Table of contents

Addressing policy makers

The recommendations address how the challenge of urban regeneration in the European city may be met through public-private partnerships at neighbourhood level. The focus is on what can be achieved through urban regeneration initiatives that involve the private sector (commercial enterprises) engaging in collaborative relations with public sector institutions (government bodies) and social economy organisations and other third sector individual volunteers and their associations. Such arrangements are termed public-private partnerships. The key aims of public-private partnerships in urban regeneration are to support local socio-economic development, to improve the built environment, to promote inclusion in the wider economy and society, to encourage community capacity-building, and to enhance knowledge transfer.

In this report we stress three messages in particular:

• the need to embed the regeneration approach across all policy contexts
• the desirability of flexible developmental strategies
• the development of inter-cultural and cross-sectoral networking as a key urban resource

The recommendations are based on empirical observation and analysis of the urban regeneration process in eight European cities. Under the auspices of the ENTRUST thematic network the diversity of cases and thematic evidence provided a rich basis for an international comparative approach. ENTRUST concluded the work by offering a set of guidelines and recommendations on public-private partnership in urban regeneration.

There is a broad consensus in ENTRUST that urban regeneration has to fundamentally respond to the problems of poverty and social exclusion. In all of the participant cities we identified the co-existence of thriving central city zones and contiguous inner-city neighbourhoods housing people who for one reason or another are socially excluded. While in some instances, job creation is the priority because of serious local economic decline, in others pockets of deprivation may have resulted from wider social inequalities that are embedded in the housing system. In addition, problems associated with physical decay, a low skill-base among the local population, fear of crime or limited access to wider opportunity structures – especially for migrants – are the critical challenges facing such communities.

Governments, municipalities and communities have been engaging in a range of regenerative efforts aimed at mitigating the social and environmental consequences of decline, reversing such decline, creating the conditions for improving quality of life and capacity-building among local actors. These interventions have proceeded through mainstream political and institutional frameworks and special funding programmes, governed and implemented either by designated departments within local government or by social economy institutions.

Deprived neighbourhoods are frequently abandoned by people with resources and by the private sector. The key question is whether this situation can be turned around. While it is accepted that the private sector is not an instigator of urban regeneration, the potential exists for private investors to play a significant strategic role once the regeneration process is underway. If the private sector were to assume a more pro-active role in urban regeneration, it may bring additional resources to the neighbourhood, increasing sustainability and diminishing the need for public investment. Across the eight participating cities, however, we found little evidence of commercial enterprise taking part in regeneration programmes. Nevertheless, our case studies provide a rich store of information on how urban regeneration strategies have been developed, tested and reconfigured in the pursuit of public-private partnership.

The recommendations are intended for decision-makers and their advisors at all levels of government: local (neighbourhood and municipality), regional, national and the European Union. Given the heterogeneity of urban polices of members states, and following the principle of subsidiarity, these recommendations do not suggest the creation of an over-arching European policy. Rather, the overall thrust of the document is the improvement of policy integration and cohesion across all levels of policy-making. Furthermore, it is suggested that effective communication and co-ordination between levels must be a hallmark of policy development and delivery.

8. RECOMMENDATIONS    Next