Urban Regeneration in Stratford, London

In this paper we focus on the shift in British urban policy from the crudely authoritarian imposition of Urban Development Corporations (UDCs) upon poor localities in the 1980s to an apparently more devolved, localist strategy in the 1990s. This new approach offered to re-empower local government and respect local priorities in the framework of local ‘partnerships’ between government (central and local), business interests and the voluntary and ‘community’ sectors. Newham in East London was chosen for study in this context because it was prominent in both periods and appeared to have achieved, under the new regime, results which are regarded by government and by others as ‘success’.