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Challenging Images: the implications of ‘image management’ for the regeneration of stigmatised housing estates

Annette Hastings and Jo Dean
Department of Urban Studies
University of Glasgow

Paper presented at the conference Area based initiatives in contemporary urban policy Danish Building and Urban Research/European Urban Research Association. Copenhagen 17-19 May 2001.

DRAFT - Not for quotation

Abstract

Many of the UK’s most disadvantaged housing estates do not simply endure material difficulties, but are also burdened with poor reputations. Some have a local infamy for crime, physical neglect, unemployment or disorder and a few even achieve national notoriety. Traditionally, area-based responses to the problems of such estates have not tended to address the problem of stigma directly, but have largely assumed that an estate’s reputation will improve as material conditions on the estate improve. Increasingly, however, regeneration initiatives have begun to recognise that overcoming the poor reputation of an estate should be a specific part of the regeneration process, evidenced by the growth of publicity and marketing of estates. However, there is a lack of research which explores whether and how the regeneration process can challenge negative images.

This paper reflects on recent research which attempted to address this gap in understanding. The study examined three housing estates in different UK cities. Each had a long established problem reputation and was undergoing substantial change as a result of a major regeneration initiative. The research explored perceptions of this change with a range of stakeholders, including estate residents, residents of neighbouring areas, regeneration partners, employers, journalists and estate agents. It found that it was very difficult for these estates to shake off a poor reputation, despite the impact of the regeneration initiative. It also provided evidence of the ways in which the persistence of stigma continued to blight the lives of estate residents, acted as a barrier to attracting new residents, and threatened the long term sustainability of the regeneration effort.

The paper argues that ‘image management’ should be a necessary component of sustainable regeneration, as the continuation of stigma threatens the durability of investment and change. It explores how ‘image management’ could be integrated with area-based approaches and the implications of such a process for regeneration policy and practice more generally.

Correspondence address:

Annette Hastings
Department of Urban Studies
University of Glasgow
25 Bute Gardens
Glasgow G12 8RS
UK
Tel: (+) 141 330 3275
Fax: (+) 141 330 4983
Email: A.Hastings@socsci.gla.ac.uk

Introduction

Every city and town in the UK has neighbourhoods which have reputations for problems such as poverty, crime, drug abuse or physical decay. Many of these stigmatised neighbourhoods have long standing, seemingly intractable, problem images rooted in their history perhaps as 'slum clearance' areas (Power, 1987; Damer, 1992; Forest and Kearns, 1999). Their reputations have grown through the vulnerability of residents to local economic change, leading to high rates of unemployment and impoverishment (Power and Tunstall, 1997; Power and Mumford, 1999; Cole et al, 1999). Routine vilification in popular and media discourse of residents as 'different' or 'deviant' has compounded the problematic (Damer, 1992; Murie, 1997; Crossley, 1998) and over time, such neighbourhoods have become places of 'last resort' both in the local housing system and in local folklore (Damer, 1992; Reynolds, 1996). Since the late 1970s, the topography of stigmatised neighbourhoods in the U.K. has increasingly corresponded with tenure, so that public housing estates often characterised by physical isolation and few basic amenities, tend to form the greatest proportion of stigmatised neighbourhoods (Power, 1987).

Those who live in stigmatised estates feel the effects of negative stereotyping keenly (Damer, 1992; Power and Mumford, 1999; Forest and Kearns, 1999; Dean and Hastings, 2000). Habitual demonisation of themselves, neighbours and neighbourhood exacts an emotional toll. Further, residents of stigmatised neighbourhoods regularly report reduced quality of life and limitations to their opportunities as a result of their neighbourhood's problem reputation. For example they believe their place of residence reduces the quality of public services they receive, such as policing and education, (Crossley, 1998; Wood and Vamplew, 1999; Dean and Hastings, 2000). Indeed, the Government has recognised that core public services are often inadequate and sub standard in deprived areas (SEU, 2001). Residents also provide evidence that living in a stigmatised area can limit their access to employment opportunities and to financial services such as insurance, banking or credit (McGregor and Thom, 1990; Damer, 1992; Murie, 1998; Dean and Hastings, 2000). There is also evidence of the withdrawal of private sector services such as telecommunications companies, food retailers and energy companies from stigmatised neighbourhoods or of higher charges to estate residents compared to those to residents of other kinds of neighbourhoods (Speak and Graham, 2000). The testimony of residents, corroborated by research, suggests the high degree to which the lives of residents in ‘problem’ neighbourhoods are impoverished by the operation of stigma.

