ABSTRACT
Background On 16 November 2000 the Deputy Prime Minister launched a new Urban White Paper entitled Our Towns and Cities: The Future (DETR 2000b). This document laid down a vast array of policy initiatives dealing with the social, economic and environmental dimensions of urban life. It was billed as presenting a new ‘joined-up’ and long-term approach to the co-ordination of financial-fiscal measures, policy agendas (including planning), and the functioning of various government and non-governmental agencies, all seeking to promote urban ‘renewal’ and arrest long-term decline and under-investment. Such a document, the first White Paper to address exclusively urban policy issues for some 23 years, was constructed upon other works, notably the findings of the Urban Task Force (chaired by Lord Rogers) (Urban Task Force 1999), and research reports into The State of English Cities and Living in Urban England: Attitudes and Aspirations (DETR 2000c). The White Paper set itself a number of ambitious targets, with detailed monitoring by a newly formed cabinet committee and Urban Summit in 2002.
