Co‐operation with the community in property‐led urban regeneration

Community involvement is a requirement for the public sector funding of urban regeneration in the UK. As a result, it has a major effect on the governance of property‐led regeneration. How well has this new governance structure functioned? This question is addressed here through some deductions regarding the potential benefits and costs of community involvement. These highlight potential ambiguities in the nature of community involvement and difficulties in creating the appropriate conditions for successful co‐operation. This analysis is then compared with the results of a survey of the views on community representatives by non‐community participants in partnerships associated with property‐led urban regeneration. In general, the other partners found community representatives difficult to co‐operate with. Problems arose in particular over representativeness, trust and efficient working practices.