Table of contents

1. Introduction

This report addresses new ways of regenerating deprived urban neighbourhoods in European cities. How can we make these better places to live and work in? We present here – in summary form – practical solutions developed by over 50 practitioners, policy makers and researchers in the ENTRUST network of eight European cities to the challenges faced by people working at the front line of urban regeneration.

This report presents emerging experience and lessons that are deeply rooted in a variety of different national and local traditions of urban regeneration. At the same time it demonstrates the ways in which the partipating cities have come to draw on each other's experiences in devising urban strategies. In doing so, they also attempt to develop new approaches which are more comprehensive, integrated and agency-oriented. These new patterns of regeneration are therefore increasingly informed by cross-national transfers of knowledge and mutual learning. This exchange was ena-bled and furthered by the ENTRUST network.

ENTRUST (Empowering Neighbourhoods through Recourse and Synergies with Trade) is a European network of over 50 practitioners, policy-makers and researchers in eight European cities – Berlin, Copenhagen, Dublin, Glasgow, Hamburg, Lisbon, Valetta and Vilnius. It is supported by the European Commission under the Fifth Framework RTD Programme/Key Action 4 'City of Tomorrow and Cultural Heritage'.

The network of city teams was generated by Byfornyelse Danmark on request of the City of Copenhagen and Integrated Area Planning in Dublin. ENTRUST followed up and extended previous steps of cooperation in INTERREG IIC (Integrated Urban Planning and Management, 1998-2001).

ENTRUST was launched in 2002. A major focus of the network was to involve partnerships in, and for the betterment of deprived neighbourhoods whilst producing and making use of the transnational knowledge base. Its main aims are raising awareness of, and facilitating new approaches to urban regeneration.

In this report we begin by briefly outlining the context of the Entrust project (Section 2). This is followed by the identification of the key objectives of the thematic network (Section 3) and an explanation of the methodological principles and practices that guided our work (section 4). Next we present case summaries from the eight participating cities (Section 5). These are intended to give the reader af sense of the scope and breadth of the regeneration work that is going on across Europe. The learning from cross-city visits was distilled further into four key thematic areas, which are briefly described in Section 6. In Section 7 we present a set of guidelines for practioners seeking to develop partnerships with the private sector in the context of urban regeneration. Section 8 contains a set of key recommendations that are directed at policy-makers, from local to EU-level, and is followed by a brief conclusion. Section 9 contains information on the project participants and their institutions. Detailed documentation on the methodology, processes and results which are presented here in summary form can be accessed through other parts of our website.

Urban regeneration policies are diverse and embrace a variety of concerns. That is why the report is directed towards a number of target groups. We want to address professionals and policy-makers, who may be aware of the problem but not necessarily the solutions available:

– on the European level, Regional Policy DG (with a view to the monitoring of cohesion and to mainstreaming regional/urban funding) but also Research DG and other relevant DGs;

– national ministries for urban affairs and for social and economic affairs, with a view to the development of respective national policies;

• policy makers and local administrations for urban development, but also for eco-nomic and social development with a view to practical implementation;

• third sector or community action groups in the neighbourhoods with a view to their central role for urban regeneration

• private enterprises in the neighbourhoods with a view to their potential role for urban regeneration.

The report sums up the results of two and a half years' intensive exchange and writing up. During this time, all participants shared valuable insights. They documented case studies, distilled thematic evidence and drew lessons from their respective cases.

In doing so, ENTRUST members moved towards generating more general lessons for policy makers and practitioners.