Why do we never learn?

In 2001, the Government set out radical and ambitious plans to revitalise poor neighbourhoods. Seven years on, the results are disappointing, and experience demonstrates that, rather than break from the past, one often simply repeats its mistakes. Many partnerships have struggled to engage the public, private or voluntary sectors in pursuing common goals and exercising mutual accountability, let alone rising to the challenge of engaging local people in a meaningful way. A review of Neighbourhood Renewal programmes across the country suggests that, often, they are delivering more of the same and calling it something new, rather than demonstrating any real local imagination or ingenuity. Where this does happen, the programme is often not valued or understood by others and is often unrecognised or unsupported, and therefore not replicated. This paper seeks to explore why one appears to fail to learn and why one seems unable to use the mechanisms of research, evaluation and peer networks to identify what is of real value and what should and can be repeated, or avoided, elsewhere. Drawing from the author's experience as a practitioner and as a Neighbourhood Renewal Adviser, the paper explores the reluctance of academics and consultants to come to any real conclusions or judgments about the value of practice and why this might be the case, so that, even where evidence is stark, the most decisive conclusion tends to be that more research is required.