Urban Regeneration and AreaBased Policy Interventions in Limerick

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Urban Regeneration and Area-Based Policy
Interventions in Limerick

• Des McCafferty
• Mary Immaculate College
• Limerick

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Outline of Presentation

• Background and Context
• Regeneration in Limerick
• Area-based policy interventions
• The Research Project
• Scope
• Objectives
• Challenges
• Methodology
• Preliminary findings

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BACKGROUND CONTEXT
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Socio-Economic Disadvantage in Limerick

• Limerick City has consistently ranked, since
  1991, as the second most disadvantaged local
  authority area in the State
• Limericks relative deprivation score has
  increased 1991-2006
• Johns A Electoral District (St. Marys Park) is
  the most disadvantaged in the country
• 7 of the Citys 38 EDs (18) are classified as
  extremely disadvantaged (1 nationally)
• (Haase Pratschke, 2008)

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Indicators of Social Disadvantage / Social
Pathology

• Relative Income Poverty
• LC risk 30-50 above State
• (Watson et al 2005. LC is pre-2008 boundary)
• Consistent Poverty
• LC risk 50 above State
• (Watson et al 2005. LC is pre-2008 boundary)
• Unemployment
• LC 69 above State
• (CoP 2006)
• Lone Parenthood
• LC 50 above State
• (CoP 2006)
• Anti-social Behaviour
• Serious Crime
• Limerick City County homocide rate (2003-06)
  105 above State
• (CSO 2008)

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Limerick Regeneration Programme

• Regeneration agencies established in 2007 on foot
  of Fitzgerald report to government
• The largest regeneration programme in the history
  of the State
• 3.1 billion of investment
• 1.7 bn. public expenditure
• 1.4 bn. private investment
• Four local authority estates
• Moyross
• St. Marys Park
• Southill
• Ballinacurra Weston

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Limerick Regeneration Programme
Source Fitzgerald report 2007
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Limerick Regeneration Programme

• Three main strands / policy domains
• Infrastructure / Environment / Housing
• New access roads
• Redesigned public space
• Better mix of land uses
• Better mix of housing styles and tenures
• Economic
• Enhanced local employment opportunities
• Provision of sites for enterprise
• Social
• Educational initiatives
• Family support services
• Anti-drugs measures

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Regeneration a New Start?

• Different in scale but .
• Precedents in area-based initiatives of 1990s
• Area Partnership Companies, 1991
• Family Resource Centres, 1994
• Breaking the Cycle (Education), 1996
• Local Drugs Task Forces, 1997
• Springboard (Family Support) Initiative, 1998
• Equal Opportunities Childcare Programme, 2001
• RAPID, 2001
• Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools,
  2005
• So, what lessons can be learned?

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Issues with Area-Based Interventions

• Measures delivered under these programmes are
  mixed and matched in various ways at local
  level
• A range of macro-level issues have been
  identified over the years
• Proliferation
• Integration
• Duplication
• Targeting
• Governance Funding
• But.there is a major gap in information on the
  overall contribution of these measures at estate
  level

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THE RESEARCH PROJECT
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The Seven Estates Scope and Work Programme

• Longitudinal Study of Seven Local Authority
  Estates
• Moyross, Limerick
• Cranmore, Sligo
• Muirhevnamore, Dundalk
• Deanrock, Cork
• Fatima Mansions
• Fettercairn
• South Finglas

• Research Team
• MIC, NUIM, Sligo IT, UCC, UCD, UL
• Two Research Strands
• Strand 1
• Tracking the development trajectory of the
  estates over the last decade
• Strand 2
• Compiling an inventory of area-based initiatives
  focused on the estates

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Strand 2 Objectives

• To estimate the total resource input to the
  estates through special or area-based
  interventions
• Is it a little or is it a lot?
• To identify the breakdown of expenditure as
  between (e.g.)
• Pay versus non-pay costs
• Contribution of labour market measures
• Capital versus revenue / current expenditure
• To identify issues associated with area-based
  initiatives in the seven estates

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Challenges and Difficulties

• Defining area-based interventions
• Identifying the full range of area-based
  programmes
• Dealing with area-based interventions that are
  not coterminous with the estates of interest
• Dealing with the problem of double counting
• Differences among estates rendering standardised
  approach difficult

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Protocols

• Area-based interventions defined as
• Projects available to residents of the estates
  because their area is designated as disadvantaged
• or
• Mainstream programmes that have a delivery base
  in the area (because of need)
• Focus on expenditure in 2006
• Includes spending from public, private and
  charitable sources
• Initially, attention is confined to current or
  revenue spending

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Methodology

• Phase I Compiling the Inventory of Interventions
• Preliminary widely based listing of programmes by
  sector (Enterprise, Education, Health, Youth,
  Justice, etc) based on Internet searches of
  government department / agency web sites
• Checking against local directories (e.g.,
  Limerick CDB SIM Group web site)
• Checking programmes against criteria for
  designation as area-based
• Proofing of inventory by interviewees in Strand 1
  of the project

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Methodology

• Phase II Compiling the Funding Matrix
• Identification of funding relationships from main
  funding bodies to local projects / groups
• Phase III Gathering the data
• Each major funding body requested to identify
  grants and other expenditure to the estate
• Each local project requested for annual accounts
  for 2006, or, failing that, for total expenditure
  and breakdown by major category

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Problems Encountered

• Funding bodies (national as well as regional /
  city-wide) unable to provide data on geographical
  distribution of funding at local level
• Some local projects/ organisations unable or
  reluctant to provide detailed breakdown of
  spending
• Information on supports such as CE / JI schemes
  or VEC-funded tutors not always available from
  projects
• Many projects cross estate boundaries
  beneficiaries reside outside the area

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Headline Figures(Provisional)
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Comparison to Mainstream Social Welfare Spending
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Breakdown of Expenditure
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Emerging Issues

• Paucity of data held by funders on the
  geographical distribution of funding at local
  level
• Importance of CE and JI, which together account
  for a high proportion of total spending
• Use versus objectives of these schemes
• Issue of vulnerability to changes / cut-backs
• High proportion of spending on wages and salaries
• Issue of leakage of benefits from the estate

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Emerging Issues

• Complexity of the funding environment
• Pros
• Requires / promotes partnership, networking and
  integration
• Cons
• Administrative burden (making applications,
  meeting reporting / accountability requirements)
• Excludes organisations lacking the requisite
  expertise (even with support of intermediaries
  such as Partnerships, Pobal)
• Perceived inflexibility of regulations

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Next Steps

• Proofing the data for Moyross
• Completing surveys already underway in Fatima
  Mansions and Sligo
• Extending the analysis to the remaining estates
• Comparative inter-estate analysis
• Preliminary indications are of some variability
  in per capita funding. Is this explained by needs
  or by capacity?
• Incorporating capital funding into the analysis
• Exploring the balance of current capital funding
  across estates