For other nations it may be a rather irritating form of British humour, but several times in recent history Londoners have managed to reinterpret devastating events as great opportunities. When IRA bombs destroyed buildings in the London Docklands in 1996, it was claimed that “by accident these created some interesting development opportunities.”

Mayor Boris Johnson reframed the civil unrest of August 2011 in a similarly controversial way: “This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build on the momentum of rebuilding and repair work and turn it into a permanent regeneration of two long-neglected areas of the capital”.
Repairing something that has been destroyed as an opportunity to regenerate neglected urban areas? Though it is an uncomfortable line to take amid the damage and distress caused by the riots, if there is something positive to take from these events it is the creation of a number of new funding programmes established specifically to improve the areas affected, drawing them out of poverty by promoting their economic growth.
Ahead of the riots a tough wave of austerity measures by David Cameron’s Conservative/Lib Dem government had swept across Britain, hitting deprived areas and vulnerable members of society the hardest. In July 2012 Labour’s programme “Building Schools for the Future” –initiated in 2005 and responsible for ambitious projects such as Zaha Hadid’s Evelyn Grace Academy in Brixton – was scrapped. Initiatives such as “Sure Start” to fund early education and family support were also cut back drastically. Rising tuition fees for higher education sparked heated debates. Housing benefits were cut; programmes to regenerate and retrofit modernist housing estates were postponed. Many other publicly funded regeneration projects were frozen or will have to be paid through revolving funds, which are often a difficult investment tool as they rely on private sector pay-back mechanisms.
London’s regional government headed by Mayor Boris Johnson responded to the unrests not only with police and legal forces, but also with regeneration efforts. These were purported to fit into the concept of the big society promoted by David Cameron’s government, which intends “to create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a big society that will take power away from politicians and give it to people”. The idea of the big society is not only a reaction to calls for more public participation and commitment of civil society, closely linked to the idea of “localism”, but also quite a pragmatic response to funding deficits in the public sector.
Communities in places such as Dalston took this idea very literally, facing the rioters themselves when no police forces were available on the eve of the riots. Initiatives by Londoners to clean up after the riots probably matched the original intentions of the big society idea more accurately. The Mayor’s responses also followed the notion of localism and put the focus on town centres and their local potential in order to create growth and employment opportunities. Quite amazingly, governmental regeneration efforts are being supplemented by local initiatives and charities such as the High Street Fund, which supports small business owners who would otherwise have lost their livelihood through donations and voluntary work.
It must almost be considered a happy coincidence that experts working on behalf of the Mayor of London, such as Design for London, planners and economists, had already identified the high streets as key to London’s development as a sustainable, polycentric metropolitan region. Project-based ideas to strengthen these linear centres were already lying in the drawers and it was possible to implement them soon after the riots with the help of the Mayor’s £50 million Outer London Fund. Instant measures which could be put into force before the end of the year, such as new co-operations of market traders or shop keepers and small incremental projects, helped to boost the areas and re-establish a positive atmosphere.

Mega malls and football stadiums

Task forces were established to steer regeneration and develop master plans in the two areas most affected by the civil unrest – Tottenham und Croydon. These master plans had already been worked on for a number of years, but a lack of money and momentum was holding up implementation. The task forces consist of local and regional planners, headed by developer Sir Stuart Lipton (Tottenham) and Julian Metcalfe (Croydon) – founder of the high-end fast food chains Pret A Manger and Itsu. The key idea is to transfer some of the entrepreneurial spirit of these business giants to local businesses in Tottenham and Croydon. In both areas large projects were proposed to kick-start regeneration.
Striving to be reborn as a key shopping destination, Croydon wants to build a mega mall and become south-eastern England’s most important shopping centre outside central London. Tottenham believes in a football miracle and hopes to stimulate growth by redeveloping Tottenham Hotspur’s White Hart Lane stadium and the surrounding neighbourhood. Public spaces surrounding the station and the stadium are to be upgraded in order to improve links to local transport. A Sainsbury’s superstore will create employment and 285 open-market dwellings are to be constructed. However, it is doubtful whether this will generate the Soho-like atmosphere envisioned by some of the local planners. The local ‘business incubator’ being established at 639 Tottenham High Road by the Mayor and the local council, a historic building which suffered damage during the civil unrest, seems to be a more suitable option for achieving this objective. Further projects will be concentrated along the High Street in order to maximise the growth potential of this busy, well-connected linear space. As Tottenham lies within the growth corridor between King’s Cross and Stansted Airport, the chances are that economic growth will be triggered once the area’s image has been rehabilitated.
The Mayor’s Regeneration Fund will fund projects in a further eight boroughs. The lion’s share of the £70 million fund had to be borrowed from banks; only £20 million was supplied by the government. The fund focuses on a wide spectrum of measures such as planning support for local councils, site acquisition, landscaping projects, highway improvement, upgrading of shopfronts and support of business start-ups and attracts considerable match funding from local partners. £5.3 million will be used to construct a fashion outlet centre in the centre of Hackney, which will create around 200 jobs.
It appears ironic that additional retail space is intended to help prevent further looting. Analysis has shown that the riots were in part fostered by a culture dominated by consumerism. It would seem more appropriate to also stimulate and support job growth in other sectors on the high streets and in pockets of industrial areas, which still exist in most of the neighbourhoods affected by the unrest. Concepts should be developed for strengthening local economies, for improving links to the creative industries. Regeneration is exacerbated by the fact that – according to the Conservative government’s logic – programmes can only allocate capital funding. The necessary amounts of revenue funding which could, for example, pay for more people to work in youth centres, are lacking in current funding streams. In the current political climate it seems highly unlikely that the drastic spending cuts in funding for school, education and housing programmes introduced as part of the strict austerity regime will be revised. Although quite a clear understanding has been developed of what triggered the civil unrest and where the rioters really came from, hardly any regeneration projects have been targeted at these areas’ often run-down housing estates. It is obvious, however, that in dealing with the last year’s unrest there are much bigger questions to be answered. Tottenham’s Labour MP Davis Lammy got to the heart of the matter when he said: “We cannot live in a society in which banks are too big to fail but whole communities are allowed to sink without trace”. Virtually all the projects which can be considered a response to the riots seem to be targeting the symptoms of civil unrest. This is understandable as the world was eagerly watching how London would cope with these unexpected turbulences in the lead up to the Olympic Games. Targeting the causes should be the step to follow.