Investing in people

All major cities contain areas which are characterised by multiple deprivation – not only giving rise to distress to these communities, but also having an important impact upon the wider economy. This is not a short-term problem. It has afflicted some communities for a generation or more and, for these and many others, the situation will not change for t he foreseeable future. Investing in People focuses on the processes which give rise to multiply-deprived neighbourhoods, the problems the communities within these neighbourhoods face and t he attempts being made to enable local communities to participate in and benefit from the implementation of integrated regeneration strategies. The researchers take as their starting-point case studies of eight cities in Germany and the UK. In spite of the many differences that exist between the two countries, they conclude that there is sufficient experience available to structure a UK programme of community regeneration to operate in parallel with and complementary to macro-economic programmes of recovery. With the last decade being one of the most creative periods for devising new approaches to the management of urban change, many of the components of a programme of community regeneration already exist. The report's proposals build upon and incorporate concepts of existing policies and programmes and exploit them to give greater prominence to community regeneration, whilst still working within existing levels of expenditure. If implemented, these proposals could have a profound influence on the behaviour and attitude of central and regional government, city administration and local communities alike. They establish a framework for securing more efficient involvement of both the private and voluntary sectors and – essentially – the local communities themselves, with the longer-term objective of transforming dependent communities into self-sufficient areas with greater community competence, wealth and confidence.