Increasingly, stigma appears to be an issue for social housing estates in general, rather than just the few most disadvantaged. 'Low demand' from households wishing to live in social housing estates (and in some regions, in some older owner occupied urban neighbourhoods) emerged as a growing policy problem in the late 1990s (DETR, 1999; Cole et al, 1999). To some extent, the collapse in public confidence in estates is related to the ways in which housing policy has restructured tenure preferences in the past three decades. Thus, the normalisation of owner occupation as the tenure of choice (Saunders, 1990), and the accompanying, continued residualisation of local authority housing as the tenure of 'last resort' (Malpass and Murie, 1994; Kemp, 2000) can help to explain negative attitudes to living in estates. However, when the detail of attitudes to housing, neighbourhood and tenure are examined, it becomes clear that tenure is not the main issue. Rather the public seems to have turned specifically against the idea of living in social housing estates, particularly larger estates consisting mainly of flats (Murie, 1998; Kemp, 2000). It is clear that estates are increasingly viewed as problematic in the popular imagination (Power, 1997; Crossley, 1998; Kemp, 2000) and, indeed, emblematic of a whole range of social problems (Cole et al, 1999).

The role which a problem reputation can play in exacerbating estate decline is becoming increasingly recognised (Power and Mumford, 1999; Cole et al, 1999; DETR, 1999). To an extent, this recognition derives from what has rapidly become an orthodoxy in neighbourhood regeneration policy - the need to achieve 'balanced' - or socially and economically mixed - communities for neighbourhood sustainability (Page, 1993 & 1994). Thus, it is clear that the population balance of an estate can be threatened by a falling reputation 'as those who can, move out' leaving only the poorest and most vulnerable (SEU, 2000) and those with choice or ambition are deterred from moving there (Power and Mumford, 1999). A lack of economic and social mix can have a significant impact on a range of other aspects of estate life. For example, faced with a needier or shrinking clientele, private businesses and public services find their task getting harder and may close or come under pressure (SEU, 2000). Local businesses may be reluctant to locate on the estate, leading to a shortage of estate based employers. Crucially, the employment opportunities of residents may be limited by the persistence of stigma; indirectly by the lack of local employers and directly by discrimination.

Further, the difficulties involved in achieving successful regeneration in estates burdened with a problem reputation have also become clear. It seems that once an estate has acquired a problem image, it can be very difficult to shake this off even when large scale investment and substantial physical, economic and social programmes are implemented (Cole and Smith, 1996; Cole et al, 1999, Cambridge Policy Consultants, 1999). The media is seen as particularly culpable in prolonging a reputation (Damer, 1992; Power, 1997) with journalists often continuing to highlight local problems, or use out of date photos or footage, despite the ongoing process of change (Dean and Hastings, 2000). This is symptomatic of a wider problem which can directly inhibit change and renewal. Stigmatised estates are often physically isolated, have a negligible employment base and have few commercial, leisure or retail facilities. Outsiders often have little reason to visit such estates and few people in the wider community will have directly witnessed any change, save that visible from the outside. It can, as a result be very difficult to share knowledge about the process of regeneration. Unless non-residents can be made aware of the process of change, it will be difficult to build confidence that the estates trajectory is indeed improving. For example, a survey of businesses operating near to the four estates which underwent comprehensive regeneration programmes as part of the New Life for Urban Scotland initiative found that, at the close of the initiatives, businesses were still reluctant to consider the estates as suitable locations to move to, citing poor reputation as well as perceived crime levels and drug abuse as major deterrence factors. (Cambridge Policy Consultants, 1999).

Regeneration practice has largely assumed that the negative images of estates will be dispelled as material conditions on estates improve. Direct, specific interventions to address an image problem have rarely been integral to the regeneration process, at least until relatively recently. Indeed, the Government’s current National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal (SEU, 2001) which set out an ambitious action plan to turn around England’s most deprived neighbourhoods, discusses the role of a problem reputation in exacerbating neighbourhood decline but proposes no specific measures to address the problem. Arguably, Government policy toward regeneration has yet to fully understand the role played by perceptions in shaping neighbourhoods. This paper argues that regeneration policy and practice needs to attend to the vital part which the perceptions of residents and non-residents alike play in determining the sustainability of neighbourhood. This is not to suggest that successful regeneration does not require substantial investment in the physical, economic and social infrastructure of the neighbourhood. Indeed, such real material change is clearly the foundation of change within disadvantaged neighbourhoods. But, the research in stigmatised estates undergoing comprehensive regeneration programmes on which this paper is based, suggests that material change needs to be supported by direct effort to challenge stigma. This can be best achieved by spreading the news about change to a wide audience, by engaging a wide range of actors as stakeholders in ensuring that the story of change is told and by building confidence that the estate has a future.

