Neighbourhood Asset Management: Life Cycles and Learning for Social Sustainability

Managing neighbourhood assets is a crucial, but often neglected, element in achieving sustainable communities. Within an overarching UK policy framework, English policy ¹ defines sustainable communities as ‘places where people want to live and work, now and in the future’ (Defra, 2005, p121). In terms of the built environment, the policy focuses on the physical development of new communities and the large-scale renovation and replacement of worn-out places. There is no coherent vision about managing the built environment during the period between building and renovating it, although two important components of such a vision do appear in the current English strategy document: cleaning and greening neighbourhoods; and meeting the decent homes standard for social housing.