Jargon Dictionary
A
ACPO CPI: Association of Chief Police Officers Crime Prevention Initiatives which is a not-for-profit company.
Active Communities Unit (ACU): A Home Office department which encourages development of the voluntary and community sectors within deprived areas. www.homeoffice.gov.uk/inside/org/dob/direct/acomu.html
Additionality: A measurement technique to assess the added value of a project over and above what would have happened without it.
ALO: Architectural Liaison Officer from the local police, sometimes known as the Crime Prevention Design Advisor (CPDA) who provides free of charge advice on environmental and design factors which are known to influence crime, and the architect/contractor/client.
Anti Poverty Strategies (APS): A coordinated approach to tackling poverty through benefit advice, debt management and improved access to social work and housing services.
Area Investment Frameworks (AIFs): Established by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) to help inform those promoting inward investment in the region’s deprived areas, by highlighting the strengths and opportunities in that area.
Arm’s Length Management Organisation (ALMO): A separate but wholly owned company set up by local authorities to manage social housing.Area Based Regeneration. In areas where economic, social and environmental problems have led to community exclusion, area based initiatives bring together different agencies to break the cycle and improve quality of life. www.rcu.gov.uk/abi/
Audit Commission: The Government’s inspection and assessment organization which previously oversaw Best Value and now oversees Comprehensive Performance Assessment of various public organisations. www.audit-commission.gov.uk
[ Back to top ]
B
Baseline: The starting point of a project against which the project’s success will be measured to assess improvements and successes.
Beacon Councils: A government scheme which acknowledges excellence and innovation in particular services within local government. www.idea.gov.uk/beacons/
Bending Main Programme: Tackling deprivation by focusing local agency and government department spending, more specifically on the most deprived areas.
Best Value: A framework, based on a set of nationally determined indicators to help local authorities measure, manage and improve their performance. Replaced by the Comprehensive Performance Assessment.
BME: Black and Minority Ethnic.
Brief: Site specific briefs are also called a variety of other names, including development briefs, design briefs, planning briefs and development frameworks.
Brownfield Land: Land or premises that have previously been used or developed and are not currently fully in use, although they may be partially occupied or utilised. The site / premises may also be vacant, derelict or contaminated.
Building Communities Initiative (BCI: An initiative to get local communities to participate in housing regeneration projects. www.freeform.org.uk
Building Research Establishment (BRE): Provides research-based consultancy, testing and certification services to customers world-wide. BRE is owned by the Foundation for the Built Environment (FBE), a registered charity with a mission to champion excellence and innovation in the built environment. www.bre.co.uk
Business Broker Schemes (BBS): Administered by Business in the Community and the British Chambers of Commerce, BBS aim to encourage businesses to become more involved in neighbourhood renewal. www.bitc.org.uk
Business Improvement Districts (BIDs): A part of an urban area where local businesses pay additional rates to create improvements in services such as street cleaning, landscaping or crime reduction.
[ Back to top ]
C
Capacity Building: Giving individuals or organisations within communities the skills and confidence to become more involved in regeneration projects.
Capital Funding: Money spent on the purchase of fixed assets such as buildings, roads and equipment.
Centre for Construction Innovation (CCI): Promotes the Rethinking Construction agenda. www.ccinw.com
Charity: An organisation with exclusively charitable purposes and activities. Charitable status comes with highlight beneficial tax advantages but strict regulations concerning trading.
City Growth Strategy Initiative (CGSI): A scheme to develop and implement inner city strategies which put enterprise and business at the heart of regeneration.
City Regions: An economic development strategy which places cities at the core of economic regeneration within the area they serve and believes poorly functioning cities act as a brake on wider regional development.
Closed-Circuit Television Initiative (CCTVI): Deterring or combating local crime and disorder through the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) in areas with significant crime and disorder problems.
Co-operative: An organisation run in accordance with the seven international co-operative principles. Co-ops have traditionally been incorporated under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act, regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA), but can also be companies.
Community Businesses: Organisations owned within the community which are established to provide services and/or employment in a local community. Aim to enhance the community and the local economy.