The paper contends that unless neighbourhood image problems are addressed directly within regeneration initiatives, there is a real danger that a problem reputation will remain largely intact despite extensive investment. At best this persistence will be a powerful drag on renewal, at worst it will continue to undermine confidence to the extent that the spiral of decline barely loses momentum. The paper argues that a strategic approach to ‘image management’ is required to reverse the fortunes of stigmatised places. Such an approach is likely to cut across almost the entire regeneration agenda and comprise a range of activities designed to promote a positive (or minimise a negative) image of an estate. It implies the need to address tangible material problems such as tackling crime or unemployment, improving housing or the environment or building new facilities. Importantly, however, it also implies the need to attend to how news of such developments will be communicated and to whom, as well as a focus on how the nature of renewal will be perceived and understood.

The paper is based on research in three estates in England and Scotland with long standing problem reputations associated with the history and status of the neighbourhood in the local area. The research investigated attitudes to the estates of some key groups of people whose perceptions are argued to be critical in influencing the sustainability of the regeneration effort. The part of the paper reviews the development of image management and marketing of estates. The next section describes the research design, methodology and the case studies, before the following session presents evidence from the research about the success of the initiatives in dealing with the estate’s problem reputations. The final section draws out the implications of the research for regeneration policy and practice.

Image management and estate regeneration

Despite the fact that Government policy toward neighbourhood renewal does not suggest the need to develop specific measures to address problem images, ‘image management’ has slowly developed in regeneration practice over the past decade. This part of the paper charts its development.

The earliest attempts at directly tackling image issues on estates often comprised of nothing more than a name change. Name changes usually accompanied other measures, often housing improvements, and the (often vain) hope was that changing the estates name would remove the reputation. Since the late 1980s, however, more sophisticated approaches to challenging images have slowly developed. Early pioneers were two of the estates designated as New Life for Urban Scotland projects, Castlemilk in Glasgow and Wester Hailes in Edinburgh. Established in 1988, from their inception the initiatives identified the need to improve the estates’ problem reputations as a key objective and devoted not in considerable time and resource to issue. Publicity sub groups were established, attitude surveys and market research conducted and public relations strategies developed. Despite these efforts, however, by the end of the New Life initiative, both estates continued to be burdened with important aspects of their prior image (Cambridge Policy Consultants, 1999).

Despite the pioneering activities of these two initiatives, the practice of devising direct image management measures did not develop with any rapidity. Indeed, during the first half of the 1990s, whilst new regeneration projects came on stream almost continually promoted by Government initiatives such as the SRB Challenge Fund in England and Programme for Partnership in Scotland, few followed the example set by initiatives in Castlemilk and Wester Hailes. Indeed, it was not until the latter part of the decade that more regeneration schemes began to build public relations activities into their implementation programmes or embarked on the development of marketing strategies.

It is not clear why, in the late 1990s, ‘image’ should suddenly have been formulated as a problem amenable to intervention by regeneration activities. Part of the explanation may lie in wider political and social changes, namely the increasing emphasis on presentational issues and the effective management of the media in policy and politics, often viewed as having reached its height in the UK context since the advent of the New Labour Government in 1997. More specifically, developments in the use of marketing theory and approaches in an increasing range of settings, particularly non-commercial spheres, may also have been influential in this regard. It is important to emphasise that the practice of estate image management is not underpinned by an in depth understanding of marketing theory and practice, and has, arguably simply incorporated aspects of marketing in a fairly ad hoc way. Nonetheless it is important to discuss the basic premises of marketing and those practical developments which have influenced estate regeneration practice.

'Marketing' can be thought of as a set of activities which aim to influence people's behaviour, usually their willingness to buy a particular product. It is a broad term which can encompass a range of activities designed to sell products or ideas, such as promotion, public relations, branding, customer care or advertising. Marketing theory generally identifies two underpinning principles: exchange; and consumer choice (Kearsley and Varey, 1998, MacFadyen et al, 1999). The principle of exchange recognises that marketing will only succeed where each party in the transaction is persuaded that the other offers than something of value and that they will only allow themselves to be influenced where they derive some benefit from the process (Kearsley and Varey, 1998). Marketing theory also tends to emphasise the centrality of the customer's perspective in any transaction and thus the effectiveness of any marketing strategy will depend on an accurate assessment of different consumer needs and preferences (MacFadyen, et al, 1999) and the recognition that the customer is free to accept or reject the product offered (Kearsley and Varey, 1998).

