Regenerating regeneration

In 1998, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, launched New Labour's policy on neighbourhood renewal. New Labour has argued for a central role for the community based on notions of community leadership and community self‐help. In this paper, we will argue that this new approach may only amount to a re‐working of old polices and practices and could result in another costly long‐term failure. We argue for further dialogue around a number of proposals that seek to enable residents to initiate and shape their own debate as a prelude to new forms of local and area regeneration.