Introduction

Concentrations of poverty rooted within particular neighbourhoods are a longstanding and persistent feature of evolving urban landscapes. The challenges faced by such neighbourhoods are multifaceted and the policy responses many and varied. In this book we have focused on the economic dimension of the problems of poor neighbourhoods, exploring how these areas are integrated within wider economic development processes in such a way that the benefits flowing from dominant models of economic growth routinely bypass their residents. In analysing the nature of the policy response, the book has considered the development of UK policy, evaluating critically an array of policy actions that have aimed at addressing issues of work, enterprise and governance in relation to deprived neighbourhoods, principally in the period since the New Labour government came to power in 1997.

Successive New Labour governments have placed the ‘neighbourhood’ at the forefront of the social exclusion, urban development and civic renewal policy agendas, with a particular focus on tackling concentrated deprivation in order to reduce the gap in income and living standards between the poorest neighbourhoods and the rest. The neoliberal-inspired model of urban regeneration that has informed policy development has sought to simultaneously promote economic competitiveness, social inclusion, community cohesion and improved governance, underwritten by a generalised commitment to notions of ‘sustainability’. The evolution of this policy approach to neighbourhood renewal was also informed by the perceived failings of past urban regeneration and social policies aimed at tackling concentrated deprivation. These included the lack of a comprehensive approach that simultaneously tackled the multiple and reinforcing dimensions of exclusion, the need for longer-term responses that recognised the deep-seated nature of problems, and the imperative of involving the local community actively in the development process and ensuring resources were targeted effectively to the most deprived areas.

In terms of tackling the economic dimension of the challenges faced by deprived neighbourhoods, three key elements apparent in policy – work, enterprise and improved governance – have been the focus of this book.

• • Work: Moving workless people of working age into employment has been one of the main objectives of New Labour governments over the last 10 years. This has led to a succession of welfare-to-work programmes and active labour market policy initiatives – many of them targeted at those living in the most deprived neighbourhoods – as well as various changes to the benefits system to ensure that unemployed recipients seek work.