nAOOO33q,buQ, Çso-æ2'ßR6, Bound by uaarÔoloo3 ffi .ã,bl¡ ev \d Boolbindlng Go. I ló CrthaysTerace, Crrdlff Ctll 1HY ilil[liilftilffiillllilr o South Walss, U.K, lelr (019) 10395001 I I CARDIFF BAY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION - A critical review of a case study in urban regeneration By Efstratios Babalikis August, 1999 This thesis is being submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of the Master in Philosophy in Urban Regeneration in the University of Wales Universitv of Wales lnstitute of Cardiff Business School DECLARATION This work has not previously been accepted in substance for any degree and is not being concurrently submitted in candidature for any degree. Sign -A Date \o ltI/q 1 Statement 1 Except where othenruise stated this thesis is the result of my own investigations. Other sources are acknowledged by explicit references. sig Date trr /t t z-t.t Signed ß*,ilß!^*^- Date Director of Studies: Gareth Jones (Senior Lecturer, Business School) Statement 2 I hereby give consent for my thesis, ¡f accepted, to be available for photocopying and for inter-library loan and for the title and summary to be made available to outside organisations. g \ Si Date lo / t t /\t ABSTRACT Recent times have seen through changing social, political and economic circumstances the gradual, or perhaps in some places acute, running-down of parts of urban systems leaving in some cases entire inner city areas derelict and devastated. To tackle this problem, urban policies during the nineteen eighties and onwards were geared towards urban regeneration strategies, ln this context, the increasing influence of "New Right" ideology, which advocated a deregulated state together with a market-led regeneration as favourable solutions to urban dereliction, constituted the main topic of discussion in the literature review section of this thesis. The effect of "New Right" ideology on urban planning policies pursued by a succession of Conservative governments since 1979 and into the mid-nineties, was sought in this thesis in order to appreciate the shift away from the Welfare State regime to a new era of encouraged private sector-led development. As had been argued in the literature review, the changing roles of public and private sector agencies in the urban development arena had resulted in a fragmentation of planning styles which could be drawn into a typology of distinctive planning styles ranging from market-critical to market-led, as identified from the review of several British cases studies by Brindley et al. (1996). More specifically, in this thesis it was decided to review the changing ideological climate that had affected urban planning during this era within the case study area. The thesis examines the view that the "New Right", due to unique arrangements featured in the particular case, had not been as dominant in Cardiff as in other English urban regeneration areas. ln order to verify this belief, the research methods chosen included first a review of secondary sources of information for the locality, and second semi-structured in depth interviews with "key-actors" in the particular redevelopment scheme, The information gathered was used for the evaluation of the case study against the typology of planning styles, in order to assess if the particular case study had reaffirmed the typology or had suggested a new one. Ultimately, the issue of a "good practice" regeneration model has been discussed in the conclusion of this thesis, in light of the recent "New Deal" initiatives by the Labour government during the second half of the nineties, where a greater community involvement has been considered essential in order to achieve considerable improvements in urban regeneration programmes. CONTENTS Abbreviations I Acknowledgements il Introduction 1 Chapter 1: the literature review I 1.1 - An overview of the "New Right" era of the late seventies 1.1.1 - The historic background 9 1.1.2 - The ideological leaning of the Conservative Party to "New Right" philosophy 13 1.2- A discussion of Local Government post-1979: from a "provider" to an "enable/' 17 1.3 - A discussion of urban policies in Britain during the last two decades 24 1.3.1 - lntroduction: the inner city problem 24 1.3.2- The emergence of urban policies 25 1.3.3 - The process of urban regeneration and renewal 35 1.4 - Conclusion 37 1.4.1 - Has planning died? 37 1.4.2 - Planning under the "New Right" philosophy - an overview 38 Ghapter 2: the typology 43 2.1 - lntroduction 44 2.2 - Typologies of planning styles 45 2.3 - The typology 48 2.3.1 - Markeþcritical approaches 48 2.3.2 - Market-led approaches 52 2.4 - Conclusion 57 Chapter 3: the research methodology 61 3.1 - Introduction 62 3.2 - Research methodology 63 3.2.1 - Research methods - the theoretical issues 63 3.2.2 - Research methods - the practical issues 66 Chapter 4: review of secondary data 73 4.1 - lntroduction 74 4.2 - An introduction to the case study - the historical background 77 4.3 - The public sector's response to Cardiff Bay's "urban problem" 80 4.4 - Cardiff Bay Development Corporation 87 4.5 - Towards the achievement of the objectives 90 4.6 - Overuiew 96 Chapter 5: the interviews 100 5.1 - lntroduction 101 5.2- the interviews and the interviewees 103 5.3 - Analysis of the interviews 109 5.3.1 - Decision-making 109 5.3.2 - Nature of the development 113 5.3.3 - lmportance of private capital 117 5.3.4 - Consultation 119 5.3.5 - Public-private sector partnership 122 5.3.6 - Sustainability and future arrangements 124 5.3.7 - Who benefits? 