Civil Renewal: “Mending the Hole in the Social Ozone Layer,” explains that for 40 years successive governments have initiated wave after wave of costly urban renewal schemes to try to improve the conditions which blight so many lives in up to 3,000 neighbourhoods. Yet, success has been elusive and only a very few neighbourhoods have made real progress. ‘Civil Renewal’ asks why this has been the case. It suggests that while the motives of those leading the initiatives were fine, the culture which shaped their attitude was flawed. So, they tried to redistribute wealth and felt that physical renewal projects would result in sustainable success. Thus, they failed to see that the problem lay not just in material but in social poverty and that the bonds which once tied people together in mutual support had loosened and can no longer support self-help activities. There really is a hole in the social ozone layer. Unless it is repaired renewal is not possible and even costly initiatives will fail. Thus, it shows how people-led renewal can make progress. Indeed, if residents in the few successfully renewing neighbourhoods can act as ‘consultants’ to less confident residents in failing neighbourhoods, perhaps a series of regional programmes of neighbourhood renewal can take place?

Can the powers that be move from ‘doing’ and ‘delivering’ to ‘enabling’ and ‘facilitating’ and initiate a culture changing debate so that local people come to own the process of renewal and ensure that it becomes sustainable?

“Dick Atkinson has shown that a neighbourly society can transform communities. His groundbreaking work on tackling poverty should be read by anyone seriously determined to renew many of our most deprived neighbourhoods.
He has shown that with the right leadership and determination, local people from the grassroots working together really can change their lives far better than any bureaucratic scheme from Whitehall.”

The Rt Hon Oliver Letwin, Shadow Chancellor

“Anyone who is serious about tackling deprivation should read Dick Atkinson’s book. Not only is it grounded in the author’s own experience in one of the most remarkable neighbourhood transformations in this country, it sets out well argued proposals on how civil renewal can be attained across our most disadvantaged communities.”

The Rt Hon David Blunkett