This brief account of marketing theory presents a rather benevolent account of the motives of those using marketing as a persuasive tool. Marketing can also be viewed less favourably as a mechanism by which preferences can be manipulated and the objective interests of the consumer undermined in order to extract profit (see Ashworth and Voogd, 1995). However, marketeers would counter this view by arguing that the long term success of any strategy based on marketing approaches must retain a focus on the customer’s needs, otherwise it will eventually fail. This suggests that estate image management, if founded on marketing principles, is not about manipulating individuals into courses of action which will be detrimental to their well being. Rather it is about ensuring that they recognise the value to them of the ‘product’ which the marketeer is attempting to sell to them.

Marketing is usually associated with private businesses seeking to attract and meet the needs of customers and maximise their profits (Chapman and Cowdell, 199?). Despite the strong association of marketing with 'selling' in the private sector, there have been some recent developments in the application of marketing to other spheres which highlight the potential relevance of the approach to the regeneration of stigmatised areas. These developments include marketing in non-profit organisations, place marketing and social marketing. Each of these requires to be outlined in order to consider how marketing might contribute to estate regeneration.

Marketing in the non-profit sector is seen both as the application of marketing techniques to meeting the needs and demands of the customers or users public and third sector organisations and as a response to the competitive environment in which public or not-for-profit services have operated since the advent of the 'new public management' agenda of the 1980s (Kearsley and Varey, 1998). Social housing organisations have increasingly embraced the idea of marketing homes (and sometimes neighbourhoods) in recent years. Arguably, the adoption of marketing has mainly been a means of generating demand for properties. Indeed, marketing is being used to broaden the appeal of council housing, and to attract less needy or disadvantaged groups, than those who have come to be housed in the sector. For example, a number of local authorities, including Manchester, Sheffield and Dundee City Councils, now widely advertise vacancies in their stock and are apparently successful in their attempts to interest households who would not have traditionally expected to qualify for a council house through needs based allocation systems (Power and Mumford, 1999; Moore, 1999). Other social landlords such as housing associations have also adopted marketing in order to attract economically active applicants (National Housing Federation North (2000)). The extent to which marketing approaches have been adopted by social landlords as a means of creating the ‘balanced communities’ which are seen as the key to neighbourhood sustainability is not clear. Cole et al (1999) argue that marketing has tended to be serially adopted by landlords without full interrogation of its potential or implications. The paper argues that for estate image management to be successful, it is important to move beyond conceiving of marketing simply as a tool for generating clients, but as part of a holistic approach to developing sustainable neighbourhoods.

City boosterism or the ‘place marketing’ of whole cities as attractive places to investors, industry and tourists is now commonplace (Ashworth and Voogd, 1995) and is another development in the marketing sphere which is of obvious relevance. The re-imaging of cities has been central to entrepreneurial approaches to urban governance since the mid 1980s (Harvey, 1987) and place marketing has been developed as a way of attracting investment and building confidence and civic pride in order to manage post-industrial decline (Ashworth and Voogd, 1995). In the UK context, the cities of Glasgow and Manchester have probably embraced place marketing with most enthusiasm, but many examples abound from around the globe.

Indeed, place marketing as a strategy for city development has achieved such prominence that it is perhaps a little surprising that it has not been more widely applied at the neighbourhood scale. Place marketing recognises the extent to which successful cities are built on the confidence in the city’s future of key stakeholders and investors. It also recognises that deliberate interventions may be required as part of this process. There are clear parallels with neighbourhood sustainability and the argument for applying the lessons of the city marketing at neighbourhood level are compelling, although there is a need to ensure that neighbourhood marketing is attempted as part of a coherent city-wide development strategy.

Finally, one of the more recent developments in marketing has been the development of the concept of social marketing. It has been used most extensively in relation to anti-smoking and other health campaigns. Social marketers aim to use marketing techniques to challenge attitudes and behaviours which are believed to contribute to social problems:

'The social marketer is not in the business of selling condoms per se, but of selling a change of attitudes … or behaviour.' (MacFadyen, et al, 1999, p573)

Social marketing provides a framework for challenging entrenched attitudes towards complex social issues, attitudes which lead to patterns of behaviours which can be detrimental to wider social objectives. It is important to recognise that the problems of stigmatised neighbourhoods will not be resolved simply through applying marketing techniques to ‘sell’ homes in these neighbourhoods to a wider client base. Rather the image problems of such neighbourhoods will only be tackled through a series of more fundamental interventions which challenge the forces which shape perceptions of neighbourhoods and which can help to sustain problem reputation even as material conditions in the neighbourhood improve. The final section of the paper is an attempt to explicate what such a holistic strategy might consist of, drawing on insights from marketing.