126 5.4 - Overview 129 Chapter 6: conclusion 135 6.1 - lntroduction 136 6.2 - Evaluation of the case study against the typology 137 6.3 - Cardiff Bay regeneration model: a distinctive approach? 142 6.4 - Conclusion 144 Appendices 152 Bibliography 158 Abbreviations ABP - Associate Britísh Ports Cadw - Conservation lobby of Wales CBAT - Cardiff Bay Arts Trust CBDC - Cardiff Bay Development Corporation CBTEG - Cardiff Bay Training and Employment Group CLES - Centre for Local Economic Strategies CRAB - Cardiff Residents Against the Barrage DoE - Department of Environment EZ - Enterprise Zones GEAR - Glasgow Eastern Area Renewal project GNP - Gross National Product GOR - Government Office for the Regions IHRA - lnner Harbour Residents Association LDDC - London Docklands Development Corporation NEG - Nippon Electrical Glass PDR - Peripheral Distributor Road PFI - Private Finance lnitiative QUANGO - Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation SG - South Glamorgan SMEs - Small and Medium-sized Enterprises SPZ - Simplified Planning Zones SRB - Single Regeneration Budget UDC - Urban Development Corporation UDG - Urban Development Grant UK - United Kingdom UPG - Urban Programme Grant URG - Urban Regeneration Grant US - United States WDA - Welsh Development Agency WO - Welsh Office Acknowledgements First of all special thanks must go to my Director of Studies, Gareth Jones, for his constructive comments on earlier drafts of my thesis and also for his meticulous correction of my English. I am also grateful to my external supervisor, Huw Thomas, for his suggestions and comments. I also owe a debt of gratitude to other individuals. ln particular, I would like to put on record my debt to wiard Sterck from cardiff Bay Arts Trust, for his suggestions on how to improve my research, and John Cottrell from the Cardiff City Planning Department who had provided me with secondary data published by the public sector and had introduced me to people worth interviewed. I would also like to acknowledge my indebtedness to all my interviewees for offering me valuable information, particularly Liz Court from CBDC Community Team and Ceri Davies from the Cardiff City Council. Finally, I would like to dedicate this piece of work to my family and friends for their moral support. INTRODUCTION Urban planning has always been closely linked to market processes through its regulatory function. As various academics (Ball, 1983; Hague, 1984) argue, the function of planning is to contribute, through its legitimising function, to the conditions necessary for the maintenance of a capitalist market system. Furthermore, Thornley suggests that planning provides an ideology of intervention in the public interest while, in reality, supporting dominant economic interests' (Thornrey, 1gg1 :p21) Of course, notions such as "public interest" or "dominant economic interests" can be the subject of controversy and ambiguity, especially in the light of the major influence that the "New Right" (a concept discussed in chapter 1) has had on many policy-making arenas within the Conservative government which came into power in Britain in 1979, That new government's leaning towards the "New Right" had undoubtedly a major impact in some fields such as education, housing and local government finance. lt remains an important topic for research and evaluation, therefore, even after the Labour electoral victory of 1997, For the purpose of this research, it is the "New Right" impact upon urban planning that is particularly sought. More specificallv, an investigation into the effects the "New Right" ideology had on urban policies geared towards regeneration is pursued in this research within the redevelopment experience of Cardiff Bay during the Nineteen eighties to date. The principal research question that is to be addressed is whether the Cardiff Bay regeneration experience may be distinguished from the main urban policies pursued under a succession of Conservative governments since 1979 which were apparently, as discussed in the literature review, attached to the idea of promoting a free-market approach to regeneration initiatives. I The central theme implicit in Thatcherite/Majorite policies was the attack on state intervention as part of which the long-standing debate over the appropriate role of the public versus the private sector in development issues had been revived. In the literature review laid out in the first two chapters a discussion is included on the confusions over the purpose of planning that reflected its position of being caught in the ambiguity between the egalitarian aims of the Welfare state and the individualistic attitudes implicit in the capitalist free-market economy.