The distribution of SRB challenge fund expenditure in relation to local-area need in England

During the 1980s and the 1990s there were a number of policy initiatives de signed to tackle the problems of the urban areas in the UK, By the early 19 90s these initiatives represented the commitment of over pound 1 billion of public expenditure each year, The initiatives encompassed 'area'-based app roaches like Enterprise Zones and Urban Development Corporations at one ext reme through to more 'people'-orientated, project-led approaches as in the case of the Task Force Initiative. In 1994 the organisation of local-area r egeneration policy was changed radically, Some 20 independently operated re generation programmes were brought together into a Single Regeneration Budg et (SRB) to be run by a single government department. A critical feature of the SRB approach to urban regeneration is its competitive nature whereby l ocal partnerships bid for funds from government. Whatever the merits of suc h an approach in terms of local involvement and value for money turn out to be, there could be drawbacks from a competitive system since there is no a utomatic presumption that the allocation of regeneration resources will ref lect the distribution of deprivation and thus the relative needs of local a reas across England, The aim of the research has been to assess how well th e allocation of regeneration funds under a competitive approach has, in pra ctice, gone to meet relative needs and what the implications are for the ev olution of local-area regeneration initiatives.