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Employment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Inefficient, self-serving and a drain on resources – some reckon we need a cull of local public sector jobs. Victoria Bradford and Matthew Jackson explain why they are worth protecting
Direct public employment, whether through working for the local authority, for a regeneration company or a regional body, in a school or for the health service makes a significant contribution to local labour markets and local economies.
A recent publication by the Association for Public Service Excellence, the Centre for Local Economic Strategies and the Institute of Local Government Studies has sought to revisit and revalue the contribution that public employment makes to local people and places.
In doing so, we challenge common critiques of direct public employment and make the case for bringing the discourse surrounding it back into current debates.
There is both a tradition and enduring contemporary value to public employment that is inadequately represented.
That said, we are not arguing for a return to some mythical golden age of monolithic public provision nor seeking to promote direct public employment to the exclusion of other forms of service provider.
Instead, we are putting forward a new argument for the recognition of the value (benefits) and values (standards, ethos and attitude) of public employment within the context of public service modernisation.
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The complete cover feature is available to subscribers.
You can subscribe to receive New Start in printed or in ezine format every week here subs.newstartmag.co.uk
----- EXCERPT:Inefficient, self-serving and a drain on resources – some reckon we need a cull of local public sector jobs. Victoria Bradford and Matthew Jackson explain why they are worth protecting
----- -------- TITLE: Culture clash AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 08/01/2007 03:59:23 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Economic-Development CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Cracks have started to appear in Liverpool’s ambitious plans for its year as European capital of culture 2008. Barry McCarthy assesses the damage
When Liverpool was named European capital of culture 2008 it made a pledge to the entire city. It promised to honour the spirit of its diverse population and from its ‘unconventional, pioneering, unruly and unpredictable’ energies create a city buzzing with creative life and a bold economic confidence.
Its bidding document asserts: ‘By 2008 and for a new generation [Liverpool] will have become a better city to live in, to work in, to visit, to invest in.’
But with just five months to go before the city is officially anointed doubts have begun to emerge about what it will achieve and how much those glorified as the city’s greatest asset will really benefit.
Last month, when Joe Anderson, leader of the Labour group, resigned from the board of Liverpool Culture Company (LCC) which is organising the programme of cultural events, he refused to go quietly. Unlike Lee Forde, former LCC head of events and erstwhile artistic director Robyn Archer, who both left citing personal reasons, Mr Anderson went to the local press, complaining loudly that the capital of culture was elitist and ignored the community.
It was an accusation that went to the heart of what the capital of culture is all about.
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You can subscribe to receive New Start in printed or in ezine format every week here subs.newstartmag.co.uk
----- EXCERPT:When Liverpool was named European capital of culture 2008 it promised to honour the spirit of its diverse population and create a city buzzing with creative life and a bold economic confidence.
But with just five months to go before the city is officially anointed doubts have begun to emerge about what it will achieve and how much those glorified as the city’s greatest asset will really benefit.
They came, they tried and now they’ve been axed. But will the end of regional assemblies create more problems than it solves? Rosie Niven reports
In 1977 the MP for the Scottish constituency of West Lothian posed a question to the House of Commons during a debate on the Callaghan government’s ultimately unsuccessful plans for Scottish and Welsh devolution.
Tam Dalyell asked how long English constituencies and MPs would tolerate members from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland having a say on English matters. He illustrated his point by pointing out the paradox that under devolution he would be able to vote on matters affecting West Bromwich, but not his own constituency of West Lothian.
Thirty years on and the answer to the ‘West Lothian question’ remains elusive. The establishment of assemblies in Scotland and Wales in 1998 has highlighted the democratic deficit in England. Former deputy prime minister John Prescott thought he had solved the problem with proposals for elected English regional assemblies, but a northeast no vote in 2004 thwarted his pet project.
The subsequent abandonment of these plans raised questions about the legitimacy of existing unelected organisations in the regions – regional development agencies (RDAs) and regional assemblies with no legislative powers. Set up to pave the way for devolution, assemblies have increasingly looked out of place in a political climate more interested in localism and city-regions.
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The cover feature is one of the parts of New Start only available to subscribers.
Every week New Start contains unique material to help our readers do their jobs: inspired (and inspiring!) analysis, debate and opinion; several in-depth features; the Learning Curve which gives advice and showcases good practice; and regular columns from an array of key figures and leading commentators in the sector.