Community Cohesion: A policy objective to ensure that all ethnic groups and communities within an area have a shared agenda, sense of belonging and purpose.
Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFI’s): A sustainable, independent financial institution which provides capital and support to individuals and organisations to develop and create wealth in disadvantaged communities or under-served markets. www.cdfa.org.uk
Community Empowerment Network (CEN): Aims to help community and voluntary groups to become empowered in order to participate in Local Strategic Partnerships and neighbourhood Renewal. Administered by Community Empowerment Networks set up by the voluntary and community sectors in Neighbourhood Renewal Fund areas
Community Forum: Acts as a sounding board for Ministers and the Neighbourhood Renewal Unit to provide a ‘grass-roots’ perspective on neighbourhood renewal strategies.
Community Fund: The National Lottery Charities Board, now subsumed within the Big Lottery Fund. www.community-fund.org.uk
Community Housing Task Force (CHTF: A Government organisation developed to support councils through option appraisal and development of chosen options such as ALMO.
Community Interest Company: A new legal form proposed for Social Enterprises, aimed at being easy to establish with the structure of a company but with features ensuring they work for the benefit of the community.
Community Legal Service Partnerships (CLSP): Local networks of providers of legal services, supported by coordinated funding and delivering services to local communities based on identified priority need. www.legalservices.gov.uk
Community Limited by Guarantee: A registered company with members rather than shareholders. Members guarantee a nominal sum for paying liabilities in the event of insolvency.
Community Limited by Shares: A registered company controlled by shareholders who receive financial dividend following profitable trading. Shares in public companies are openly traded, in private companies they are not.
Community Planning: Local authority and partner organisation liaison to improve community well-being and involve communities in the decisions on local services.
Community Strategies: Local Strategic Partnerships (see LSP) plan for improving the economic, environmental and social well being of local areas and by which public bodies are expected to coordinate the actions of the public, private voluntary and community organisations that operate locally.
Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA): Government inspection and assessment process for councils with a scorecard approach to how well key services and corporate support is delivered. Each council is placed in one of four bands from ‘poor’ to ‘excellent’
Constructing Excellence: Aims to achieve a step change in construction best practice and design, by tackling the market failures in the sector and selling the business case for continuous improvement. www.constructingexcellence.org.uk
Contaminated Land: Contamination can occur naturally, or it can be man made contamination – frequently the legacy of our industrial past.
Core Cities: A grouping of the major English cities outside London which has advanced the policy of balanced economic development based on city-regions.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): The acceptance of a business that it needs to maximise its positive social and environmental impacts as well as its own financial gain.
CPDA: Crime Prevention Design Advisor, also know as an Architectural Liaison Officer (ALO), who provides free of charge advice on environmental and design factors which are known to influence crime, and the architect/contractor/client.
Creative Partnerships: Organisations which provide a bridge between schools and cultural organisations, enabling pupils to work with creative professional organisations and to develop creative skills.
Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships (CDRP): Statutory partnerships formed following the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 which required the Police and local authorities and others to work together to tackle crime and disorder within a local authority area.
Crime Concern: A national crime reduction organisation and charity providing advice and help to a wide range of professional and voluntary agencies to support their work in reducing crime and the fear of crime within local communities. For more information: www.crimeconcern.org.uk
Crime Reduction Programme: A Government funded programme which consists of a series of diverse initiatives which have been shown to be effective at reducing crime or the fear of crime. www.crimereduction.gov.uk
[ Back to top ]
D
Deadweight: A programme measurement technique which identifies improvements that would have occurred naturally without the intervention of the programme.
Density: The mass or floorspace of a building or buildings in relation to an area of land. Density can be expressed in terms of plot ratio (for commercial development); homes or habitable rooms per hectare (for residential development); site coverage plus the number of floors or a maximum building height; space standards; or a combination of these.
Derelict Land: Land so damaged by industrial or other development that it is incapable of beneficial use without treatment.
Design Advisory Panel: A group of people (often architects) with specialist knowledge, which meets regularly or occasionally to advise a local authority on the design merits of planning applications or other design issues.
