The publication of 1981 Cabinet Papers discussing a strategy of ‘managed decline’ for Liverpool has caused considerable comment at the start of a year in which many places in the UK may well face this direction of economic travel. Beyond the controversial emotive terminology, what is most striking is development and regeneration’s enduring struggles with the relative balance between investing in success and tackling deprivation; and that tackling deprivation still needs to present a compelling case for interventions sustaining better futures as opposed to making present poverty bearable. How far might we see continuity and/or (transformational) change in 2012?
