Introduction

The regeneration of regions, cities and towns across England – particularly in the North – has been a major achievement over the last 15 years, on the back of sustained investment by both the public and private sectors, in the context of a particularly supportive economic environment.

• The recession has stalled the process of regeneration in many towns and cities across the country. There’s a real danger that momentum will be difficult to secure, and investment will return slowly.
• There are features of the regeneration landscape we can no longer take for granted. New models of relationships, financing and delivery may be needed in the new economic context.
• We cannot give up, and leave the renewal of communities as unfinished business. But to regain momentum we need to use the next few months to improve the process of regeneration, and in doing so to build a new commitment from the public, private and community sector, working together to generate greater and more sustainable prosperity.

All partners engaged in the process of regeneration have an opportunity now to refresh, renew and update the process in order to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead. Regeneration Momentum aims to bring together partners engaged in regeneration to identify new ideas and models of engagement between the public, private and voluntary sectors. We need new ways of getting more for less, new ideas for expanding the scope and scale of investment propositions and a new approach to using the resources and powers of the public sector more effectively.

As a first step, we commissioned a wide portfolio of research projects, one of which included a new report by Professor Michael Parkinson on "The Credit Crunch, Recession and Regeneration in the North: What's Happening, What's Working, What's Next?” This report expands on and updates Professor Parkinson's previous report for Government last year.

The conclusions and recommendations from the Regeneration Momentum research programme were presented at a conference on 15 January 2010 at the National Media Museum in Bradford. All of the research reports can be found by clicking here.

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This programme is supported by the following organisations: