20 marker essay answer that discusses the case studies Hulme,London Docklands and Devonport. Consists of an introduction, 3 main body paragraphs and a conclusion.
Evaluate the different urban policies put in place in Britain since 1979?(20 marker)
Britain has introduced multiple strategies in an attempt to regenerate and improve
impoverished and declining areas. Policies such as Urban Development Corporations
(UDCs) had a top down approach whereas the New Deal for Communities had a bottom up
approach. The top down approach was present in the 80s where decisions were made by an
authority such as the government with little to no input from the local community and was
largely funded by private investment. Whereas the City challenge strategy in the 90s
consisted of local authority bargaining for government grants and input from the local
community. The New Deal for communities in the 2000s focused on the 39 most deprived
areas in the country by forming partnerships such as DRCP.
There were 13 UDCs carried out, the London docklands is probably the most notable
considering it is more primarily known as Canary Wharf,a financial hub and home of many
TNCs headquarters such as HSBC and Barclays. Before the regeneration, the London
docklands suffered from a decline due to containerisation boats being too large for the
Thames which then led to the closing of the docklands in the 60s. Areas such as the Isle of
Dogs experienced substantial deprivation with an unemployment rate twice the national
average (24% for men) and 1000 hectares of derelict land (50% of the docklands). LDDC
was set up in 1982 and the enterprise zone was formed. A total of £7.7 billion was spent by
private investment which mainly centred around business whereas the public investment had
a large focus on improving transport. The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) opened in 1987,
costing £73 million. It operates a full time service from Canary Wharf to Lewisham and was
funded by tax revenue. Housing was also addressed as 50,000 new homes have been built
since 1981 with 8,000 local authority homes being improved. Even though lots of money was
pumped into the areas, it had little impact on the local community as they could not get the
finance jobs in canary wharf; very few residents had level 4 qualifications and above. House
prices also increased, considering most residents rented some had become priced put the
market or experienced more financial stress.
In the 90s, Hulme in Manchester won the City Challenge grant from the government largely
due to the problematic crescent flats which were riddled with crime due to problem residents
being placed there by the council. The residents of the four concrete crescents did not have
a suitable standard of living and arguably experienced worse conditions than the previous
housing which was described as slums. In the high rise decks you were 34 times more likely
to be mugged or murdered than the national average. Due to Manchester winning the
grant,£37.5 million was made available from the government to create a new Hulme. The
Hulme City Challenge Partnership drew up plans to build 3000 new homes, new shopping
areas, roads, community facilities and a business park to encourage investment. The tower
blocks were demolished and replaced by terraced housing and apartments with small
gardens so people felt like it was more of a home not just a room unlike the crescent
housing. One of the biggest successes of the city challenge was reduced crime (down from
32% to 6% in 20 years) as well as reduced unemployment. Several thousand permanent
jobs have been created in new office and light industrial activities and also in the service
sector. However Hulme City challenge is also criticised for not largely improving education,
which is a factor the residents largely believe contribute to the poverty in the area. Hulme is
still deprived compared to the rest of the country.
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