Case studies, research design and methodology

The Case Studies

The paper is based on research conducted in three stigmatised estates in the UK whilst the estates were undergoing extensive regeneration programmes. Each estate had a long standing poor reputation prior to the onset of the regeneration initiative. The research aimed to discover whether the problem reputations were being challenged by the process of regeneration and sought to learn from the efforts of the initiatives to address image problems.

The case study estates were selected for the contrasts they afforded in terms of metropolitan context, location in relation to core cities and the character of their stigma. The contrasts implied a different set of opportunities and constraints for addressing reputational issues. In addition, the regeneration initiatives had distinctive approaches to challenging image problems, again providing a useful point of comparison. Brief details of the estates are outlined below.

Meadow Well is a smallish estate in Tyneside, well linked to the rest of the conurbation by road and by a metro line which traverses the estate. It is adjacent to a prestigious leisure, retail and industrial waterfront development. The housing is primarily semi detached and built to high space standards. Built in the 1930s as part of a slum clearance programme, the estate has never lost the associated stigma, and had previously been re-named in an attempt to address its image problem. The estate is nationally notorious having received extensive national media coverage after confrontations between young people and the police in the early 1990s.

The regeneration of Meadow Well has been managed by the Meadow Well Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) board. Total expenditure on the estate from SRB, private sector and other public sector funds totalled approximately £37 million by 2000, much of it spent on physical change on the estate with substantial parts of the estate being rebuilt, street layouts re-modelled and both housing associations and private developers having built new property. Other activities have centred on community safety, housing management, community facilities and economic initiatives. Image management is not a strategic objective of the SRB board. However, changing the reputation of the estate is seen as a key priority, with the main focus on managing the media. The initiative claims moderate success in challenging the estate’s image locally, pointing to a change of tone in the local media. The Tyneside conurbation is characterised by a collapsing housing market and economy, potentially limiting demand to live on the estate and suggesting a difficult context in which to resolve the range of problems encountered by estate residents.

Greater Pilton is a large estate built in phases since the 1920s, two to three miles north of Edinburgh City centre. The estate is flanked by areas of expensive private housing, by industrial sites and by a waterfront and beach area due to be developed into a prestigious residential and commercial quarter. The estate has a variety of traditional and non-traditional house types. Like Meadow Well, Pilton was built as a slum clearance area and has endured a low level stigma for many years. However current problems with the area’s image probably date from coverage of the city’s drugs an AIDS problems in the 1980s, much of it focussed on Pilton and other public housing estates, although the location of the Irvine Welsh novel Trainspotting on the estate cemented the estate’s problem image locally and gave it national profile.

Regeneration has been led by the North Edinburgh Area Regeneration (NEAR) partnership since 1993 which had attracted investment of £76 million to March 2000, spent on extensive housing renewal, demolition and new build by social landlords and private developers as well as on a range of environmental, economic and social measures including the development of flagship community facilities and the remodelling of a shopping centre. Addressing the image problem of the area became a focus of action in the late 1990s with the development of Communications Strategy which also attempts to improve communications between partners and to raise the profile of the regeneration programme. A small amount of the resource is deployed to employ a part-time PR officer whose primary task is increase positive media coverage of the estate. There is some evidence of an improved image in some quarters – indicated by some demand for low priced new private housing and for housing association tenancies. However, the estate continues to receive poor press coverage and, while the Edinburgh housing market is booming, prices in Pilton remain depressed. Pilton is one of relatively few islands of deprivation in Edinburgh: the buoyant housing market and a growing economy of the city present a strong contrast with the situation in Tyneside, and suggest a range of opportunities to overcome the estate’s problems.

The final case study estate is Castle Vale, a large estate of tower blocks and low rise, system built houses built in the 1960s some six miles from Birmingham city centre. The estate’s peripheral location is compounded by the fact that it is physically cut off from other parts of the conurbation both by industrial estates and by a major motorway which forms one of its boundaries. Again the estate was built as part of a slum clearance programme, although the processes of stigmatisation appear to have intensified over time, so that by the late 1980s it was considered a no-go area by some, with negative media attention focusing on drugs, violence and car crime.