We provide our subscribers with a magazine which becomes an invaluable tool: to keep them up to date; to show them how the latest policy affects their work; and to provide helpful, practical examples of successful regeneration.
And we’re always keen to hear from readers and to cover their successful work in the magazine.
You can subscribe to receive New Start in printed or in ezine format every week here subs.newstartmag.co.uk
----- EXCERPT:The government’s proposed shake-up of regional institutions is designed to improve accountability in the regions and to help plan for growth. But could scrapping regional assemblies upset the balance of an already shaky system?
----- -------- TITLE: Small tremors or a seismic shift? AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 07/18/2007 03:27:31 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Politics CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Anyone who thought Gordon Brown would pick up where Tony Blair left off can think again. Rosie Niven gets expert views on the changes
Gordon Brown has wasted little time in getting down to business as prime minister. He made a number of announcements hinting at the direction he will take as prime minister while some of his junior ministers were still waiting to find out their portfolio.
Regeneration and communities policies have already featured strongly in these announcements. Mr Brown has set out his intention for housing to be a key priority for his government and there have also been proposals for regional ministers and participatory budgeting pilots.There is much more to come, with legislation on local government reforms and the comprehensive spending review expected later this year. But Mr Brown is already showing signs of developing his own approach to regeneration and sustainable communities. And this could spell the end for some of the Blair administration’s flagship regeneration policies.
Would you like to read more?
The cover feature is one of the parts of New Start only available to subscribers.
Every week New Start contains unique material to help our readers do their jobs: inspired (and inspiring!) analysis, debate and opinion; several in-depth features; the Learning Curve which gives advice and showcases good practice; and regular columns from an array of key figures and leading commentators in the sector.
We provide our subscribers with a magazine which becomes an invaluable tool: to keep them up to date; to show them how the latest policy affects their work; and to provide helpful, practical examples of successful regeneration.
And we’re always keen to hear from readers and to cover their successful work in the magazine.
You can subscribe to receive New Start in printed or in ezine format every week here subs.newstartmag.co.uk
----- EXCERPT:Gordon Brown is already showing signs of developing his own approach to regeneration and sustainable communities. And this could spell the end for some of the Blair administration’s flagship regeneration policies.
----- -------- TITLE: The new game in town AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 07/11/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Neighbourhood-Renewal CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Asset ownership is on the front page of government policy. Susan Downer reads the small print
What you are about to witness is a new era of community led renewal, fuelled by a revolution in asset ownership. The train, as they say, is coming.
Just last week the UK government announced 20 asset ownership pilots for England. Running until March 2008, the pilots will identify models of community ownership and management and inspire further partnerships between local authorities and community groups ahead of a three year campaign to make asset ownership the rule rather than the exception.
Would you like to read more?
The cover feature is one of the parts of New Start only available to subscribers.
Every week New Start contains unique material to help our readers do their jobs: inspired (and inspiring!) analysis, debate and opinion; several in-depth features; the Learning Curve which gives advice and showcases good practice; and regular columns from an array of key figures and leading commentators in the sector.
We provide our subscribers with a magazine which becomes an invaluable tool: to keep them up to date; to show them how the latest policy affects their work; and to provide helpful, practical examples of successful regeneration.
And we’re always keen to hear from readers and to cover their successful work in the magazine.
You can subscribe to receive New Start in printed or in ezine format every week here subs.newstartmag.co.uk
----- ----- -------- TITLE: Information overload AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 07/04/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Education CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Government attempts to embed fashionable political ideals such as social justice, cultural diversity and tolerance into the geography curriculum is seriously misguided, says Alex Standish. Worse, it is damaging children’s intellectual development
Some might call it progress, an attempt to roll with the times and ensure children can understand and engage with the world around them.
Others fear the politicisation of the curriculum is transforming the very nature and purpose of education in ways that inhibit the intellectual development of pupils.
This disturbing trend has its roots in the mid-1990s when several factors came together that gave rise to the new geography curriculum.
Against a declining interest in the subject in schools, geographical associations and some geographers began portraying the subject as capable of delivering the themes of global citizenship: responsibility for the environment, fighting social injustice, promoting cultural diversity and tolerance, and human rights.
