Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s policy for inner city regenerationunderwent a transformation from a reliance on central and local governmentactivity and... » 

Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s policy for inner city regenerationunderwent a transformation from a reliance on central and local governmentactivity and the use of public funds to a much heavier dependence on privatesector activities and private investment. This strategy was based on aconviction on the part of government that the engine of enterprise couldachieve in the inner cities what local government had failed to do. Itconsisted of using relatively small amounts of public resources as incentivesto attract commerce business and industry back to designated sectors in ornear to inner city areas. Regeneration would be developmentled enterpriseactivity would burgeon in the old wastelands jobs would be created the innercity economies would be revitalized and a dependent population energized bythe culture of enterprise.The Enterprise Culture and the Inner City evaluates the effectiveness of thisstrategy in alleviating urban deprivation. By examining four case studiestwourban development corporations one local governmentprivate sector and onepurely private developmentthe authors make detailed analyses of job creationleverage impact on local residents and the trickle effect from enterprisedown to the urban deprived.The study is especially valuable as the fruit of independent scholarshiprather than funded research in which the authors are able to offer avigorously independent and critical investigation of government policy. Bytaking into account the result of the 1992 general election and theimplications of the Olympia York Canary Wharf project the authors present atenable prediction for the future of the inner city. «