Decision-making in Regeneration Practice

This chapter presents an overview of decision-making in urban regeneration practice in the UK since the 1970s. By tracing the evolution of regeneration over the past four decades, the chapter illustrates how decision-making has shifted from being a primarily public sector led process, to involving the private sector much more fully from the 1980s, and integrating community interests to varying degrees since the 1990s. However, since the financial crisis of 2008, there has been an increased involvement of nonstate actors in regeneration: first with local community groups encouraged to become more integrated in local planning and development, and second with the private sector being encouraged to invest in large-scale urban development. The chapter concludes that in the prevalent neoliberal climate that promotes economic growth and wealth creation, the main driving force behind governance in urban regeneration projects comes firmly from the private sector, encouraged by public sector policies that strengthen global investment in urban development projects.