Design Guides: Guidelines prepared by local authorities to coordinate and advise developers on the standards that are expected, especially within the public realm – e.g. a design guide may encourage windows for the natural surveillance of each street, preventing buildings from ‘turning their back’.
Design Quality Indicator: A method of assessing the quality of buildings in terms of ‘build quality’, ‘functionality’ and ‘impact’. It was developed by the Construction Industry Council and launched in 2003. www.dqi.org.uk
Design Statement: A developer can make a pre-application design statement to explain the design principles on which a development proposal in progress is based. It enables the local authority to give an initial response to the main issues raised by the proposal. An applicant for planning permission can submit a planning application design statement wit the application, setting out the design principles adopted in relation to the site and its wider context.
Design Workshop: A participative event, ranging in length from a couple of hours to several days, which brings together a range of people (often local people and professional advisors) to discuss design issues A workshop may or may not use techniques of collaborative design.
Development Brief: A document providing guidance on how a specific site of significant size or sensitivity should be developed in line with the relevant planning and design policies. It will usually contain some indicative, but flexible, vision of future development form. A development brief usually covers a site most of which is likely to be developed in the near future. The terms ‘planning brief’ and ‘design brief’ are also sometimes used. These came into use at a time when government policy was that planning and design should be kept separate in design guidance.
Development Operations: activities and works which results in a change of use of the site.
Development Trusts: A network of independent, not-for-profit, community-based organisations which are engaged in the economic, environmental & social regeneration of an area. www.dta.org.uk
Development Trusts Association (DTA): Promotes the work of development trusts, contributes to public policy and lobbies central and local government.
Discount Rate: The annual percentage rate at which the value of money reduces over time to give a present day value. Usually only used for funding calculations in very big projects.
Displacement: Extent to which the added value of a regeneration project is reduced by causing existing activity to relocate or be replaced.
[ Back to top ]
E
Early Excellence Centre (EEC): Offer examples of best practice in pre-school and early years education in deprived areas.
Education Action Zones (EAZ): Defined areas with high levels of deprivation and low educational attainment which are in receipt of grants to raise education standards. www.standards.dfee.gov.uk/eaz
EGAN (Sir John): Chairman of the Construction Task Force and author of the Rethinking Construction Report 1998 which aimed to improve efficiency and value within the construction industry and encourage a focus on people and communities. More recently chaired a second task force whose report, ‘Skills for Sustainable Communities’, was published in 2004.
Employee-owned Business: An organisation controlled by the people who work for it.
Employment Zones: Areas where additional money is available to help the long term unemployed into work.
English Cities Fund (ECF): A scheme designed to attract private sector funds into neglected cities. www.englishcitiesfund.co.uk
Enquiry by Design (EbD): A form of urban design and planning workshop in which stakeholders in a proposed development, including local authorities, residents, developers, landowners, voluntary groups, employers and retailers, collaborate in producing a masterplan through a workshop that can last up to a week.
Enterprise Zones: Sites for industrial development within older urban areas which benefit from relief from paying business rates and relaxed planning restrictions.
Environmental Statement: A statement including information on a proposed development, the alternatives considered in choosing the particular site, the aspects of environment likely to be significantly affected by the development the measures to prevent, reduce or offset any significant adverse effects
European Objective 1 Funding: Objective 1 targets EU Structural Funds on areas which have an economy falling well behind the European average for wealth creation – the South East region is not currently eligible.
European Objective 2 Funding: Objective 2 targets EU structural funds on areas that have suffered through the decline of a major industry. – Thanet and Hastings are currently eligible in the South East region.
European Objective 3 Funding: See ESF. Objective 3 targets EU structural funds towards developing lifelong learning, supporting those at risk from exclusion in the workplace, promoting the role of women in the workforce and promoting adaptability and entrepreneurship.
European Objective 4 Funding: Concerned with the adaptation of workers to changes in industry and systems of production through measures to prevent unemployment such as new skills, vocational training and retraining.