This coincided with government initiatives to develop a citizenship national curriculum in response to falling levels of youth engagement with traditional politics.
Mandated in secondary schools from 2002, the national curriculum for citizenship gave official endorsement to global citizenship.
Finally, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) found common ground for their causes of environmentalism, human rights, anti-capitalism and humanitarian intervention in failing states in the notion of global citizenship education.
The introduction of these political themes into the geography curriculum has been enabled by two trends: a society that values school but not real education and attacks on objective knowledge, which fail to distinguish between a partisan perspective and a commonly agreed upon body of knowledge.
This does not imply that knowledge is values neutral. The question is whether teachers should seek to minimise their subjective viewpoints or make them explicit and actively promote political change.
The failure of teachers and academics to make this distinction, and to uphold the virtues of their disciplines, has given political agendas license to invade the curriculum.
Aware of this change, NGOs have been busy writing and publicising teaching resources for schools to promote their various political causes.
Oxfam’s Curriculum for global citizenship has been one of the most influential of these. NGOs have also been co-authors or consultants for Department for Education and Skills/Qualifications and Curriculum Authority citizenship publications (for example, see Developing a global dimension to the curriculum, 2000/05, which mirrors Oxfam’s curriculum).
What is surprising is that this direct political influence in the curriculum hasn’t been challenged.
Some teachers have positively welcomed it. For them, themes of global citizenship have filled a moral vacuum where once stood a geography curriculum. Rather than teach pupils difficult and abstract theories about landscape formation, climate, urbanisation, economic development etc, they have opted to engage pupils’ interest in trendy topics like global warming, fair trade and poverty reduction.
The clearest example of this new curriculum is the Oxford and Cambridge hybrid geography GCSE. Here, pupils, in part, get to choose which issues they want to study, including ‘geography in the news’.
AS-level students might, for example, ponder on how migration from Poland is impacting on its music scene and economy. GCSE and A-level candidates can investigate what Tesco is doing to improve its environmental credentials.
It is important to recognise just how different learning about global issues is from real geography lessons. The Geographical Association publication Geography: the global dimension says teaching about global issues is not about delivering a curriculum.
Instead it seeks to engage pupils in a ‘conversation’ about issues in which they get to explore what they think and feel about them, the objective being to get pupils to reflect on their values, attitudes and ultimately to change their behaviour.
For example, the document suggests that teachers get their pupils to go online and calculate their environmental footprint using the Global Footprints project website.
Once a few ecological footprint questions have been completed by the pupil the website informs them of how they can lower their impact on the environment. The only outcome of such an activity is to replace learning about how the world is changing with lessons in personal morality.
There are problems with the new approach to global issues. Firstly, this pupil centred, issues based approach devalues subject knowledge.
Not only does it replace much of the geography curriculum with lessons in self-exploration, it encourages pupils to think of knowledge as something fluid and to question the validity and sources of knowledge.
This may be all well and good for a postgraduate student, but school pupils need to learn something before they can begin to question the basis of knowledge. Exam boards and policymakers have even made a virtue out of reducing the content of the curriculum.
The 2007 draft geography curriculum for key stage three is big on key (ambiguous) concepts (including interdependence, environmental interaction, cultural diversity and understanding), big on processes (inquiry, out-of-class learning, literacy, communication), but very shy when it comes to the things pupils need to learn to establish a foundation of understanding in preparation for GCSEs.
Secondly, values education is by nature intrusive and discourages independent thought.
Even if, as some advocates of global citizenship education claim, students are not told what to think, why should their values be scrutinised in the classroom?
Certainly, learning about the world forces us to reflect on our current values and attitudes, but targeting pupils’ individual conscience as an objective of lessons infringes upon their freedom of thought.
And of course there is a strong moral imperative behind ‘exploring’ global issues: pupils should consume less, buy environmentally friendly or fair trade products and view western intervention in the south as a positive process.
Why else would NGOs want to produce teaching resources? The expectation of global citizenship advocates is that pupils need ‘guidance’ when it comes to ‘complex’ issues like sustainable development (1) or in the words of former education secretary, Alan Johnson: ‘Children must think differently’ (2).
Once pupils need guidance to make decisions or are told what to think they are no longer free, independent, moral beings and a cornerstone of liberal democracy has just been overturned.
Thus, contemporary global citizenship is unlike previous international movements, which advocated for solidarity between autonomous moral individuals.
