ABSTRACT
This chapter evaluates key economic growth and localism policies in the context of austerity politics and urbanism. The property-led entrepreneurial era of urban regeneration can be traced from 1979 until 1991, following which, an era of competitive bidding for urban funds emerged during the 1990s. The direction of travel for urban regeneration in the United Kingdom has become clearer in terms of the focus on economic growth, productivity, competitiveness, investment in large-scale infrastructure and the industrial strategy. Urban regeneration appears to have returned to the 1980s during the 2010s with the driving force being economic growth in response to the credit crunch and resulting global financial crisis. Evaluating urban policy over the decades since the 1960s has been a challenge due to methodological problems associated with the ‘5Cs': counterfactual, confound, contextual, combinatorial and choice. Several important economic growth and localism policies aimed at urban regeneration during the 2010s can be explored.
