Building community capacity under ‘austerity urbanism’: Stimulating, supporting and maintaining resident engagement in neighbourhood regeneration in Manchester

The decline or withdrawal of funding for targeted regeneration initiatives in England, linked to the wider programme of austerity in public finances, presents major challenges for deprived neighbourhoods. Government’s expectation is that the demise of most neighbourhood-focused regeneration initiatives will be offset by the increased involvement of a host of local, voluntary and private-sector actors as part of a wider programme of localism in which civil society assumes responsibility for public policy and service delivery functions previously exercised by the state. This paper assesses the scope for and likelihood of this radical transformation by considering the experience of four neighbourhoods in Manchester. Through a programme of interviews with a range of stakeholders, the paper explores the implications posed by recent policy reforms for levels of resident activism and engagement, and considers the degree to which neighbourhood actors can build capacity in order to contribute meaningfully to future regeneration efforts. The paper concludes that sustained intervention is needed to ensure that raised levels of social capital resulting from past policy initiatives do not dissipate. Developing community capacity in deprived neighbourhoods, the paper concludes, requires concerted and concentrated policy intervention that is at odds with government’s current emphasis on laissez-faire localism.