There are now well over 100 different funds available to regenerate the inner city and to tackle urban deprivation. Discuss the nature and degree of success of a range of these measures.

Most people are very unhappy living where they are living and some would rather live on the streets, due to fear over safety, crime and inadequate poor living conditions. There is few if any public transport systems and limited convenience shops. It is this kind of atmosphere that creates the disintegration of the city, as nobody can take pride in there home and street so it becomes degraded.

Schemes and policies

The urban programme was successful policies aimed at the regeneration of the land by landscaping abandoned land and renovating old parks and other areas. It was introduced in 1968 and was funded by local and central governments.

The inner urban areas act of 1978, was started by a labour government and continued by a conservative government, and was brought about to start new action plans to improve the social economic and environmental problems in the inner city.

Urban development grants were introduced to financially support projects in the inner city, hoping to attract property developers to the most run down parts of the inner city by the motive of financial aid.

In 1987 the urban regeneration grants were brought in, these were grants that could be directly paid to developers to regenerate large areas of the inner city.

The inner city initiative (ICI) was set up in 1986 and led to the development of inner city task forces. These groups were designed as a temporary service that provided a 'push in the right direction' for the unemployed population. The scheme was aimed at the economic regeneration of the inner city. It was very successful and led to thousands of educational and training opportunities and over 48,000 new jobs.

Areas of land were set up as Enterprise zones; these areas were intended to attract new industry to the area. The companies were offered a wide range of incentives to take up business on the land, such as; Reduced rent, grants for specialised machinery and purpose built buildings. This scheme was engaged to create more high skilled jobs in the area for the population.

The city challenge was set up in 1991 by secretary of state for the environment, it was a challenge funded by local authorities, to invent new ways of redeveloping old parts of the inner city and only the winners would get there project carried out.

Varies inner cities may benefit from grants from the national lottery fund but these funds aren't permanent and don't provide on the going funding that the inner cities need. The most serious failure of these policies is lack of funding; in recent years the government have reduced or even cut funding for some inner cities.

Examples of inner cities under regeneration.

The London Docklands have seen some of the worst deprivation of an inner city. There was high unemployment, levels of derelict land, inadequate public transport, poor housing and homelessness. After lots of schemes (like gentrification) and funding the inner city became a lot better, reclaiming 2.5 million m2 of industrial and commercial land and redeveloping it. Doubling the number of jobs from 1100 in 1981 to 2300 in 1990 and 15,200 new houses were developed. But the regeneration of the inner city had come too late and many people had already moved out, the new housing was very expensive and local people couldn't afford it, and the new jobs that were brought in were high skilled jobs that local people couldn't get.

The redevelopment came in four stages.

Stage one (1946-67) was aimed at redeveloping all of the damage caused by the bombing of World War II. It was at this time that the large tower blocks were built that are now criticised for there poor conditions and it is said that this development made the problem worse not better.

Stage two (1967-77) was interested in reinvestment in the docklands.

Stage three (1977-79) Little progress was made, the 'inner urban areas act', meant extra funding but cuts in government funding and lack of land made it a failure.

Stage four (1979-96) London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was set up. This was responsible for the regeneration of the Dockland area, and took public funding and private investment. This resulted in a transformation of the area.

A very important part of the Docklands regeneration was the vast improvement of the public transport system, with the new railways being built (costing £73,000,000) the area was opened up and people could move freely around the city. The very large Enterprise zone that was set up in the isle of dogs was a huge success; it offered business a 10-year rate free period.

Miles-Platting is an area in Manchester. It has a very high deprivation level and is one of the worst inner cities in Britain. The main problems with the area is the overpopulation, vandalism, poor living conditions, high unemployment (60%) and the overall lack of care for the community by the people that live there. The conditions here have created a 'Poverty trap'.

After a large explosion in the centre of Manchester on the 15th June 1996, 670 business lost there property's, an emergency appeal fund was set up and within a few months had received £2.5 million for the redevelopment of the inner city. Marks and Spencer announced the reconstruction of there biggest store ever in the world, I think that this had a great effect on the redevelopment of the city centre, as other stores and business were attracted by the announcement of the large 'pioneering' store.

Hulme in the 1960's was undergoing a very large scheme to redevelop the housing in the inner city. The houses were replaced with tower blocks that could house a greater number of people. Unfortunately this was a project that failed completely. Conditions were made much worse.