the glasgow eastern area renewal scheme

8/4/2019 The Glasgow Eastern Area Renewal Scheme

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American Geographical Society

The Glasgow Eastern Area Renewal SchemeAuthor(s): David C. RichSource: Geographical Review, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 214-218Published by: American Geographical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/214189 .

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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORDTHE GLASGOW EASTERN AREA RENEWAL SCHEME

DAVID C. RICHMACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

Clydeside has the greatest concentration of economic, social, and environ-mental problems in Great Britain. Although many parts of the conurba-tion had severe difficulties, the East End of Glasgow was one of the mostdisadvantaged areas during the 1970s.1 The secretary of state for Scotlandestablished in May, 1976, the Glasgow Eastern Area Renewal (GEAR)scheme to rehabilitate 1,600 hectares that stretched from the eastern fringeof the central business district of Glasgow eastward to Sandyhills. The ori-gins of the present-day problems in Clydeside lie in its rapid economicand population growth during the second half of the nineteenth century.The decades of boom left a tightly integrated economic structure based onthe production of iron and steel and their use in shipbuilding and engineering.2Subsequent increased competition and an inadequate adjustment to changingeconomic and technological conditions have meant that Clydeside duringmuch of the twentieth century has been an economically depressed region.The strong local interindustrial linkages ensured that the difficulties were feltthroughout the region. Circumstances in the inner areas such as the EastEnd were worsened by the tendency of new manufactural investment to belocated in the peripheral areas of the conurbation.3The East End was heavily involved in the late nineteenth-century ac-tivities; for example, Parkhead and Cambuslang were important centers ofiron and steel production. The East End was left with an outdated anddecaying manufactural base. Its accelerated decline in the 1960s and the 1970sled to severe problems of increased unemployment and industrial dereliction.Housing in the East End was aged, low-quality stock in urgent need of up-grading or relacement. During the nineteenth century large numbers oftenements were built in Bridgeton and Dalmamock to accommodate the in-flux of working-class residents, but there has been relatively little privateinvestment during the twentieth century to maintain or to replace suchproperty. Furthermore, the heavy commitment of the Glasgow municipalauthorities to provide rental housing in the past sixty years often emphasizedquantity rather than quality of accommodation.4

Deteriorating residential and employment conditions in the East End ledto steadily accelerated out-migration. The population of the GEAR area fellfrom 145,000 in 1951 to 45,000 in 1978. Because of the selectivity of out-migration, significant concentrations of elderly persons and various under-privileged groups developed. Unemployment of males averaged 20 percent in1978, when the figure was 13 percent for the whole of Strathclyde. Sub-


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stantial numbers of factories, shops, and houses were vacant as a result ofeconomic and demographic decline, and environmental deterioration waswidespread and overwhelming.5

The GEAR scheme was intended to achieve the comprehensive economic,social, and environmental regeneration of the area. The inner or western halfof the area, which had the highest incidences of most problems, was giventhe priority. With this broad focus came an unprecedented attempt to securethe cooperative action of the central government and seven other jurisdictionalbodies in which each was to retain full statutory responsibility. The bodieswere the Glasgow District Council (GDC), responsible for housing and localplanning; the Strathclyde Regional Council (SRC), responsible for education,social services, and strategic planning; the Scottish Development Agency(SDA), responsible for industrial regeneration and environmental improve-ment; the Scottish Special Housing Association (SSHA), responsible forconstruction and improvement of housing; the Manpower Services Com-mission (MSC), responsible for labor training; the Housing Corporation,responsible for housing by assistance to local housing associations; and theGreater Glasgow Health Board. The SDA was designated the coordinatingmanager of the GEAR scheme.6Most participating authorities had established programs in the area beforethe announcement of the scheme. Their continuation under GEAR and theintroduction of new programs meant that significant public spending markedthe early stages of the scheme. Only in May, 1980, was a Strategy and Pro-gramme for concerted action by all participants finally agreed. Its preparationwas prolonged by investigations of the problems of the area, by a programof public consultation, by the difficulty of securing agreement among eightseparate bureaucracies, and by the change of the central government in 1979.The Strategy emphasizes assistance to vulnerable social groups and identifiessix major objectives. The Programme is subject to annual modification andcomprises a committed program for the current fiscal year and a target pro-gram for the two succeeding years.The first objective is to arrest economic decline and to realize the potentialof GEAR as a major center of employment. Various methods are in use toretain existing industrial jobs, to expand the number of employed, and toattract investment. SDA has the major responsibility. It has constructed 16,400square meters of new factory-floor space, comprising sixty-seven small work-shop units and four large advance factories. Demand, especially for the smallunits, has been brisk; they are all rented and provide 1,165 jobs. The pro-gram for 1980-81 offers the potential of 1,400 additional jobs by the provisionof another 22,000 square meters of factory space. A further 55,000 squaremeters are planned for 1981-83. The SDA provides support and advisoryservices to businesses and plans a campaign to attact investment and topromote local enterprise. To accommodate economic expansion, SDA hasplans to refurbish unused industrial land, while the two local authoritiesundertake various infrastructure investments such as improvement of roadand sewer networks.