European Regional Development Fund (ERDF): An EC structural fund which aims to reduce inequalities in socio-economic development between the regions by supporting infrastructure projects, job-creation, local development and help for SMEs. Provides up to 60 per cent of projects costs, usually through a local ‘Action Plan Partnership’.
European Social Fund (ESF): Supports activities that develop employability and human resources in five key areas: active labour market policies; equal opportunities; improving training and education and promoting lifelong learning; adaptability and entrepreneurship; improving the participation of women in the labour market.
European Structural Funding: European funding allocated to less favoured regions with weak economic performance. Set to change substantially from 2006 when current programmes end. www.eurofundingnw.org.uk.
Excellence in Cities: A programme to drive up standards in schools in 47 areas of England. www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/excellence
Exit Strategy: Arrangements which will continue the process of Renewal and development after funding from the Renewal programme stops. Sometimes called a forward, continuation or succession strategy.
[ Back to top ]
F
Floor Targets: (aka National Minimum Standards) Government departments now have minimum targets to meet on deprivation in NRF areas, which means that they will be judged on improvements in the areas where they are doing worst, rather than averages. They cover health, education, employment, crime, housing and the physical environment
Forward Strategy: Arrangements which will continue the process of Renewal and development after funding from the Renewal programme stops. It is sometimes called an exit, continuation or succession strategy.
Foyer: A residential centre that provides homes, training and work opportunities for homeless young people. www.foyer.net
[ Back to top ]
G
Gap Funding: A government incentive to encourage developers to build on brownfield sites by providing help to redevelop contaminated, derelict and disused sites which might not otherwise prove profitable. Care must be taken to comply with State Aids law.
Government Office for the South East (GOSE): The Government Office for the South East works with organisations across the South East to deliver the Government’s policies and programmes in the region.
Government Offices for the Regions: There are nine Government Offices, each working with regional partners and local people to help deliver the government’s key aims at regional level. They comprise staff delivering programmes on behalf of most domestic government departments. www.gos.gov.uk/national/
Groundwork: A government-supported charity working with local communities to deliver regeneration through practical environmental work in deprived areas. www.groundwork.org.uk
[ Back to top ]
H
Health Action Zones (HAZ): Partnerships between the NHS, local authorities, the voluntary and private sectors and local communities which represent a new approach to public health, linking health, regeneration, employment, education, housing and anti-poverty initiatives to respond to the needs of vulnerable groups and deprived communities. www.haznet.org.uk
Healthy Living Centres (HLC): Most funded initially through the lottery, HLCs are expected to seek to influence the wider determinants of health, such as social exclusion, poor access to services, and social and economic aspects of deprivation which can contribute to inequalities in health.
Home Zones: Residential streets in which the road space is balanced between drivers, other road users and residents to promote quality of life, community spirit and safer play and recreation opportunities.
Housing Corporation: The Government body that regulates and funds housing associations (RSLs) in England. www.housingcorp.gov.uk
Housing Investment Programme (HIP): A grant scheme from the ODPM for local authorities, although projects can be delivered by both private and voluntary organisations.
Housing Market Renewal Fund (HMRF): Money set aside by ODPM to tackle low demand and poor quality housing. Do not exist in the South East.
Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders (HMRP): Established in areas experiencing acute housing low demand, these pathfinders bring together local authorities and key agencies to provide innovative and lasting solutions. Do not exist in the South East.
Housing Revenue Account (HRA): The budget used by local authorities for funding housing services and repairs etc.
[ Back to top ]
I
Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD): Ranking of wards and districts in England according to health, education, employment etc, which is used as the basis for government allocation of funds for neighbourhood Renewal and tackling deprivation in terms of health, education employment etc.
Industrial and Provident Society: An organisation incorporated under the Industrial and Provident Societies Act, including co-operatives and development trusts.
Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC: A US not-for-profit organisation helping the government in England to develop inner city growth strategies. www.icic.org
[ Back to top ]
K
King’s Fund: An independent charitable foundation whose goal is to improve health, especially in London. For more information visit www.kingsfund.org.uk
[ Back to top ]
L
Land Condition Record (LCR): A standard form for information about land contamination, provided on a voluntary basis by a site owner or developer to record the physical and chemical nature of land contamination and the steps that have been taken to remediate it.
