The Coalition set out no aims in relation to neighbourhood inequalities and conditions. It argued that regeneration was a local issue, with national government in a ‘strategic and supporting role’. It stopped monitoring spatial inequalities or setting targets. Existing neighbourhood renewal programmes were cancelled, and replaced by very small scale schemes to support community organising and projects in coastal and coalfield communities. Spending on these schemes averaged £32m per year. By comparison, the previous government’s Neighbourhood Renewal Fund alone cost £500m per year. The government concentrated its efforts on promoting local economic growth, especially after the 2012 Heseltine Review when efforts were stepped up. Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) were established, and could negotiate new Local Growth Deals to fund housing and infrastructure developments, while ‘City Deal’ status gave 28 urban areas powers to attract private investment in return for pledges on innovation and efficiency. The early impact of the Government’s new programmes on jobs, business creation and new homes fell well below expectations. Initial forecasts for Enterprise Zones and the Growing Places Fund were revised downwards. Neighbourhood conditions and inequalities depend on many factors including the economy, public services, benefits and voluntary activity as well as regeneration programmes. At this stage there is no evidence of regional re-balancing of the economy and austerity measures have hit the poorest areas hardest. All of this leaves the poorest neighbourhoods very vulnerable. Indicators to date do not suggest a spiral of decline. However, gaps between the poorest neighbourhoods and others, which got wider during the recession, had only slightly narrowed again by 2013. Large disparities remain on all key indicators.
Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 8 citations exist upstream.