Regeneration Strategies

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Regeneration Strategies - Urban Areas

In urban areas, regeneration strategies usually fall into four main categories:

Retail-led

Retail-led regeneration strategies usually involve:
- Major shopping malls, such as Westfield in London, Derby and Bradford and the Trafford Centre in Manchester.
- Street or food markets, such as Borough Market in London, Spitalfields Market in London or Christmas markets.

Tourism/leisure-led

Tourism or leisure led regeneration projects are often based around historic sites.
Belfast's Titanic Quarter and castle sites in Warwick and Cardiff are examples of a tourism-led strategy.

Sport-led

Some examples of a sport-led regeneration strategy are London's Queen Elizabeth II Olympic Park in Stratford and in Manchester, Sports City, which includes Manchester City's Etihad Stadium and the National Velodrome for Cycling.

Culture-led

Culture-led developments usually try to re-work old buildings.
Sage Gateshead is a landmark music venue in North East England.
Liverpool and Hull have both been the European Capital of Culture in a culture-led strategy of regeneration.
The Lowry Theatre in Salford is also an example of this kind of regeneration.

Regeneration Strategies - Rural Areas

In rural areas, regeneration strategies also usually fall into four main categories:

Media-led

The hosting of Downton Abbey at Highclere Castle in Hampshire and at Bampton in Oxfordshire have helped the surrounding region.
Some Harry Potter scenes were filmed at Alnwick Castle in the North East of England.

Tourism/leisure-led

Some custom-built facilities aiming to attract tourists can regenerate local areas.
Center Parcs and Butlins build custom built facilities with activities for families and tourists.
Similarly, B&Bs in villages like Ambleside can attract tourists.
The Soho House group opened a Soho Farmhouse in a rural area to attract tourists there.

Sport-led

Outdoor activity centres in forest parks can regenerate areas.
Activities like Go Ape (high wire climbing and zip wires) and forest parks like Thetford in Norfolk can attract people to an area.
In North Wales, at Blaenau Ffestiniog, visitors can do outdoor activities in old mine workings and quarries.

Culture-led

Exploiting famous people is one way of regenerating rural areas.
Thomas Hardy is associated with Dorchester.
Bronte Country in Yorkshire is marketed as the location where the Brontes wrote their famous novels.

Regeneration Strategies - Rebranding

Rebranding tries to change how a place is perceived by visitors, whilst also regenerating the area. Various media can be used to alter this perception. This is done differently in urban and rural areas:

Urban areas

De-industrialised cities often use their industrial history as an asset. Creating museums to exploit their history is one way to do this.
Old industrial buildings can be converted into apartments or offices. WeWork, the office group, built their strategy around making old industrial buildings 'cool'.
Old canal basins and river quaysides can be turned into shops and hotels. In Ambleside, Cumbria, the mill has been turned into an attractive feature.

Rural areas - agriculture

Post-production countryside areas are rural areas that no longer make most of their income from farming, fishing, mining or forestry. Some agricultural ways to rebrand are:
- Farming unusual animals like llamas or alpacas.
- Growing non-food crops like speciality flowers.
- Farm shops and initiatives like Stockley Farm, where people can visit and pet animals.

Rural areas - non-agricultural

Some non-agricultural methods of rebranding and regenerating rural areas are:
- Converting redundant farm buildings into offices.
- Tea shops.
- Campsites (e.g. the popular campsites in Abersoch in Wales).
- Paintballing or clay pigeon shooting.
- Music festivals like Glastonbury, CarFest or Houghton.
- Art festivals.

Rural areas - environmental schemes

Some environmental ways of rebranding and regenerating rural areas are:
- Environmental Stewardship Schemes are land management schemes, which aim to improve water quality and farm wildlife.
- Planting woodland, which is administered by the Forestry Commission. Many areas like the New Forest are visited because of their woodland.
- Ecovillages, like Poundbury in Dorset, which aim to be environmentally and socially responsible. Poundbury was supported by Prince Charles.