The regeneration process is managed by Castle Vale Hosing Action Trust (HAT), a well resourced, high profile Government body established in 1993. By March 2000, funding of regeneration programmes had amounted to around £145 million deployed on a range of activities including extensive demolition, new build and refurbishment of housing, programmes to address crime and unemployment and a range of social and environmental interventions. The HAT has sought to address Castle Vale’s problem image since its inception, although the focus until the late 1990s tended to be on raising the HAT’s profile. Two full time PR staff are employed and a PR and communications strategy was developed in 2000. The HAT claims some success in altering the estate’s image, citing improved media coverage as well as the decision of a prestigious retailer to locate a supermarket on the estate. However, it is clear that the media still highlights negative issues about the estate. The Birmingham housing market and economy neither enjoys the buoyancy of the Edinburgh case, nor endures the depression of Tyneside. Demand exists for housing across all tenures in the conurbation and there are economic opportunities available.

In summary, the three case studies represent a range of contexts within which to explore how problematic reputations can be addressed. The contrasts between the metropolitan contexts afford a useful means for exploring the articulation of neighbourhood issues with their wider urban contexts. Each of the three estates has a significantly different character, whilst sharing similar degrees of stigmatisation. And finally, the regeneration schemes charged with reversing the estate’s fortunes differ according to their depth of funding and the nature and extent to which they have sought to address image issues.

Research design and methodology

The study was designed to assess the degree to which each estate’s reputation had been challenged by the regeneration process. It also aimed to discover the extent to which the reputation persisted differentially for a range of different stakeholders in the estates. An ulterior aim of the study was to explore how regeneration initiatives might engage with different stakeholders in order to maximise their effectiveness in the process of challenging images.

The study was based on the premis that effective image management strategies for stigmatised estates requires to target key audiences if they are to contribute to generating neighbourhood sustainability. The identity of the key audiences is derived from the earlier discussion of the processes of neighbourhood decline and the contribution of a range of actors to building and sustaining a stigmatised image.

It was argued above that stigmatised estates are unlikely to be places of residential choice for households with options in the housing system – namely, young economically active households. It was therefore imperative to discover the perceptions which these types of households had of the estates as they went through the process of regeneration, focusing both on households already resident on the estates, as well as on similar households resident elsewhere in the locality yet considering moving house. A series of focus groups were convened to explore the views of both residents and potential residents. Eight groups were held on each estate with all participants members of young, economically secure households. As Figure 1 below shows, half of the groups were with estate residents and half with potential residents. Separate groups were convened according both to tenure and to their attitude towards living on the estates: residents who wanted to stay living there or to leave; non-residents who would or would not consider moving there. Over two hundred individuals participated in twenty-four groups. Designing the research thus, allowed for the separate exploration of perceptions of the estates with a range of households which were similar in their age and basic economic profile, yet differed according to tenure, residence and snap shot attitudes towards the estates.

The role of the media and estate agents in shaping perceptions of estates was also highlighted earlier, as was the problems created by businesses and employers who, it was argued, continued to discriminated against estate residents even once initiatives were well underway. Consequently, interviews were conducted with local journalists and employers based near to the case studies to elicit their attitudes to the estates and to assess their knowledge and understanding of the processes of change there. It proved difficult to persuade estate agents to discuss these issues, and so the researchers posed as potential home buyers in order to discover their attitudes, in a telephone ‘mystery shopper’ survey.

The next part of the paper discusses the findings from the focus groups and interviews in relation to the perceptions of the estates held by these target groups.

Figure 1: characteristics of focus group participants

Estate images post regeneration: evidence from the case studies

As was described earlier, the regeneration initiatives in each of the estates had been underway for some considerable time and, as a consequence, the process of change was well underway in all three estates, with physical change the most striking. The three initiatives each claimed some success in addressing image problems, although none had carried out extensive surveys of attitudes to the estates.

The evidence of this study, however, was that the estates largely retained their poor image with residents and non-residents alike, and that considerable work remained to educate journalists, estate agents and the media about the objectives of the regeneration programmes and the progress made. Whilst, there were important differences in terms of the degree to which the problem reputation persisted between different focus groups, it is important to note that the overwhelming direct testimony of the research participants was that the estates retained their poor image. Indeed in most of the focus groups with residents and potential residents, ‘poor image’ was volunteered as a defining characteristic of the estates, even before participants were aware that this issue was to be the focus of the research. It was equally clear from the interviews with employers and journalists that key elements of the estate’s problem reputations remained, and the survey of estates agents provided very powerful evidence of this.

