John Major in the 1990s implemented a bottom-up development strategy where locals people came up with the problems they wanted to resolve and come up with solutions for them.
The urban policy implemented was called competition lead policies in the form of city challenge partnerships
The area that these were implemented in was in Hulme Manchester.
What is the city challenge partnership?
The competition policy was meant to create a competitive nature around the allocation of scarce government funds. Each council had to coordinate with the local people and businesses and come up with a plan to a problem within their respective areas that they wanted to resolve. The coordination with the local people and businesses meant that the subsequent plan that would be created was better targeted to the problems that affect the inside is of the place. Asking local people meant that any solutions would be far better then ones carried out by the national government because the local people have an insider perspective to their place. They then had to create a solution, which was partly funded by outside investors. This information would then be put be put into a proposal, which would then be sent off to Downing St, where MPs would vote for the best proposal. The best proposal would receive permission and the part government funding for the solution to be implemented.
| Positives | Negatives |
|---|---|
| Councils have to come up with a solution then complain to the government , | Funding was the same despite how’s expensive some solutions were |
| The government saves money as it’s partly funded by private investors | The winning bid was often based on how polished the proposal was and not the underlying problem |
| The local people are involved within the solution | Some councils have better access to resources than others to put together a clean proposal. |
One way but the city challenge partnership had benefited Hulme was how they built 3000 homes which created a positive multiplier effect, this attracted Michelin and Asda to set up offices in the area.
The city challenge partnership scheme as a whole had created 53,000 jobs, built 50,000 homes, created 2000 new businesses and 2000 hectares of derelict land converted into productive land.