Huge sums are being pumped into run-down areas.
Connections looks at government regeneration plans.
In July 1998, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott laid out his vision for the government's regeneration policy. The aim was to reinvigorate entire communities by creating new housing and new jobs. The policy might seem to offer a lifeline to ethnic minorities, particularly those in areas of high unemployment where traditional industries have died out. However, it will have to avoid the pitfalls which have bedevilled regeneration schemes over the last 15 years. Under the Conservatives, the theory was that pouring capital into an area was enough to ensure prosperity, but in practice things were different.