The estates continued to be burdened both by the specific nature of their reputations and by the problematic images of social housing estates more generally. All the Meadow Well focus groups mentioned the 1991 riots, in Pilton the reputation for drug misuse was foremost and in Castle Vale the image emphasised crime, particularly car crime. In general, participants tended to associate the estates with problematic or neglected housing, degraded environments, high crime and unemployment rates and, often, inadequate people. A group of potential residents in one estate described its problems in terms which cover probably the entire lexicon in relation to stigmatised neighbourhoods:

"Crime…vandalism…drugs…gangs…its dirty…full of rubbish…anti-social behaviour…bad reputation…boarded up houses…children roaming the streets…stray dogs…problem families"

Many groups compared the estates to other areas notorious in the popular imagination, such as the Bronx, East Berlin or Beirut:

"It doesn't seem like part of Western Europe at all really, it is something you would maybe see in Kosovo or something"
(Estate resident, Pilton)

It was clear that knowledge of the nature and extent of change was not widely shared by non-resident participants in the focus groups and by other ‘outsiders’ interviewed. Moreover, a strong theme in some resident focus groups was their lack of knowledge about the extent of plans for the estates, particularly programmes to address non-physical or environmental problems such as unemployment.

Interviews with employers based near to the estates also suggested that they did not have a detailed understanding of the regeneration process, even those involved in groups set up by the initiatives to try to involve employers. Overall, there was a tendency to know about regeneration simply through observing works visible from the outside. The interviews were conducted mainly with managers or the owners of the businesses. These individuals rarely visited the estates and thought it unlikely that their employees would do so, believing that the estates offered little to attract them. They also suggested that their employees could be deterred by a fear of crime. One employer based next to Pilton described how staff were reluctant to walk to more remote parts of the car park or on to the estate to catch a bus. This had led the employer to introduce a special bus service. Overall employers seemed uninformed about the regeneration process and, in particular, demonstrated a lack of knowledge of the breadth of the regeneration agenda.

Publicity materials about the regeneration process in the three estates were shown to employers. Reactions to this material were generally positive and suggested the potential for simple literature to affect the views of this group. Most had never received such information, yet thought they would read leaflets about the regeneration process, provided they were clearly written; as in the response to one below:

Great, I mean I wouldn't have realised that it was such a massive task. Here it says it's the largest post war municipal estate. So how many people live on the (Castle) Vale? Well that's a start isn't it. … Yes this makes me feel much more comfortable. Personally I think they should be shouting this kind of stuff from the roof.
Employer, Birmingham

Focus groups participants were shown also range of materials during the sessions designed to assess participants’ knowledge and understanding of the regeneration process, as well as to elicit their attitudes to the estates and their residents. While the precise nature of the materials varied between the areas, they were selected to offer alternative images of the estates: as run down and threatening neighbourhoods, and as modernised and safe communities. They included photographs and video footage taken before any substantial change was apparent, and more recent materials which demonstrated change in the areas including photographs of clean and tidy streetscapes, new community facilities and improved or new housing including marketing brochures for new private developments.

The responses to these various stimuli were instructive in terms of revealing the extent to which the estates’ images remained problematic and the degree to which awareness of change had penetrated the resident communities and those of nearby areas. For example, not all groups recognised the negative old footage or photographs to be out of date. Whilst residents who wished to stay on the estate and non-residents who may consider moving to the estates recognised the materials to be out of date and selective (even querying whether the estate had ever been like it was represented), residents who wished to leave and non-residents who would not consider any moving to the estates were much less sure. Possible leavers from the estates believed the materials to be much more recent than those who wanted to stay, often arguing that parts of the estate were still like they were being portrayed. Non residents who would not consider the estate believed the materials to be an accurate representation of the estate today, seemingly oblivious of the change. Where they were aware of improvements, there was scepticism that they could be sustained.

A common theme in the focus groups with non-residents was the fact that there was little prior awareness of opportunities to buy property on the estates. In fact, substantial opportunities are available on all three. In the case of Castle Vale part of the estate had originally been built for sale and a new estate had been constructed by a developer during the regeneration process. Indeed, by March 2000, owner occupation accounted for just under forty per cent of the tenure structure of the estate. In Pilton, at March 1999, owner occupation accounted for thirty six per cent of the housing stock. Whereas around two thirds had been purchased under RTB legislation, over three hundred new houses had been built in new estates by private developers. In Meadow Well, opportunities to buy are less prevalent but by March 2000 just over a tenth of the estate comprised new housing built for sale and over hundred further houses were under construction. However, for most non-residents the estates were perceived as uniformly council owned and presenting few opportunities for the aspiring home owner. There was considerable surprise amongst all non-resident groups that new, often low-cost houses were available to buy, and participants in those groups more positively pre-disposed to the estates seemed genuinely interested in the discovery, and were keen to discuss the price, location and quality of the housing on offer. Indeed, in some instances participants asked to keep marketing brochures, indicating an interest in following this information up.