Large Scale Voluntary Transfer (LSVT): Housing stock transfer, usually to a new ALMO or existing RSL/Housing Association or housing management association.
LEADER plus: EU structural fund which aims to encourage diversification and sustainable development in deprived rural areas. Notable because it focuses on community capacity building as an integral part of the programme.
Leakage: The extent to which the activity proposed benefits people outside the target area or group and/or the extent to which regeneration funding is held within the target area.
Learning and Skills Council (LSC): Responsible for adult training and skills development in organisations of 250 employees or less. www.lsc.gov.uk
Leverage: The additional money or activity that a programme causes stakeholders to contribute.
Lifelong Learning: The continuous development of skills and knowledge to enhance quality of life and employment prospects from cradle to grave. www.lifelonglearning.co.uk
Lifetime Homes: A house building standard developed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which enables house structures to be easily adapted in later years – e.g. allowing for modification of a bathroom to enable the inhabitant to remain in the home throughout all stages of their life.
Liveability: A Government funding scheme for Local Authorities to improve towns and cities by tackling quality of life in terms of public and community space.
Local Agenda 21 (LA21): Agreed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, local authorities were expected to prepare strategies, in close consultation with residents and business groups, to promote sustainable development. More recently replaced with the sustainable communities agenda.
Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT): A trust body of public and private sector organisations set up to administer regeneration initiatives utilising PFI.
Local Public Sector Boards: A pilot scheme to encourage all the public sector organisations (i.e. councils, police, health, fire etc) in a locality to meet and work together on an agreed services improvement plan.
Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA): Agreements between individual local authorities and the Government setting out the authority’s commitment to deliver specific improvements in performance.
Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs): Required in Neighbourhood Renewal Areas and now established by most local authorities, LSPs are partnership structures which include public, private, voluntary and community sectors in jointly planning and delivering regeneration and other public services.
Locality Budgeting: The process of developing and co-ordinating budgets between all central and local government organisations relevant to community and neighbourhood needs in a particular area.
[ Back to top ]
M
Mainstreaming: Realigning the allocation of mainstream resources – such as the police and health services – to better target the most deprived areas and to sustain regeneration activity piloted through short-term funding.
Major Repairs Allowance (MRA): An annual Government grant each year to support council housing capital investment.
Market Failure: A situation where barriers prevent the normal and efficient operation of a local economy. These may be information barriers, where local people don’t know about job vacancies nearby, or the negative impact which high crime levels have on firms and workers locating to a particular area.
Masterplan: (aka Framework) A high-level document which sets out the major developments planned for a given area, such as a town centre. Individual projects then fit into the masterplan.
Milestones: Key events with dates, marking stages in the progress of a project or programme.
Multipliers: The additional or second level effects of a programme over and above those resulting directly from programme funds.
Mutual: An organisation comprising members who have come together with a common purpose, to provide a service for mutual benefit, for example building societies.
[ Back to top ]
N
National Housing Federation (NHF): A membership organisation for the independent social housing sector. www.housing.org.uk
Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder (NMP): A way of encouraging local stakeholders to work with service providers to help improve the quality of services delivered in challenged neighbourhoods.
Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF): Provides public services and communities in the 88 poorest local authority districts with extra funds to tackle deprivation. www.neighbourhood.gov.uk/nrfund.asp
Neighbourhood Support Fund (NSF): Government grants of £10,000 upwards to community groups to enable them to re-engage disaffected young people. www.dfes.gov.uk/nsf
New Deal for Communities (NDC): A Government programme to regenerate very deprived areas across England over a 10 year period as a key element of its Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy.
New Opportunities Fund (NOF): One of the National Lottery funds granting awards to health, education and the environment projects now subsumed into the Big Lottery Fund. www.nof.org.uk
New Start: Weekly magazine for those working within regeneration.
Northern Way (The): High-profile ODPM strategy for regenerating the whole of the North of England via city-region initiatives.
Not-for-profit: A generic term for an organization which does not distribute profits to shareholders but uses them for social or community benefit.