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The second objective is to stem population decline and to produce abalanced age and social structure. This objective is part of the efforts to im-prove employment opportunities and to increase the quality and the range ofhousing stock. Improvement of housing is the largest component of the GEARscheme and accounts for 61 percent of projected expenditures to 1981. ByMarch, 1980, almost 3,500 new or refurbished housing units were completed.The program for 1980-81 has the goal of an additional 4,075 units. The targetprogram envisages a shift to owner occupancy and substantial moderniza-tion of interwar public housing.The third objective is environmental improvement, which is consideredvital in efforts to create a place where persons will want to live and work.This objective is an important element in efforts to attract private investment.Fifty environmental improvement projects such as landscaping of vacant sitesand exterior cleaning of buildings were completed by 1980. An additionalforty-eight projects were to commence in 1980-81, and forty-nine others areanticipated in the two succeeding years. Additionally efforts to reduceatmospheric pollution are under way, and local traffic-management systemsare seeking to improve accessibility and to restrict through-traffic flows incritical sections.

Increased competitiveness of residents in securing employment is thefourth objective. Actions to reduce the high levels of unemployment includedimproved preparation of young persons for work and upgrading the generallevel of skills of the residents. Specific programs involve both nationally avail-able schemes and projects designed for local needs. In April, 1980, there were162 approved training and work-experience schemes for 54 adults and 456 youngpersons in operation. The program for 1980-81 projected the figures of 210schemes for 90 and 567 persons respectively.The fifth objective is to overcome the social disadvantages of the residents.A wide range of schemes has been introduced to assist the poor and otherdisadvantaged groups. Priority is given to the development of community-based health and welfare services and facilities. Schemes provide for additionalassistance to the elderly, the mentally ill, the handicapped, and the singlehomeless. Preschool, educational, and other facilities for young persons arebeing improved by capital projects and by the appointment of additionalteachers and youth leaders. Play areas, sports grounds, and libraries are beingimproved or constructed. Some priority is given to improvement of publictransportation and the provision of better shopping and community facilities.The sixth objective is to increase the level of community involvementin the regeneration process by encouraging the residents to participate in theplanning and the management of some services and facilities. The SSHA isexperimenting with a housing cooperative to manage one project, while theGDC is restructuring its housing management throughout Glasgow to a localbasis. Other schemes involve extensive public consultation in the formation ofGEAR plans, the establishment of tenant-meeting places, the appointment ofcommunity workers, and the opening of three GEAR information centers.7

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What returns have there been from the public expenditure of more than?120 million between 1976 and March, 1981? Visually the various environ-mental improvement projects and indeed the whole redevelopment programare beginning to have major effects. The 2,500 jobs potentially available inthe new industrial premises will form an important addition to the 42,000jobs present in 1978. The workshop units have successfully tapped the latentdemand for such property: low rent, appropriate sizes, and innovative designshave been factors. Upgrading of health, welfare, and community servicesenchance the residents' quality of life. Probably the most significant benefitis the construction or refurbishment of more than 7,500 dwellings, a sub-stantial portion of the total housing stock in the area.Despite these achievements, many criticisms, centering on three issues,have been directed at GEAR. Firstly, GEAR has brought much less addi-tional money to the area than is indicated by the level of gross expenditure.There were functional programs in the East End before GEAR was initiated;thus many new programs simply have been local manifestations of generalpolicies that would have benefited the area without GEAR. Each of the

participating agencies has responsibilities elsewhere, so the amount of fundschanneled to GEAR is severely limited. It is impossible to obtain reliabledata on the level of new funding brought by GEAR. The harshest criticssuggest that the sum is no more than ?20 million during the first five years,although a figure of twice that amount may be more accurate.The second issue is the difficulties caused by the innovative effort to fusethe efforts of eight bureaucracies in the solution of the problems of one area.The delayed formulation of an overall strategy, which was in part the con-sequences of those difficulties, meant that substantial expenditure of moneyand effort lacked clear, jointly agreed priorities. A range of partially coordinatedprojects resulted. Even now, after agreement on the Strategy, participantshave a set of general objectives rather than specific goals against which tojudge priorities and to evaluate expenditures.Thirdly, the value of treating one small area as a closed socioeconomicsystem, isolated from the circumstances of the surrounding region, is question-

able. Although the channeling of limited funds that are available for physicalrenewal to areas of greatest need is sensible, arguably the real problems ofan area like the East End relate to an inadequate volume and mixture ofeconomic activities and hence of employment. In this critical regard, thedifficulties of the East End are merely components of the problems pervadingmost of west-central Scotland. Only regional and countrywide policies cansuccessfully address these issues.

REFERENCES1S. Holtermann, Areas of Urban Deprivation in Great Britain: An Analysis of 1971 CensusData, Social Trends, Vol. 6, 1975, pp. 33-47.2 A. Slaven, The Development of the West of Scotland: 1750-1960 (London: Routledge and KeganPaul, 1975).

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218 THE GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW3 C. J. Carter, Some Post-War Changes in the Industrial Geography of the Clydeside Conurba-tion, Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol. 90, 1974, pp. 14-26.4 S. G. Checkland, The Upas Tree: Glasgow, 1875-1975 (Glasgow: University of Glasgow Press,1976).5 GEAR Summary Statistics (Glasgow: Scottish Development Agency, 1980).6 GEAR Strategy and Programme (Glasgow: Scottish Development Agency, 1980).7 GEAR Strategy and Programme, footnote 6 above.

the glasgow eastern area renewal scheme

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