Instead, new global citizenship seeks to shape the personalities of individuals themselves.
Finally, many global issues explored in the curriculum are disingenuous about how the world works.
It is deceptive to tell young people that by changing their consumption patterns they can change the world.
Social and political change is more complex than advocates of global citizenship would have us believe. This simplistic approach can only lead young people to be more disillusioned with politics and the potential of humankind to change the world for the better as their individual actions will not have the results they hope for.
Not all geography classes are like this. There are plenty of well-trained geography teachers in schools today who know how to teach the subject well. And there is a place for enquiry learning, but it is merely a teaching method.
I am not arguing for a return to some non-existent golden age of teaching. However, in the period after the fall of the British Empire and before the introduction of global citizenship, geography was relatively free from political objectives, which enabled the discipline to grow in positive directions.
What is currently being replaced in the geography curriculum is its content: the things pupils need to learn to be able to identify and comprehend spatial patterns at all scales.
The trends analysed by geographers change as the world changes and so do some of the rules of spatial interaction, as is the case in this globalised world.
The models we teach pupils need to be updated to reflect these changes, and new theories arise, but many of the fundamental concepts and skills pupils need to acquire to comprehend the world remain the same.
If we don’t educate young people in the fundamentals of geography they will not be able to interpret the world let alone change it for the better.
Alex Standish is an assistant professor of geography at Western Connecticut State University. He contributed to a recent Civitas publication, The corruption of the curriculum, and is currently writing a book on the politics of teaching geography.
References:
1. Phil Wood: In defence of the new agenda, Geography 90(1), 84-89, 2005
2. Alan Johnson: Children must think differently, Independent, 2 February 2007.
The evolution of geography
2003
Government launches development fund to improve teaching and learning in geography.
2004
Ofsted reveals poor pupil achievement and poor quality of teaching in geography due to teachers’ lack of specialist knowledge, low expectations held by teachers, lack of in-service training and loss of curriculum time to core subjects.
2006
Academy for Sustainable Communities works with Geographical Association to develop curriculum content for secondary schools to raise awareness of sustainable communities. Primary schools will be targeted in coming years.
Launch of action plan for geography in which undergraduates and others are invited to ‘enthuse young people with the relevance of geography to employment and citizenship’ through an ambassadors scheme. Curriculum to include sustainable development, global perspectives, cultural understanding and citizenship.
2007
January
Scottish Executive announces the film, An Inconvenient Truth, made by the former US vice-president Al Gore, is to be shown in all secondary schools to help pupils understand climate change with teaching materials designed around it. England follows suit in February.
February
New geography curriculum proposed for 11-14 year olds including issues of climate change, poverty, recycling and energy conservation.
Government attempts to embed fashionable political ideals such as social justice, cultural diversity and tolerance into the geography curriculum is seriously misguided, says Alex Standish. Worse, it is damaging children’s intellectual development
----- -------- TITLE: Get yourself connected AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 06/27/2007 05:15:00 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Empowerment CATEGORY: ----- BODY:Campaigners are increasingly turning to the web to drum up support for their causes. Could the road to empowerment be just a mouse click away? Rosie Niven reports
For many young people, online communities like MySpace and Facebook are starting to replace physical communities.
A young person might consider their neighbour to be someone on the other side of the world, not the person in the house next door.
And now grown-ups are starting to realise how technology can connect them with like-minded people all over the world.
Many politicians, charities and businesses now have their own blogs and belong to social networks.
The media is also realising the potential of using blogs and social networks to find authentic voices on niche subjects.
The increasing use of technology is now seen as a way to democratise the media and make it easier for ordinary people to influence change.
Sandra Semple is one of these online activists. Last year she set up a blog to voice her objections on plans to transform her hometown of Seaton in east Devon into what she calls ‘a modern slum’.
The blog highlights the ‘stand up for Seaton’ campaign, which opposes plans to develop more than 600 houses and two retail sheds. This culminated in the election of eight campaigners onto Seaton Council in last month’s elections.
‘The best thing about blogging is the speed you can get information out there,’ says Ms Semple. ‘You do not have to telephone people. You can immediately get info about radio interviews and press coverage onto the blog.
There are also links to all the important documents. It starts a ripple – one person reads it and tells another person who will tell another two.’