[ Back to top ]
O
ODPM: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The key Government policy department for sustainable communities, local government, housing etc. www.odpm.gov.uk
OGC: The Office of Government Commerce
OJEC: The Official Journal of the European Community. Used by public bodies to fulfil their legal obligation to advertise major tenders (above £100,000 in value). This ensures that all eligible firms have a chance to respond and be considered.
Option Appraisal: The process of assessing a range of options to identify the particular projects to be undertaken. For major projects, four options – including ‘do nothing’ – are tested to find the best solution.
Outputs and Outcomes: Outputs measure what was directly produced by the regeneration programme (e.g. job creation, number of training days/weeks), outcomes measure the longer term changes brought about by the regeneration programme.
[ Back to top ]
P
Planning Applications: Forms, documents, maps and plans submitted to the local planning authority for planning permission or approval to carry out specific uses / activities / operations.
Planning for Real: A participation technique (pioneered by the Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation) that involves residents and other stakeholders making a model of their area and using it to help them determine priorities for the future.
Planning Permission: Permission to redevelop land or to carry out any development of land for a specific purpose.
Pollution Prevention and Control (PPC): This is the regulatory system, namely PPC Regulations 2000, to create a coherent framework to prevent and control pollution by prescribed activities or processes.
Private Finance Initiative (PFI): A means of funding public sector capital investment via private sector construction, management and leaseback.
Procurement: Securing the most appropriate individual / practice for a specific purpose.
Public Realm: (aka Quality Public Realm). The public space between private buildings, including pavements, streets, squares, parks etc.
Public/Private Partnership (PPP): A joint funding initiative between public and private sector organisations.
[ Back to top ]
R
Redevelopment: Building and engineering operations carried out to change the nature of developed land.
Regeneration & Renewal: Weekly magazine for those working within regeneration.
Regional Development Agency (RDA): Regional agencies with a statutory remit to further economic development and regeneration within their areas.
Regional Economic Strategy (RES): Strategy for the economic development of the region developed by the RDA in consultation with regional stakeholders and revised every three years.
Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS): From 2004 onwards, these are required in each region as a document which sets out the high level planning issues, especially around transport and housing.
Registered Social Landlord (RSL): Also known as Housing Associations, RSL’s are tasked with providing decent, affordable housing. They are non-profit making and registered with the Housing Corporation.
Remediation (of land contamination): A form of risk management ensuring that the land is suitable for use.
[ Back to top ]
S
SBD: Secured by Design is the UK Police flagship initiative, supporting the principles of ‘designing out crime’ by use of effective crime prevention and security standards for a range of applications. It identifies potential crime problem areas in the built environment and applies a combination of environmental design principles with realistic levels of physical security to deter criminal activity and reduce crime risks.
Section 106 Agreements: Negotiated agreements to provide, for example, nearby road improvements, low cost housing or community facilities in return for the granting of planning permission. This system is under revision in new planning laws.
Sensitivity Analysis: An analysis used mostly by economists to test how much X changes when Y also changes. For example, if the local economy grows by 10 per cent, by how much will unemployment fall?
Single Pot: The funds available for distribution by the Regional Development Agencies over which they have full control in order to deliver RES objectives.
Single Regeneration Budget (SRB): Aims to enhance the employment prospects, education and skills of local people and to tackle the needs of communities in the most deprived areas. Delivered through partnerships, SRB is administered by RDAs, mostly as area-based programmes lasting seven years.
Social Audit: A formal and rigorous process of gathering, recording and analysing quantitative and qualitative information, by which the performance or an organisation from a social perspective can be measured and evaluated.
Social Capital: The non financial resources which hold a community together and which help to drive its progress (e.g. relationships, shared values, capacity, vision, etc.).
Social Entrepreneurs/Enterprises: The equivalent of business entrepreneurs, but operating in the social sector. They aim to seek new and innovative solutions to social problems utilising a business approach and earning income so that they are not grant dependant.
Social Exclusion: When individuals or families suffer, whether continuously or sporadically, from a combination of linked problems such as unemployment, poor skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments, bad health and family breakdown. www.socialexclusionunit.gov.uk
Social Exclusion Unit (SEU): An ODPM unit which researches social exclusion and works across government to tackle its root causes.
