American Geographical Society

The Glasgow Eastern Area Renewal Scheme Author(s): David C. Rich Source: Geographical Review, Vol. 71, No. 2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 214-218 Published by: American Geographical Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/214189 . Accessed: 14/08/2011 08:26
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GEOGRAPHICAL RECORD
THE GLASGOW EASTERN AREA RENEWAL SCHEME
DAVID C. RICH
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY

Clydeside has the greatest concentration of economic, social, and environmental problems in Great Britain. Although many parts of the conurbation had severe difficulties, the East End of Glasgow was one of the most disadvantaged areas during the 1970s.1 The secretary of state for Scotland established in May, 1976, the Glasgow Eastern Area Renewal (GEAR) scheme to rehabilitate 1,600 hectares that stretched from the eastern fringe of the central business district of Glasgow eastward to Sandyhills. The origins of the present-day problems in Clydeside lie in its rapid economic and population growth during the second half of the nineteenth century. The decades of boom left a tightly integrated economic structure based on the production of iron and steel and their use in shipbuilding and engineering.2 Subsequent increased competition and an inadequate adjustment to changing economic and technological conditions have meant that Clydeside during much of the twentieth century has been an economically depressed region. The strong local interindustrial linkages ensured that the difficulties were felt throughout the region. Circumstances in the inner areas such as the East End were worsened by the tendency of new manufactural investment to be located in the peripheral areas of the conurbation.3 The East End was heavily involved in the late nineteenth-century activities; for example, Parkhead and Cambuslang were important centers of iron and steel production. The East End was left with an outdated and decaying manufactural base. Its accelerated decline in the 1960s and the 1970s led to severe problems of increased unemployment and industrial dereliction. Housing in the East End was aged, low-quality stock in urgent need of upgrading or relacement. During the nineteenth century large numbers of tenements were built in Bridgeton and Dalmamock to accommodate the influx of working-class residents, but there has been relatively little private investment during the twentieth century to maintain or to replace such property. Furthermore, the heavy commitment of the Glasgow municipal authorities to provide rental housing in the past sixty years often emphasized quantity rather than quality of accommodation.4 Deteriorating residential and employment conditions in the East End led to steadily accelerated out-migration. The population of the GEAR area fell from 145,000 in 1951 to 45,000 in 1978. Because of the selectivity of outmigration, significant concentrations of elderly persons and various underprivileged groups developed. Unemployment of males averaged 20 percent in 1978, 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 of economic and demographic decline, and environmental deterioration was widespread and overwhelming.5 The GEAR scheme was intended to achieve the comprehensive economic, social, and environmental regeneration of the area. The inner or western half of the area, which had the highest incidences of most problems, was given the priority. With this broad focus came an unprecedented attempt to secure the cooperative action of the central government and seven other jurisdictional bodies in which each was to retain full statutory responsibility. The bodies were the Glasgow District Council (GDC), responsible for housing and local planning; the Strathclyde Regional Council (SRC), responsible for education, social services, and strategic planning; the Scottish Development Agency (SDA), responsible for industrial regeneration and environmental improvement; the Scottish Special Housing Association (SSHA), responsible for construction and improvement of housing; the Manpower Services Commission (MSC), responsible for labor training; the Housing Corporation, responsible for housing by assistance to local housing associations; and the Greater Glasgow Health Board. The SDA was designated the coordinating manager of the GEAR scheme.6 Most participating authorities had established programs in the area before the announcement of the scheme. Their continuation under GEAR and the introduction of new programs meant that significant public spending marked the early stages of the scheme. Only in May, 1980, was a Strategy and Programme for concerted action by all participants finally agreed. Its preparation was prolonged by investigations of the problems of the area, by a program of public consultation, by the difficulty of securing agreement among eight separate bureaucracies, and by the change of the central government in 1979. The Strategy emphasizes assistance to vulnerable social groups and identifies six major objectives. The Programme is subject to annual modification and comprises a committed program for the current fiscal year and a target program for the two succeeding years. The first objective is to arrest economic decline and to realize the potential of GEAR as a major center of employment. Various methods are in use to retain existing industrial jobs, to expand the number of employed, and to attract investment. SDA has the major responsibility. It has constructed 16,400 square meters of new factory-floor space, comprising sixty-seven small workshop units and four large advance factories. Demand, especially for the small units, has been brisk; they are all rented and provide 1,165 jobs. The program for 1980-81 offers the potential of 1,400 additional jobs by the provision of another 22,000 square meters of factory space. A further 55,000 square meters are planned for 1981-83. The SDA provides support and advisory services to businesses and plans a campaign to attact investment and to promote local enterprise. To accommodate economic expansion, SDA has plans to refurbish unused industrial land, while the two local authorities undertake various infrastructure investments such as improvement of road and sewer networks.

