Jobs for communities: does local economic investment work

New Labour’s policies aimed at regenerating poor communities promote economic investment, yet research on how such investment improves employment prospects for local residents over a sustained period is scarce. Using the Darnall area of Sheffield as a case study, this paper considers the degree to which new sectors of employment have been accessed by residents living in the immediate vicinity of a major retail development. Evidence from the 1981, 1991 and 2001 Censuses includes population, employment, migration and travel to work characteristics, which show that many residents remain marginalised from local jobs, raising important issues for contemporary initiatives promoting retail investment as part of a strategy to tackle worklessness.