On January 10, 2016 the Prime Minister announced a programme pledging to transform the UK’s worst housing estates or so-called ‘sink estates’, which Secretary of State Greg Clark described as offering “huge potential to be revived so that they become thriving communities and places which people want to live and work in”.
The Government has announced a £140 million fund to regenerate 100 estates and the establishment of an Estate Regeneration Advisory Panel.
In the responses to this announcement, many points were made about the importance in involving communities in this initiative and in regeneration projects.
Alastair Parvin in New Start magazine called for a “Right to Regenerate” which would give communities the power to propose, vote on and own new development of their estates, and even the wholesale replacement of buildings if they choose to.
Olivier Sykes from Liverpool University highlighted on The Conversation the importance of engaging with residents of urban renewal projects, instead of presenting them as unable to create change in their communities.