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And
what is in it for the private sector? What do they get from
involvement? There appears to be four main areas why the private sector
is willing to get involved:
-
To improve their business
competitiveness or return on investment
-
To improve their business
environment
-
To gain information
-
To gain contracts from the public
sector
There is no evidence from this
survey that the private sector is primarily motivated by ‘civic duty’ or
by any desire to improve the well being of the local inhabitants. Most
businesses are located in inner city areas because it either suits them
(they could move elsewhere if they wanted to or felt that opportunities
were better elsewhere) or for historical reasons (they have been there
for along time). The connection between business and place may be
tangential – particularly if they are large scale or international
companies.
Regeneration offers an
opportunity for the sector to ‘to gain information, to gain contracts
from the public sector, to improve the business environment, concerning
security and tidiness, [and] to form networks with other businesses of
the area’ (Berlin); ‘…gain influence; knowledge of the area; can get
access to services and benefits in the area and from the public sector’
(Copenhagen); ‘… development opportunity and return on investment and
tax benefits where applicable.’ (Dublin); ‘…gain more influence… to make
better transportation infrastructure (including parking), to reduce the
number of crimes, to improve the accessibility of services to business’.
(Vilnius)
There
may be differences between different parts of the private sector –
particularly for owner-occupiers and SMEs. ‘Private owners primarily
want to secure their real estate in the long run and improve the value
of their estate. Owners, which take advantage of public means, do not
depend on fast profit realisation. Small businesses have more an
interest in improving the surroundings / location in order to improve
their competitiveness.’ (Hamburg)
One of the attractions of inner
city areas is that there is often an emphasis by the public sector on
job training/assistance. Therefore incentives provided by the public
sector may also be a motivating factor. ‘Some of the commercial sector
are involved because of the attraction of public grants (e.g. … grants
for house builders). Some are involved (develop their business or move
into the area) because of the local support… takes the pain out of
recruiting and training’ (Glasgow). ‘To benefit from financial funds and
loans with special conditions that make it easy to pay them back within
10 years, without the responsibility of re-housing tenants during the
construction works, and without planning, study and administration
costs’ (Lisbon)
Different private sector commitment is linked to different base
conditions, which function as motivation and attraction factors. In
connection with the relationship between private sector and
neighbourhood features we can differentiate between locally based and
dependent on local factors and clients and those having a having a
network structure and therefore some kind of flexibility or finally
working completely independent from an urban area on city or regional,
national or international level. We can find different kinds of
commitment and sense of accountability, which may range from very
intensive daily linkage, integration and participation via a relative
civic responsibility up to solely corporate responsibility.[1]
Depending on scale, capacity and economic force private sector may look
for different resources as there are:
Physical settings
Human recourses/ social situation
-
Labour
-
Skill
-
Motivation
-
Wages
Entrepreneurial opportunity and talent
Public relations
Stable operation conditions
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