urban regeneration in deprived european neighbourhoods 409
in Glasgow, and also in Vilnius, whereas in Berlin and Copenhagen they are
assigned to the “third sector” between state and marketplace. In Hamburg, the
local development agency has actually moved from the public to the private
sector, as the political regime shifted to the right. The fluidity of what
constitutes the private arm of partnership has already been noted in the
literature. Mayer, for example, points out that partnership projects in the
urban context “... most frequently focus on physical upgrading of a large area
near the central business district but increasingly they also involve
development planning and implementation in more neglected
neighbourhoods, in which case the private partners include community
development corporations and other neighbourhood based groups, ...” (Mayer,
1995, p. 238).
On the other hand, the commercial sector was readily recognised by all the
cities, and was relatively easy to define. The commercial sector encompassed
all those individuals and parties that have a private investment interest in the
locality. All agents that fall into this category are targeted to a lesser or greater
degree by urban regeneration agencies or municipalities in pursuit of
neighbourhood regeneration goals. Dublin City Council, for example, has
taken a very proactive role in targeting the commercial sector through its
Community Gain programme. Under the terms of the 1999 Urban Renewal
Scheme, five Integrated Area Plans (IAPs) were established for Dublin City.
Each IAP has a schedule of tax-designated sites. To qualify for tax designation
a developer contributes community gain either in financial contribution or
direct provision of facilities. Where financial contributions have been provided
a “Community Gain Fund” has been established to ensure that locals benefit
from development in their areas. Community gain funding (should all
developments on designated sites be completed within the required timescale
and avail of tax incentives schemes) is expected to exceed €9 million between
2006-2008, (Dublin City Council, 2006).
Why involve the commercial sector? The reasons vary across the
participating cities and include the need to respond to the demands of central
government: Because they government tells us to involve them (Glasgow); the
desire to counteract the fiscal problems of the local state: The loss of public
money for investment in the infrastructure of Berlin after 1990 can only be
balanced by an increase in private sector investment (Berlin); the aspiration to
capitalise more effectively on the land assets held by the municipality:
Government owns assets primarily in the form of land, but lacks the capital for
developing the same sites. Private sector involvement is thus envisaged as a
way of capitalising on property assets whereby the government grants access to
the land and the private sector forks out to develop it (Valletta), and, finally, the
inevitable desire to improve the environs of the city for the tourist gaze: To