Last week the GLA and the Mayor of London launched London’s new Regeneration Fund; a direct response to the August riots pledging “£70m towards major long term improvements to the damaged town centres and high streets. The fund is focused both on the boroughs affected, and where there is potential to drive growth and prosperity.” Funding has been allocated to 8 areas, with the most significant investments in Croydon, Tottenham, Peckham and Woolwich.
It is to the GLA and the Mayor’s credit that they have managed to secure and mobilise such a significant amount of funding in such a period of time; the challenge is now to ensure that each pound invested generates real value for affected localities and plays its part in addressing some of the fundamental issues that contributed to the riots.
In the same week that the Mayor announced his Regeneration Fund, the National Centre for Social Research published the findings of a significant piece of research into the motivations and drivers behind young people’s involvement in the riots. This research is the first post-riot report to be built around interviews with young people involved. Interviewees identify a number of factors which led to their involvement. Some are personal, some circumstantial and some relate to their family and community situation. The report also identifies some more general social factors which are perhaps most closely linked to the aspirations of Regeneration Fund:
- Having (or not having) a stake in the area: a number of those involved have written off their local area and felt excluded. Others travelled to riots, not wishing to ‘trash their backyard’.
- Youth provision: boredom and a lack of things to do and places to go were identified by participants as strong contributors to involvement.
- Poverty and materialism: the fact that life was a ‘struggle’ was identified as a motivating factor in relation to looting specifically.
These observations create an interesting challenge for the Regeneration Fund. How can the proposed improvements engage young people, invoke civic pride and encourage involvement in more positive activity?
On first inspection, the Regeneration Fund is heavily focused on improvements to the public realm, way finding and supporting planned (and in some cases stalled) physical development.
The nature of the proposed interventions does raise questions about who will ultimately benefit. This is clearly good news for developers of Ruskin Square in Croydon, Hale Village in Tottenham and the Royal Arsenal Riverside in Woolwich, all of whom will be given the opportunity to improve upon existing development plans. But, do these projects have the potential to deliver significant, transformational benefits without further direct intervention in riot locations.
Ruskin Square - ©Stanhope Shroders
Regeneris knows the value in creating good public realm. We have also outlined the potential of Crossrail to provide real transformational improvement to Woolwich and have argued for improved gateways and public realm in Croydon. This experience has taught us the importance of ensuring that potential local benefits are actually realised. This is particularly important if the Regeneration Fund is to address some of the fundamental issues which contributed to the riots and should be one of the key tests of whether the Fund succeeds.
More than anything else, it will be important for the team delivering the Regeneration Fund to break new ground in terms of consultation and involvement. These projects need to be genuinely owned by local people if they are to generate civic pride. Past efforts have clearly not been successful enough. The Fund also makes reference to supporting local employment and business involvement. Again this needs to be delivered in a new and innovative way.
Improved locations need to be considered in the context of their functional economies and spheres of influence. Croydon for example draws populations from some of South London’s most deprived communities. The Regeneration Fund needs to engage and intervene in locations outside of town centres (such as Thornton Heath, Roundshaw Estate and Pollards Hill in the case of Croydon) to ensure that London’s most deprived communities are the real beneficiaries of the fund.
The Regeneration Fund is very much a top-down response to the riots (which is unsurprising given that the response has been so quickly mobilised). This will undoubtedly create great places, spaces and opportunities but the bigger challenge will be building upon initial outline commitments to employment business support and engagement to ensure everyone is included, not least those who took part in the riots in the first place.
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