But the Seaton campaigners did not stop at blogging. Their youngest council member, Sophie O’Connell, 20, wanted to reach out to younger residents who were affected by the closure of a youth club on the regeneration site.
She set up a MySpace page to make them aware of issues relating to the project most relevant to them. ‘It’s been brilliant,’ says Ms Semple. ‘We’ve had lots of feedback from the youngsters.’
The blog and MySpace page was inspired by the ‘save Wye’ campaign, which succeeded in preventing a controversial development in a small Kent village entirely through blogging.
In Seaton, the use of internet technology has helped to give its own campaign momentum and the group has never had a meeting attended by less than 300 people. One gathering held by Seaton Development Trust attracted 600 people.
Ms Semple’s advice to campaigners is to start small and keep things simple. ‘It’s so easy to set up,’ she says. ‘It’s a new way of communicating.
The old ways are good and there’s nothing quite like walking round town and talking to people. But you need everything you can get.’
One of the biggest enthusiasts of social networking and social media as a way of promoting civic engagement is David Wilcox, whose Designing for civil society blog discusses engagement and collaboration using social media.
He agrees it challenges the top-down, exclusive way of doing things by encouraging transparency, openness and collaborative ways of working.
‘I think social media offers great potential for groups who feel they are not getting a say in local development processes,’ he says.
‘It provides excellent tools for working together more effectively, and of course ways of linking up with others outside your area.
These days the outlay is relatively low – computer costs are dropping, software is mostly free and you can do a lot on mobile phones. The main outlay can be time.’
Stand up for Seaton is not unique in its use of blogs and social media to run a campaign. Many large charities including Oxfam Tear Fund and Shelter are using social networking and blogging as part of their campaigning activities and smaller charities like Islamic Relief and Manchester Advisory Group for Mental Health are encouraging members to blog.
Consultants too are finding social media useful for their work. Community engagement consultant, Kevin Harris, uses social networks to manage his projects.
He favours the site ning.com, a more sophisticated version of MySpace and its rivals. When he started a community engagement project with library staff recently he set up a network and invited participants to join and discuss the work.
‘It’s taken a couple of weeks to get going,’ he says. ‘There’s information on funding sources and rolling blog discussions.’
But despite increasing use of social media for campaigning, its wider use in regeneration and community development so far appears limited.
MySpace and Facebook have just a handful of regeneration groups. Kevin Harris suspects that it may be the nature of regeneration does not necessarily encourage a collaborative approach.
‘People who assume power in the local community very often try to protect their power, often unnecessarily,’ he says.
David Wilcox agrees: ‘Social media works if you tell stories, have open conversations and are prepared to share. That’s the way many people lead their lives – but it’s not necessarily the way regeneration agencies work. Too often it’s reports, committee rooms and powerpoint.
‘Some community activists who have developed their influence by acting as gatekeepers to information and relationships can feel threatened.’
He adds that there may be more practical reasons for activists and community being slow to take up social networking.
‘Few intermediate level voluntary organisations are using social media effectively, so they can’t help smaller groups.
Professional support is expensive. If some of your group uses the tools at work, you may get help there – but that depends on the nature of the community.’
Web consultant Paul Caplan advises those interested in using social networking to tap into discussions that are already happening.
‘What I’ve been saying is don’t build a community, talk to people already blogging about things. Countless bloggers may already be having this conversation. Don’t create the default discussion.
Use your members own MySpace pages but link back through to your website.’
But Wingham Rowan, project director of online employment agency Slivers of Time, is sceptical about the value of social networking in regeneration. ‘If you are a Glen Miller fan in your 50s you can link up to other Glen Miller fans in their 50s.
If you want to talk about how to regenerate the St Pauls area of Bristol, why on earth would you do it online? I’ve been involved in the internet since 1994 and seen fad after fad. Don’t assume if something takes off in one area it will work in another.’
There have been some examples of initiatives at a national level to work towards social change and promote engagement. Sites like Neighbourhood Fix It, which highlights problems in neighbourhoods, hold local government to account.
They Work for You does the same with MPs. All have been developed by enthusiasts, not imposed by government or agencies from the top.
Edward Andersson, a project manager at think tank Involve, says the success of these sites highlights people’s suspicion of government-led initiatives. He cites the example of a Sheffield site which compares treatment by different NHS trusts.
