Area-based regeneration partnerships and the role of central government: the New Deal for Communities programme in England

The New Deal for Communities (NDC) is an ambitious English area-based initiative (ABI) designed to transform 39 deprived areas in relation to five outcomes: crime, education, health, worklessness, and housing and the physical environment. Change data are now available for 2002-08. NDC areas continue to see positive change, but show only modest improvements against other benchmarks, notably similarly deprived comparator areas. Regeneration has been complex because of a range of 'barrier sets' of which the most insistent has been the relationship between NDC Partnerships and central government. This relationship informs wider debates surrounding interpretations of the programme.