Investing in People
Subtitle: Rescuing communities from the margin
Publisher: Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Published: December 1993
Place of publication: York
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 48
ISBN-13: 9781872470863
Subjects: Housing
First sentence: The report draws on research undertaken between 1991 and 1993 at  the Public Policy Research Unit, Queen Mary and Westfield College, London and the Department of Spatial Planning at the University of Dortmund. The research, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Anglo-German Foundation, focused on the regeneration of multiply-deprived communities. it was divided into two parts. The first reviewed government sponsored urban renewal and community development programmes in Germany and the United Kingdom and the second looked at the experiences of eight major cities, each of which has a significant commitment to implementing community regeneration initiatives. The cities were Glasgow, Belfast, Sheffield and Birmingham in the UK and Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Duisburg and Dortmund in Germany. In each of t he cities a particular community regeneration initiative was explored in detail.
Description: All major cities contain areas which are characterised by multiple deprivation – not only giving rise to distress to these communities, but also having an important impact upon the wider economy. This is not a short-term problem. It has afflicted some communities for a generation or more and, for these and many others, the situation will not change for t he foreseeable future.

Investing in People focuses on the processes which give rise to multiply-deprived neighbourhoods, the problems the communities within these neighbourhoods face and t he attempts being made to enable local communities to participate in and benefit from the implementation of integrated regeneration strategies.

The researchers take as their starting-point case studies of eight cities in Germany and the UK. In spite of the many differences that exist between the two countries, they conclude that there is sufficient experience available to structure a UK programme of community regeneration to operate in parallel with and complementary to macro-economic programmes of recovery.

With the last decade being one of the most creative periods for devising new approaches to the management of urban change, many of the components of a programme of community regeneration already exist. The report's proposals build upon and incorporate concepts of existing policies and programmes and exploit them to give greater prominence to community regeneration, whilst still working within existing levels of expenditure.

If implemented, these proposals could have a profound influence on the behaviour and attitude of central and regional government, city administration and local communities alike. They establish a framework for securing more efficient involvement of both the private and voluntary sectors and – essentially – the local communities themselves, with the longer-term objective of transforming dependent communities into self-sufficient areas with greater community competence, wealth and confidence.
Notes: The conclusions and findings have also been informed by a number of associated studies. One was commissioned by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, a research institute funded by the German Federal Government. The study detailed 35 local partnerships in disadvantaged neighbourhoods in Germany and described the social renewal programmes for multiply-deprived communities in the Netherlands, Germany, and Great Britain. Another study, commissioned jointly by the Ministry of Housing and Building Construction and the Ministry of Urban Development and Transport of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, looked at programmes for multiply-deprived communities in the Netherlands and France. Finally, the conclusions have benefited from linkages with the Quartiers en Crise programme of the European Commission in Brussels.
Table of contents: title: Preface
pagenum: 3; title: Summary and conclusions
pagenum: 4; label: 1
title: Introduction
pagenum: 6; label: 2
title: UK / German differences
pagenum: 7; label: 3
title: Post-war housing
pagenum: 11; label: 4
title: Cities in flux
pagenum: 13; label: 5
title: From urban renewal to community regeneration
pagenum: 16; label: 6
title: Core elements of multiple deprivation
pagenum: 18; label: 7
title: Community regeneration strategies
pagenum: 22; label: 8
title: Directions for the future
pagenum: 34; label: 9
title: Community regeneration: Falling between stools
pagenum: 36; label: 10
title: Community regeneration: The scope for a national framework
pagenum: 40