The success of this site prompted the government to set up its own. But Mr Andersson says duplicating effort in this way achieves little.
‘A much better tactic for government is to get out there, to have ambassadors on MySpace who can set the record straight,’ he says.
‘If you are living in a deprived community – you have a strong sense of being failed by projects. That neutral space can be important. It’s like holding a meeting in a community centre, rather than a town hall. You get a more constructive debate.’
Online options
Social networking
Social networking sites help users connect with like-minded people, and share ideas, memories, music, pictures and other media. Sites like MySpace and Facebook are very popular with young people, but professionals are gradually seeing their uses as a way of communicating. Most are free to sign up to:
MySpace, www.myspace.com
MySpace, the website that helped to break the Arctic Monkeys, is probably the best known social networking site. It’s free to sign up and users can blog, upload podcasts and share music on their page.
They can also leave messages on other people’s MySpace pages. While MySpace is most famous for being used by up and coming bands and filmmakers, some charities and community groups have started using it to connect with younger people.
Facebook, www.facebook.com
The latest social networking phenomena, Facebook allows users to create a profile and to search for ‘friends’ on line.
Users can join local networks or create groups. Facebook gained momentum last year when supporters of leading Democrat Barack Obama started using Facebook as a campaigning tool as part of his bid for his party’s presidential candidacy.
Now candidates for Labour’s forthcoming deputy leadership election are following suit.
Ning, www.ning.com
Ning also allows you to create social networks but it differs from Myspace and Facebook in that it is programmable.
This means that when you create a social network you can change every aspect of it, providing you have some technical knowledge. You can also choose whether your network is open to anyone or just a select few.
Blogging
A blog, which comes from the term weblog, is a bit like an online journal. Blogs can easily be set up using tools like Google’s Blogger or Wordpress. Some of these will allow you to upload podcasts, photos and moving images.
Blogs can range from teenage navel-gazing trivialities to hard hitting political opinion, with links to other websites and blogs. Some blogs are becoming influential and are increasingly generating media coverage. There are now a number of blogs on regeneration:
Neighbourhoods
www.neighbourhoods.typepad.com/neighbourhoods
Community engagement consultant Kevin Harris’s blog on neighbourhood relations, citizenship, social capital, space and place.
Stand up for Seaton
www.standup4seaton.blogspot.com
A blog by residents campaigning against a project to redevelop a Devon town.
Developing News
www.developingnews.blogspot.com
Urban designer Hana Loftus rounds up news and views regeneration, building and architecture.
Designing for Civil Society
www.partnerships.typepad.com/civic
David Wilcox’s blog on the interface between technology and civic engagement.
----- EXCERPT:Campaigners are increasingly turning to the web to drum up support for their causes. Could the road to empowerment be just a mouse click away? Rosie Niven reports
----- -------- TITLE: Negative equity AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 06/20/2007 04:25:58 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Neighbourhood-Renewal CATEGORY: ----- BODY:It has fast become one of the government’s most controversial regeneration programmes. Now housing market renewal stands accused of short-changing local people. Ciara Leeming reports
Pat Gowenlock can no longer look at the house where she spent 40 happy years. The Salford grandmother expected to end her days in the terrace where she raised her four children. But she and husband Walter were forced out of their home on Cooperative Street, Langworthy – only to find out later the demolition plans had been shelved.
‘We were told we couldn’t stay, so reluctantly sold up to the council,’ she says. ‘We were given £10,000 for our house, and had to take a loan from the council to buy another one. Then the masterplan changed. Our old home was renovated but we couldn’t get it back. It broke my heart – I still have to turn my head away when we pass.’
That bitterness is shared by others in Langworthy, who resent the way regeneration is being delivered. It’s a mile from here to the penthouse apartments of Salford Quays, but the two areas could not be more different.
Langworthy’s shops are mostly vacant or struggling for business. Social blight is evident but visible change has been slow. The housing market collapsed during the late 1990s, leaving many owners in negative equity and desperate to get out.
Drastic action was needed, so council strategists made regeneration a priority.
So far, more than £88m of public and private funding has been pumped into housing and social improvement projects within Langworthy, some from the Manchester-Salford housing market renewal pathfinder fund.
