ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analysis of partnership within Sheffield, taking a historical perspective to consider relations between government departments and between central and local government. From the middle of the 19th century, steel-making became the major industry in Sheffield and located on the flat land available in the city, to the north-east of the city centre in the Lower Don Valley. The limits imposed by central government on the ability to determine its own rates were at the heart of the crisis within the council and which ‘encouraged’ Sheffield to move towards partnership with the private sector. Public-private partnership became to Labour thinking about urban regeneration and the delivery of local services following the election. The Sheffield First Partnership assured a continuity which overcame the loss of Labour’s majority in the council itself. In Sheffield, Single Regeneration Budget became the occasion for the council to transfer some of its responsibilities to the neighbourhoods, in a sort of internal decentralisation.
