Neighbourhood regeneration: Routes out of disappointment

Abstract

There is a sense in Scotland that the substantial effort in regeneration is simply not producing the results on the ground in terms of measurable outcomes. There is reason to think that this may be the result of the nature of that effort. The large regeneration agency, with its substantial funding, its single-minded focus on defined and quantified 'outcomes', its network of partners all working towards the same ends seems like the very model of impressive modern efficiency. But it may be that, by not creating the conditions in which new local work can arise from innovation, trial and error and the occasional failure, it is proving counterproductive to the recovery of a self-generating and diverse local economy. Eight policy areas where local, as distinct from central, government should act are proposed.