26 March 2008

Regeneration programmes are failing to reduce inequalities because they are good at measuring things that make no difference to the lives of local people – and poor at measuring things that do.

Research by the New Economics Foundation think tank, published this week, said government was repeating mistakes of the past because it had never fully challenged two key assumptions. One, that outputs provide a true measure of change and two, that there is a direct cause and effect relationship between investment and the achievement of policy objectives. These assumptions are reflected in performance measures that exaggerate the success of initiatives and perpetuate their weaknesses time and again.

Focusing on the local enterprise growth initiative (Legi) scheme in St Helens, Merseyside, which was given more than £13m in government funding over a three-year period, the report showed how government measures focus on objectives that are either unrealistic or totally miss the point.

Full employment targets, for example, dominate the programme but are often irrelevant for people who have been excluded for a long time from the labour market and need to build their confidence in order to progress. Moreover, although the St Helens programme reported 829 jobs in the first year, the numbers on benefits in its priority areas actually increased.

‘Too often indicators and performance measures are set in isolation from both the people who will be using them and those for whom they are meant to work.

‘Stakeholders often find that the measures being applied are not even relevant, let alone useful. Legi objectives focus on enterprise and employment, which are clearly important. But those delivering services tend not to be encouraged to pay heed to a wider range of benefits such as the quality of jobs created, access to services, levels of crime, and increased quality of life.’

The think tank concluded: ‘There is still a significant gap in the evidence about what works in relation to economic development policy. It is essential that policy becomes more informed and less political if we are to build the evidence base and use public investment as effectively as possible to combat inequality.’

Hitting the target, missing the point, www.neweconomics.org