Tourism projects sometimes provide opportunities to reuse historic buildings and regenerate derelict areas. The quality of the built environment, and the conservation of the historic environment, are important elements in promoting tourism. The City is located to the south end of the Pennines. The conjunction of northern moorland and the Midlands plain produces an undulating and varied topography with interesting views and landmark sites. This landscape has the potential to produce similarly interesting townscape.
Development needs to respond to contextual features such as topography.
This provides the City with the capacity for considerable inner-city development, assisting in economic regeneration and absorbing development pressures that might otherwise be directed at the surrounding rural environment. The emphasis of regeneration projects is often on declining areas of the City with low levels of economic activity. The traditional industrial core and other areas of suppressed economic activity are potentially important resources for economic growth and development. Access to funding Large scale investment has recently been attracted to the City, in partnership with the private and voluntary sectors, from European Structural Funds and the Single Regeneration Budget. Other funding opportunities are also now available, such as the National Lottery funds.