Communities and Local Government

• Cities and regions
• Towns and Cities: partners in urban renaissance

Cities and regions

Towns and Cities: partners in urban renaissance

Introduction

Launched by Lord Falconer on 20 September 2001, Towns and Cities: Partners in Urban Renaissance is a crucial part of Government commitment to making our towns and cities better places for all. The project leads up to the Urban Summit in Autumn 2002. The 24 towns and cities across the country who have been invited into the partnership will work closely with the DTLRs Urban Policy Unit (UPU) in a year-long action research project. The project is being carried out by the UPU with regeneration consultants URBED (Urban and Economic Development Group). It will involve assessing the visions and priorities of the 24 towns, and cities, their measurement of progress and their means of delivery. An important part of the Partners in Urban Renaissance project is the opportunity it gives partners to tell us about obstacles preventing positive change including any Government policy which, in their view, is not having the impact it was meant to or is proving difficult to implement.

The 24 Partner Towns and Cities, chosen because they face different challenges and offer different lessons in delivering urban renaissance are:-

How it will work

We want to take a systematic look at how urban renaissance is being tackled by the local authorities, and to explore with them individually how they are:

• developing their visions for their town/city and their communities;
• identifying their priorities;
• involving their communities - residents, business, all those with a stake in their town/city;
• delivering improvements for the people who live, work and invest in their town/city;
• measuring positive change - how they know things are getting better;
• identifying obstacles to progress, and finding the solutions to them; and
• learning the lessons from their work

There are two strands to the work: assessing progress and the learning network.

Assessing Progress

Over the next ten months, URBED and the UPU will work with the partners through a programme of action research to understand how urban renaissance is progressing, and to assess some of the obstacles that are being encountered. From this work, URBED will produce a renaissance profile and progress report for each of the 24 towns and cities and these will feed into a final report for the UPU, setting out what is being achieved, the obstacles, and what can be done to overcome them. A good practice guide will also be produced for a wider audience and will be published before the Urban Summit.

Workshops

Changing perceptions of towns and cities are key to urban renaissance, and it is therefore important to understand the views of those who live, work or invest locally.

It will be valuable to test out how far citizens share the visions of the local authorities and what is seen to be working and why. URBED working with MORI will hold one-day citizen workshops in eight of the towns and cities. These will consist of participants selected to represent a cross section of residents and other partners. The issues for discussion will be influenced by the results of the initial visits, and may include, for example, how far the process of change is spreading out beyond the town or city centre, and whether major projects are seen to have succeeded.

As private investment is so critical to success, URBED and the property consultants King Sturge will also hold workshops in each of the towns and cities with those involved in business and property, and other urban professionals.

Learning Network

The learning network is a key element of the project. The objective is to ensure that experience and best practice are shared to enable progress to be made. The network will provide the software of the partnership through direct contacts, discussion and information technology. We will ensure that the initiative is a two-way street, and will seek feedback from our partners about how central government policies translate into practice.

We will work in co-operation with our colleagues in other central Government Departments, and will be in contact with such key organisations as the Local Strategic Partnerships, the Local Government Association, and others.

Other Authorities

Throughout the course of the initiative we will not ignore all of the other towns and cities, but will continue to maintain a relationship with them. Specifically, we will ensure that they benefit from the lessons which we learn from our work with the 24 partners.

Contacts

If you want further information you can contact us by e-mail:

siobhan.larking@communities.gsi.gov.uk or john.palfalvy@communities.gsi.gov.uk

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