Speaking at the formal launch of South Belfast Partnership in May, 1998, the then Deputy Secretary for Urban Affairs, within the Department of the Environment, Joe Cowan, said:
"The establishment of an effective and visionary South Belfast Partnership is a challenge for everyone committed to tackling the social, economic and physical problems of the city. Many community organisations and forums have worked hard over the years to improve the quality of life for the people of South Belfast. Their success can only be enhanced and built upon by the harnessing of the skills, knowledge and experience that the South Belfast Partnership incorporates."
The current approach to the regeneration of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods of Belfast, was set out by government in the Making Belfast Work Strategy Document, launched in 1995. The formation of this strategy was preceded by a widespread consultation exercise, through which the views of a broad range of relevant stakeholders were sought as to what was the best way to tackle disadvantage in Belfast. One of the most central themes emerging from this consultation was the need to develop a series of Area Based Partnerships in the City. These Partnerships were to be central to regeneration efforts within the city.
By advocating this new partnership approach to tackling disadvantage in the city, government was very much taking on board regeneration experience form across Europe. Partnership is very much a European phenomenon. It reflects a holistic approach to social and economic development pioneered in countries like Holland and latterly adopted in Ireland and throughout Britain. It is very much an inclusive approach to socio-economic development, with an emphasis on attempting to ensure those people who are most disadvantaged have the opportunity to benefit from efforts to create economic prosperity.
Regeneration in Belfast
Government's Making Belfast Work Initiative had been in existence since 1987, and was identified as the most suitable agency to foster the growth of partnerships throughout the city. During 1996-98 Making Belfast Work successfully promoted five Area Based Partnerships initially in the Greater Shankill area, followed by the establishment of partnerships in East, West, North and South Belfast.
In common with many cities in the developed world, Belfast had experienced a long period of industrial decline throughout the twentieth century. Government attempted to counter this decline and turn around the Northern Ireland economy in the 1960s and early 1970s, by a strategy of attracting Inward Investment to a series of growth centres. While this strategy had some initial success, the rise in oil prices after the Middle East war in the mid-1970s, saw most of the new industries vacate Northern Ireland, exacerbating the structural problems of employment and associated social exclusion.
These problems have never been experienced in a uniform way within Northern Ireland society. They have been particularly severe in some rural, but more commonly in urban areas, especially in traditionally working class communities, where patterns of employment have been decimated by the fall out from the structural changes in the global economy. In latter years economic policy has attempted a more balanced approach, supporting indigenous business, while still aiming to attract inward investment, particularly in identified growth sectors of the global economy, with a focus on securing and distributing the gains of economic growth on a more equitable basis.
Targeting Social Need
From the mid-1990s Targeting Social Need has been one of government's key policies. This policy is now superseded by New Targeting Social Need, an approach which has been enshrined in the Belfast Agreement. To facilitate the implementation of these policies, government has attempted to measure need in a uniform way, initially using the Robson index established in 1991, now superseded by the introduction of new National Statistics based on the NOBLE indices. It has attempted to respond to this objectively identified social need through the skewing of resources by government departments and agencies, targeted at addressing the causes and symptoms of need.
These policy directives shape all of government's regeneration initiatives. Since 1987, government's support for regeneration in Belfast, has been co-ordinated through the Making Belfast Work initiative and the Belfast Development Office. These two structures were amalgamated in 1998 to make the Belfast Regeneration Office. Much of this effort has involved major physical regeneration, using a variety of incentives. It has also involved the establishment of Laganside Corporation, which is responsible for overseeing the development of a sizeable tract of development land adjacent to the river Lagan and just beside the city centre in the Cathedral Quarter.
These initiatives have led to a complete regeneration and renaissance of much of Belfast commercial centre. An air of prosperity, buoyancy and confidence has replaced decline and dereliction, throughout many of the central areas of Belfast. However, many communities are yet to experience the benefits of this commercial progress. The Area Based Partnerships have a key role in addressing this anomaly, by developing strategies to improve the quality of life of residents of those communities, which experience the highest levels of social need. The Partnership's relationship with Belfast Regeneration Office is now shaped by the Department of Social Development's Neighbourhood Renewal Policy. This Policy was launched towards the end of 2003, with the draft Belfast Implementation Plan launched in January 2004 and the final Plan expected in the summer of 2004.
The problems facing many communities in south Belfast, are complex and solutions will only be achieved in the long-term. Generally short-term solutions which are imposed on local communities do not work and often make the problem more difficult. The partnership approach to regenerating areas of greatest need is predicated upon the belief that solutions must include all the stakeholders to secure the social, economic and physical regeneration of the city. The partnership's key focus is to harness the skills, experience, resources and commitment of its stakeholders in order to tackle the causes and the symptoms of social exclusion within south Belfast.