ABSTRACT
The signi cant period of urban regeneration policy under the New Labour government between 1997 and 2010 represented as much a watershed in UK politics as the election of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government in 1979, but this was not immediately obvious at the time. There was an early commitment to the previous government’s spending plans, no retrenchment of neo-liberal urban policies, and a continuation of some key Conservative urban policies such as SRB, albeit with some refocusing ( Chapter 4 ), and an acceleration rather than a reversal of principles of partnership and competition (Jones and Evans 2008, pp. 12-13). The trends were continued with Rounds 4 and 5 of the SRB, the New Deal for Communities, Employment, Education and Health Action Zones, and other initiatives (Taylor et al. 2001). Shaw and Robinson (2010) highlighted three areas of continuities from past urban regeneration experience. First, the legacy of social pathology continued to be evident in New Labour’s urban policies. Second, interventions continued to focus on small areas. Third, physical change and development were still seen as ‘solutions’ to complex problems.
