Urban Initiatives since 1979: Innovation, Consolidation and Assessment

Abstract

In the previous chapters we provided an overview of Conservative thinking on urban regeneration and examined a series of inherited initiatives. This present chapter comprises three parts:

• A discussion of the innovatory initiatives which had the specific purpose of facilitating free-market, and more specifically property-led, forms of urban regeneration. These initiatives were Enterprise Zones (EZs), Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) and Free Ports (FPs).

• A analysis of the attempt by the third Thatcher government and the subsequent Major governments to consolidate and coordinate the Conservative approach to urban regeneration.

• An assessment of the practical contribution which the post-1979 governments have made to urban policy.