The Enterprise Culture And The Inner City

The article discusses how the government has changed its approach to regeneration in the inner city, and how this has led to a resurgence in enterprise activity. The article looks at four case studies, and finds that while the strategy has had some success, it has not been able to completely solve the problems of inner city deprivation.

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, policy for inner city regeneration underwent a transformation from a reliance on central and local government activity and the use of public funds, to a much heavier dependence on private sector activities and private investment. This new strategy was based on a conviction on the part of government that the engine of enterprise could achieve in the inner cities what local government had so signally failed to do. It consisted of using public resources as incentives to attract commerce, business and industry back to designated sectors in or near to inner city areas. Regeneration would be development-led; enterprise activity would burgeon in the old wastelands; new jobs would be created; the inner city economies would be revitalized and a dependent population energized by the culture of enterprise. The Enterprise Culture and the Inner City evaluates the effectiveness of this strategy in alleviating urban deprivation. The authors examines four case studies - two Urban Development Corporations, one local government-private sector, and one purely private development - and make detailed analyses of job creation.