This presentation examines why we need to rethink the idea of regeneration, including the role of social housing and the nature of 'work' to create real value for people in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. It looks at the idea of coproduction and argues for an 'urban acupuncture' approach with small, significant interventions.

1. Regeneration in a cold climate
From policy change to behaviour change

2. Why we can’t
leave it to the
government
‘Regeneration to Enable Growth gives us
little confidence that the government has
a clear strategy for addressing the
country’s regeneration needs. It lacks
strategic direction and is unclear about
the nature of the problem it is trying to
solve.’
House of Commons communities and local government
committee

3. Why we can’t leave it to the experts
‘...the challenge now is to maximise the numbers and
minimise the price. Although the scale is different, the
“numbers game” which led directly to the housing disasters
of the sixties is being played again, this time by housing
associations instead of councils.’
David Page, Building for Communities, 1993

4. 5 public service
models that
won’t work any
more
1 The Olympian god
2 The Fat Controller
3 The Philanthropist
4 The Revolutionary
5 The Wagon Circle

5. 7 foundations
for strong
communities
1 Affordable, decent and safe homes
2 Good physical and mental health
3 Clean and healthy neighbourhoods
4 Satisfying work, paid or voluntary
5 Good relationships
6 Feeling those you care about are safe
7 Access to communal and green spaces
(source: Oxfam Humankind Index)

6. Coproduction:
a model for
hard times
‘The medicine of kindness, the salve of
co-operation and the tonic of pride’
Mary Clear, Incredible Edible Todmorden
‘The key to it is be right with folk, and I
always think in life that if you’re right
with folk then they’ll be right with you’
Peter Beck, housing manager, Kirklees

7. Coproduction:
time to get out
of the silo
‘Public services that rest on an equal and
reciprocal relationship between
professionals, people using services, their
families and neighbours’
Public Services Inside Out (Boyle, Slay and Stephens,
2010)

8. Coproduction:
It’s the people,
stupid
(not “it’s the
stupid people”)
‘We cannot control what will happen if we
unleash the potential of real people in real
communities, but we have to do it’
Martin Simon, Timebanking UK

9. Coproduction:
building
belonging
‘There are Moss-heads and there are
Farm-heads. I am a Farm-head’
8-year-old boy, Stockbridge Village, Knowsley (quoted
in We’re Lovely, Us People on Stockbridge)

10. Coproduction:
building
resilience
‘A fence at the top of the cliff is always
better than an ambulance at the bottom’
David Robinson, Community Links

11. Coproduction:
building a sense
of agency
‘A composer can have all the talent of
Mozart and a passionate desire to
succeed, but if he believes that he cannot
compose music, he will come to nothing’
Martin Seligman, Learned Optimism

12. Why
coproduction
means
rethinking
housing
1 Housing as a foundation for
community: from bricks and mortar to
learning, work, health and hopes
2 Housing as an anchor of place: putting
down roots and building networks
3 Housing as a stepping stone: an
opportunity to build skills, confidence
and standing

13. Why
coproduction
means
rethinking
work
1 The value created within communities is
often fashioned outside the workplace
2 Work is not always a route out of
poverty: 61% of children in poverty have
working parents
3 Insecure and precarious work damages
communities. Zero-hours or commission-
only contracts can harm physical and
mental health

14. Making it
happen:
three stories

15. Story 1: WECH
‘If more places were like WECH there
would be more happiness’
Local resident, 2010
‘For nearly a decade WECH has housed a
police officer as a tenant in exchange for
him playing a role in community affairs’
WECH report, 2010

16. Story 2:
Taff Housing
‘[Public services] are no longer looking
inwards so obsessively towards targets
and procedures, but they find themselves
looking increasingly outwards at the local
neighbourhood to create supportive social
networks...’
David Boyle, The Human Element, 2011

17. Story 3:
Fresh
Horizons,
Huddersfield
‘None of the people who apply for a post
here had ever thought to apply for a local
authority post. What we do is look for the
potential in people rather than their track
record’
Mike McCusker, chief executive, Fresh Horizons

18. Why small
makes sense
‘When a parent takes a child swimming or
to the park they don’t think of it as a
diversion from crime. They think of it as
fun, part of a happy childhood’
David Robinson, Community Links

19. Urban
acupuncture:
small is
bountiful
‘Cities have the capability of providing
something for everybody, only because,
and only when, they are created by
everybody’
Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great American Cities

20. Urban
acupuncture
Story 1: The pothole gardener

21. Urban
acupuncture
Story 2: Meanwhile Space

22. Urban
acupuncture
Story 3: Placemaking with dirty hands

23. ‘Don’t ossify,
occupy’ - an
old slogan for
new times
• Occupy the debate: get involved
• Occupy the space: animate what’s
empty
• Occupy the attention: become a shop
window for hope

24. Thank you
More from me:
• my website: urbanpollinators.co.uk
• on Twitter: @urbanpollinator
• my blog: Living with Rats