The way forward for regeneration?: Lessons from the single regeneration budget challenge fund

The Labour government's embryonic local regeneration agenda is considered in the context of lessons from the SRB Challenge Fund inherited from its Conservative predecessor. It is argued that (under the Conservatives): the SRB process was highly centralised; economic competitiveness was prioritised over social investment; the relationship between resource allocation and need was ambiguous; local partnership working was unequal. Labour has addressed the more obvious flaws of the SRB but has created new ones with the establishment of the Regional Development Agencies. Like the Conservatives, it has missed an opportunity for greater ‘localism’.