The Gowenlocks and their neighbours were told their properties would be cleared to make way for new build. Believing they had no option, they agreed to take a ‘Homeswap’ – a scheme which matches residents with empty houses. The initiative should enable owners to share in the increasing prosperity of their neighbourhood. But their experience proved profoundly distressing.
Three years ago, their three bedroom end terrace was valued at just £10,000. Their new, smaller property, about a mile away, cost £35,000. They borrowed the difference from Salford Council and their old house has now been designated for use in other Homeswaps. Meanwhile, a two-bed terrace around the corner has been put on the market for £90,000 – proof, say officials, that conditions have been turned around.
Nowhere is this more in evidence than at the far end of Cooperative Street, where the Gowenlocks used to live. There, huge hoardings mark out the edge of Langworthy’s flagship development – 349 ‘contemporary and affordable’ homes being built by Urban Splash. The £40m Chimney Pot Park scheme – at least £15m of which is public money – involves the conversion of traditional Victorian terraces.
The homes are on sale for an average of £120,000 – plus £5,000 for a parking space. The average salary in Langworthy is just £13,000 per year.
But the former residents are refusing to go quietly. Many are claiming they were misled into selling up to Salford Council and given too little money for their homes and there is talk of legal action. Most say they were told the buildings were being pulled down. All are angry at being squeezed out to make way for such a profitable scheme.
Susan Copeland, who got £9,000 for her home on Reservoir Street, says: ‘I was never given the option to go back to the area. I was ousted out of the Urban Splash houses. I got a Homeswap but am not happy when I see what they are selling them for, and how much money they gave me. It doesn’t seem fair.’
Urban Splash will not be drawn on the claims, but director of development, Nathan Cornish, tells New Start the firm is obliged to sell its homes at market value and that prices have naturally increased as the market recovers.
‘Chimney Pot Park is a fantastic development and Urban Splash is very proud of it,’ he adds. ‘We are working with English Partnerships on a first time buyer initiative, where houses will go on sale with priority to local residents this summer.’
In Seedley South, also within the Langworthy ward, a row is also raging. Discussions are ongoing over plans to use £3.4m of pathfinder cash to fund the clearance of 52 terraced houses to make way for redevelopment. A decision is expected in July.
Residents claim their preferred option of minimal demolition – put together with an independent community adviser at the cost of more than £10,000 to Salford Council – has been sidelined for not being ‘transformational’ enough to attract the necessary funding. There has been no consultation on the council’s alternative plans, they say, leaving local people fuming.
Karen Ainsworth, of Nansen Street, will lose her home if the proposal goes ahead. She says: ‘We were given the option of low demolition and block improvements, and that’s what we chose. Now suddenly our plans don’t have the “wow factor” and more houses have to come down. So why was this option on the table in the first place? We think this is all about making money for developers.’
Salford Council leader, John Merry, admits there have been ‘difficult issues’ in Langworthy but says his role is to find the best solution for the whole community.
Local authorities are, he says, obliged to give the full value of a property when acquiring it, regardless of whether it will be demolished or redeveloped. The fact that prices have now increased shows the process is working.
And he also believes it can be difficult for individual residents to distance themselves enough from their own situation and judge the regeneration process as a whole.
‘I think most people who live there accept the fact that the council is doing the best it can to improve the social conditions in this area,’ he says.
‘A few years ago the housing market here had collapsed. The situation has now been reversed and we are seeing the benefits. We as a council have to find a way to turn residents’ needs into workable improvements for everyone.’
----- EXCERPT:It has fast become one of the government’s most controversial regeneration programmes. Now housing market renewal stands accused of short-changing local people. Ciara Leeming explains what’s gone wrong in Salford
----- -------- TITLE: Retail therapy AUTHOR: New Start DATE: 06/13/2007 04:13:20 PRIMARY CATEGORY: Economic-Development CATEGORY: ----- BODY:*Town and city centres have gone through a
retail renaissance in recent years. But a key ingredient to that success could be taken away just as those most in need of a boost are feeling the benefit. Rosie Niven reports*
Many of us associate John Major’s tenure as prime minister with Black Wednesday, the cones hotline and the doomed back to basics campaigns.
But despite this catalogue of blunders, there were some positive outcomes of Mr Major’s seven year premiership. Planning policies championed by his environment secretary, John Gummer, helped to reverse the damaging trend of out of town retail dev