Referring to contemporary debates about development in East London, discuss the problems of assessing the success and failure of redevelopment through the use of available statistics.

Authors Avatar

HEMIS no.: 125851

Page

Referring to contemporary debates about development in East London, discuss the problems of assessing the success and failure of redevelopment through the use of available statistics.

The area of East London is a region that is in a period of immense transition. It has been for hundreds of years and surly will continue to be, as it is by nature a forever evolving location. Following great economic, industrial and (as a result) social decline in the late twentieth century, efforts have and continue to be made to regenerate the former prosperity of the area.

Since the beginning of major programmes of redevelopment more than twenty years ago, there has been great debate about the success and failure of the schemes implemented. Throughout the early 1970s, the area was praised as being “one of the most exciting developments of the century” by Peter Walker, at the time the secretary of state for the environment. But despite millions of pounds of marketing and investment, it is argued in many contemporary debates that what has been offered for years has never been delivered.

This essay will discuss these issues, old and new, studying the Docklands in particular as an area of east London that has seen massive change in the last part of the twentieth century. Giving attention to the aims of authorities to rejuvenate the region, it will evaluate the seemingly immortal argument that is ”has the regeneration and redevelopment been a success or a failure?”, focusing on the problems that occur with trying to answer such a question.

In the early 1980s it was becoming very obvious to the Conservative government that economic and social decline in England’s inner cities was increasing dramatically, and so began to seek out new approaches to regeneration. After looking at the attitudes that the United States government had taken to regenerate areas in deterioration, it was concluded that in order to “cut through the red tape of local authority planning policies which stifled the private sector”, radically different schemes and organisations would be required in order to implement extreme new policies.

The offspring of these conclusions were Urban Development Corporations (“UDCs”). These new institutions were to be, unusual until now, government appointed rather than elected by the local populous. They were to be powerful enough to undertake the huge task of regeneration.

From the outset it was recognised that reviving the Docklands economy was central to the overall regeneration task of east London. As a result the London Docklands Development Corporation was designated as the managing body of the Docklands Urban Development Area on 2nd July 1981, by the Secretary of State for the Environment, Michael Heseltine, under provisions of the Local Government Planning and Land Act 1980. Along with Merseyside, it was the first UDC to be set up. Ten more UDCs were designated in 1993.

The aim in the area bounded by the London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was to attract inward investment and to create sustainability in the area through a number of different strategies, involving physical works and marketing policies.

The powers that Government provided the LDDC with were as follows:

  1. Financial resources provided by the Treasury, through the Department of Environment - initially an amount between £60-70 million per annum.
Join now!

  1. Powers as a single development control Planning Authority (in place of the three boroughs), enabling the Corporation to provide a 'one stop service' for investors and developers seeking advice and planning permission (but with no plan making powers, responsibility for which remained with the local authorities).

  1. Land acquisition powers, with the ability to acquire land quickly from public sector authorities, through special Parliamentary vesting procedures to achieve 'regeneration'.

  1. Powers as an Enterprise Zone Authority responsible for the Isle of Dogs Enterprise Zone, which was designated in April 1982 with a ten-year life.

...

This is a preview of the whole essay