A new definition of regeneration

Vibrant and Viable Places, the new consultation document for Welsh regeneration, represents a new approach for Wales and a turning point in the country’s regeneration policy. It’s an important step in the evolution of the UK regeneration agenda into an era of funding scarcity.

It proposes the creation of new regional regeneration boards, acting as the connective tissue between the ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ approaches to regeneration. They will map regional activities, needs and opportunities, and develop a business plan for funding and partnership – a bold departure from the current regeneration areas model.

Where Welsh regeneration policy previously lacked certainty and transparency, a new ministerial advisory panel will, at national level, advise, scrutinise and comment upon proposals generated at regional level.

There is a welcome focus on programme evaluation so that activities are mapped and measured. Until now, regeneration has been evaluated by describing the amount of money spent, rather than impact created. Evaluation and impact measurement had slipped from the vocabulary of Welsh regeneration policy, but the new agenda very much focuses on outcomes: making places better and people less poor.

Vibrant and Viable Places presents an extensive review of achievements to date, as well as an exploration of what has – and, obliquely, what hasn’t – worked. Thankfully, it suggests that the current financial drawbridge which gets pulled up each April might be replaced by a longer-term ‘regeneration business plan’. This would be overseen at a regional level and result in more rational delivery programmes.

Regeneration doesn’t fit neatly within political timescales, so it’s good to see the report moving away from short-termism and towards real-world timescales.

The proposed regional governance structures will enable effective links between local and national priorities. Initiatives and designations will be evidence-based rather than politically determined. This logic seems to be on the cusp of being applied in the City Region approach, and a test of this joined-up concept is whether these regional regeneration boards will be supported by the Welsh government’s much-anticipated planning bill, to be published next year.

These new regional alignments are akin to some of the outcomes of Regeneration Strategy for Powys, prepared by Powell Dobson Urbanists in 2011. This also had clear recommendations for activities to be coordinated by regional partners, thus providing the link between local and national priorities. Given that the ministerial portfolio contains heritage, it’s unsurprising that Vibrant and Viable Places includes Wales’ history as a kind of ‘regeneration currency’.

Interestingly, promotion of heritage is used as a regenerative concept. Rather than attempt to pickle Wales’ heritage and turn the country into a giant museum, the new regeneration framework enables us to think differently about how to get the most out of our heritage so that we protect it, as well as harness its potential.

Despite the document’s many positives, the biggest disappointment is one of its most important aspects: its definition of ‘regeneration’. Vibrant and Viable Places talks about ‘intervention where market forces alone cannot reverse decline’. We’ve tried reversing decline, and if we evaluate the outcomes we’d probably discover that it hasn’t succeeded.

This interpretation is dated. Will ‘regeneration’ continue to be applied as a kind of ongoing palliative care to places? Is this even affordable? Perhaps the salvation of Wales’ most entrenched problems lies in embracing a more positive and forward thinking mindset; a language that talks about equipping places, communities and economies for the future as a means to overcome the legacy of decline.

Looking at regeneration in these terms, we see that innovation and creativity are key to meeting our objectives. Both words are mentioned in the report, implying a willingness to accept risk. You cannot be innovative without a healthy acceptance that not everything is going to work every time. A modified attitude to risk is needed for this exciting new regeneration framework to deliver real results.

Vibrant and Viable Places is more than a much-needed recalibration of Welsh regeneration policy. It is a new way of approaching regeneration in an era of constrained funding – and yet a nagging doubt remains. At the heart of the document, the underlying definition of regeneration is not in step with its overall vision. Regeneration in these times needs to prepare places for the future, not just heal the wounds of the past.