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The second objective is to stem population decline and to produce a balanced age and social structure. This objective is part of the efforts to improve employment opportunities and to increase the quality and the range of housing stock. Improvement of housing is the largest component of the GEAR scheme and accounts for 61 percent of projected expenditures to 1981. By March, 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 target program envisages a shift to owner occupancy and substantial modernization of interwar public housing. The third objective is environmental improvement, which is considered vital 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 sites and exterior cleaning of buildings were completed by 1980. An additional forty-eight projects were to commence in 1980-81, and forty-nine others are anticipated in the two succeeding years. Additionally efforts to reduce atmospheric pollution are under way, and local traffic-management systems are seeking to improve accessibility and to restrict through-traffic flows in critical sections. Increased competitiveness of residents in securing employment is the fourth objective. Actions to reduce the high levels of unemployment included improved preparation of young persons for work and upgrading the general level of skills of the residents. Specific programs involve both nationally available schemes and projects designed for local needs. In April, 1980, there were 162 approved training and work-experience schemes for 54 adults and 456 young persons in operation. The program for 1980-81 projected the figures of 210 schemes 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 other disadvantaged groups. Priority is given to the development of communitybased health and welfare services and facilities. Schemes provide for additional assistance to the elderly, the mentally ill, the handicapped, and the single homeless. Preschool, educational, and other facilities for young persons are being improved by capital projects and by the appointment of additional teachers and youth leaders. Play areas, sports grounds, and libraries are being improved or constructed. Some priority is given to improvement of public transportation and the provision of better shopping and community facilities. The sixth objective is to increase the level of community involvement in the regeneration process by encouraging the residents to participate in the planning and the management of some services and facilities. The SSHA is experimenting with a housing cooperative to manage one project, while the GDC is restructuring its housing management throughout Glasgow to a local basis. Other schemes involve extensive public consultation in the formation of GEAR plans, the establishment of tenant-meeting places, the appointment of community 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 environmental improvement projects and indeed the whole redevelopment program are beginning to have major effects. The 2,500 jobs potentially available in the new industrial premises will form an important addition to the 42,000 jobs present in 1978. The workshop units have successfully tapped the latent demand for such property: low rent, appropriate sizes, and innovative designs have been factors. Upgrading of health, welfare, and community services enchance the residents' quality of life. Probably the most significant benefit is the construction or refurbishment of more than 7,500 dwellings, a substantial 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 additional 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 general policies that would have benefited the area without GEAR. Each of the participating agencies has responsibilities elsewhere, so the amount of funds channeled to GEAR is severely limited. It is impossible to obtain reliable data on the level of new funding brought by GEAR. The harshest critics suggest 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 fuse the 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 consequences of those difficulties, meant that substantial expenditure of money and effort lacked clear, jointly agreed priorities. A range of partially coordinated projects resulted. Even now, after agreement on the Strategy, participants have a set of general objectives rather than specific goals against which to judge priorities and to evaluate expenditures. Thirdly, the value of treating one small area as a closed socioeconomic system, isolated from the circumstances of the surrounding region, is questionable. Although the channeling of limited funds that are available for physical renewal to areas of greatest need is sensible, arguably the real problems of an area like the East End relate to an inadequate volume and mixture of economic activities and hence of employment. In this critical regard, the difficulties of the East End are merely components of the problems pervading most of west-central Scotland. Only regional and countrywide policies can successfully address these issues.
REFERENCES 1S. Holtermann, Areas of Urban Deprivation in Great Britain: An Analysis of 1971 Census Data, Social Trends, Vol. 6, 1975, pp. 33-47. 2 A. Slaven, The Development of the West of Scotland: 1750-1960 (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975).

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C. J. Carter, Some Post-War Changes in the Industrial Geography of the Clydeside Conurbation, 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.