Social Firm: A business set up specifically to create employment for people with a disability.
Social Housing: Housing developed or administered by social landlords and/or housing associations utilising a part-owned or rented model to enable low income or deprived groups to access quality housing.
Social Objective: A specific and stated organisational aim which is characterised by resulting in a positive impact on the lives of a group of people or their community. A social objective will usually impact on a disadvantaged or excluded group of people.
Sport Action Zones (SAZ): Areas where sport is used to reduce social exclusion and promote community development and regeneration.
State Aid: An EU law which sets limits on the amount and method by which the public sector can make payments to the non-public sectors. Designed to ensure fairness and to avoid distorting the market.
Statutory Consultees: National public organisations / bodies who need to be consulted on planning applications depending on the nature of the development and its location.
Sub-regional Partnership (SRP): Established by local authorities and their partners with support from the NWDA and GONW in each of the counties within the Northwest to establish sub-regional strategies and delivery priorities.
Sure Start: A government scheme which aims to improve the health and well-being of families and children before and from birth until the age of four. www.surestart.gov.uk
Sustainable Communities Plan: Delivery plan for the ODPM originally published in 2003 and updated since. Sustainable communities are places where people want to live and work, no and in the future. They meet the diverse needs of existing and future residents, are sensitive to their environment, and contribute to a high quality of life. They are safe and inclusive, well planned, built and run, and offer equality of opportunity and good services for all.
Sustainable Development: Activity which achieves mutually reinforcing economic, social and environmental benefits without compromising the needs of future generations.
[ Back to top ]
T
Triple Bottom Line: Business activity which results in commercial profit as well as social and environmental benefits.
[ Back to top ]
U
Urban Design: The art of making places, urban design involves the design of buildings, groups of buildings, spaces and landscapes, in villages, towns and cities, and the establishment of framework and processes that facilitate successful development.
Urban Design Framework: A document setting out how development plan policies should be implemented in a particular area where there is a need to control, guide and promote change. Such areas include transport interchanges and corridors, regeneration area, town centres, urban edges, housing estates, conservation areas, villages, new settlements, urban areas of special landscape value, and suburban areas identified as being suitable for more intense development.
Urban Forum: An umbrella body for community and voluntary groups with interests in urban and regional policy, especially regeneration. www.urbanforum.org.uk
Urban Policy Unit: Part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) responsible for the implementation of regeneration policies and urban renaissance.
Urban Regeneration Companies (URCs): Not-for-profit companies set up by local authorities, RDAs, English Partnerships and other partners to promote development in less prosperous areas of English cities by engaging businesses in agreed physical and economic regeneration strategies.
Urban Renaissance: The term urban renaissance became widely used following the Urban Task Force report ‘Towards and Urban Renaissance’. The Government’s Urban White Paper (2001) set out it’s vision of an urban renaissance “towns, cities and suburbs which offer a high quality of life and opportunity for all, not just the few.urban renaissance will benefit everyone, making towns and cities vibrant and successful, and protecting the countryside from development pressure.” The Government went on to identify 4 key steps to achieving a renaissance: getting the design and quality of the urban fabric right; enabling all towns and cities to create and share prosperity; providing the quality services people need; and equipping people to participate in developing their communities.
Urban Village: Part of an urban area which has an attractive mix of homes, shops, restaurants, employers and which attracts people to live and work there.
[ Back to top ]
V
Value for Money (VFM): Often calculated using a standard formula for the type of project, such as jobs created divided by cost or, for bigger projects, by undertaking and options appraisal.
Voluntary Organisation: A group of people who have joined together to provide a service or activity for the benefit of a local community, for no financial gain. Voluntary organisations comprise a variety of incorporated and unincorporated structures.
[ Back to top ]
W
Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP): A not-for-profit company working to promote sustainable waste management by creating stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products.
Working with Towns and Cities Initiative: A scheme involving 24 partner towns in England which aims to identify ways to bring about positive change in inner city areas