Interestingly, ignorance of the tenure structure of the estate was often shared by estate agents operating locally. The research team carried out a ‘mystery shopper’ survey with local estate agents, posing as potential home buyers in each of the three cities. The researchers positioned themselves as potential purchases for the estates by stipulating the need to live near to a place of work adjacent to each estate and presenting with a very limited budget. In only one of the cities, Birmingham, did any estate agent actually suggest the appropriate case study estate as a possible location in which to purchase (perhaps because of the longer history of owner occupation on this estate in comparison with the other two) and, in all three cases, agents seemed uninformed about the nature and extent of change on the estates or were out of date with regard to specific housing opportunities on the estates. In particular, the agents were usually unaware of the new private developments on the estates and talked of opportunities to buy mainly in terms of properties bought from the council under the Right to Buy legislation, or in terms of renovated flats. For example, one Edinburgh estate agent, in response to a question from the ‘prospective purchases’ about what the Pilton area was like responded:

‘…Most of them, I mean there are probably quite a lot of properties that are probably still council tenanted in that sort of area… I think that the majority that are there are still council’

Another agent suggested that Pilton was dominated by high rise flats, whereas the built form of the estate is predominantly walk-up flats, although a large complex of deck access flats used to bestride one part of the estate. Indeed, some estate agents revealed that they had not visited the estates ever, or for some time, even those who were selling properties on the estates.

This was less the case for estate agents operating near Meadow Well, who seemed more up to date about the nature of the housing stock than their Edinburgh or Birmingham counterparts. Indeed, change on Meadow Well is much more visible to non-residents than that on the other two estates, mainly because the estate is routinely traversed by travellers on the North Tyneside Metro which cuts through the estate, as well as by users of a major road which connects North Tyneside with rest of the conurbation. This is a key finding the implications of which is returned to in the conclusion to the paper.

In general, estate agents were not favourably disposed towards the three estates and were either ignorant of any change or dismissive of it. As a consequence, many agents actively tried to deter the ‘prospective purchaser’ from considering the estate as a place to live, in those cases where the agency had a property from the estate to sell. Numerous strategies were employed to dissuade the purchaser including alluding to personal safety issues, warning about difficulties of re-selling and arguing that the estate’s reputation would continue to be problematic despite the onset of regeneration. For example, one agent suggested about Meadow Well:

‘It does have a bad reputation. It’s not as bad as it was. But I think that it will always hold that stigma. A bad housing estate never really gets rid of its stigma.’
(Estate agent, North Shields)

Thus, estate agents, through ignorance or prejudice, were playing an important role as gatekeepers in relation to owner occupation on the estates. Their negative attitudes to the estates were clearly conditioned by the estate’s reputations, but many revealed themselves to be out of date in their knowledge about the estates. As such their attitudes and actions had the clear potential to undermine the regeneration effort. In particular, the key objective of attracting young, affluent households to the estates will be difficult to achieve as long as estate agents continue to suppress demand for the estates. The research in the focus groups with households moving house locally, suggested a latent demand for low cost housing in the estates. Moreover, individuals trying to sell their houses on the estates gave testimony that their homes were being undersold by agents. The evidence about estate agents suggests the need for regeneration initiatives to find ways of communicating effectively with estate agents both about the nature and extent of change on the estates and the extent to which their attitudes and activities can undermine efforts. This question is returned to in the final section of the paper.

Finally, it is important to note that the presence of new estates constructed by private developers is not only of interest to individuals who may be prospective purchasers on the estates. Their presence can have much wider significance in terms of communicating a message that the estate is improving. Their presence or absence is important for shaping images positively or negatively. Indeed their presence can challenge a poor reputation. This is because they are believed to be sensitive to risk, and their investment decisions are therefore read as an estimated of risk.

Throughout this discussion, it has been suggested that, whilst it was clear that the estates retained their problem reputations, there were mixed views on the extent to which this image was an accurate representation of reality. As Figure 1 described, the focus groups with residents and non-residents were convened so that participants with different initial attitudes to the estates took part in different groups. Not surprisingly groups more positively disposed toward the estates (that is, residents who wanted to continue living on the estates and non-residents who might consider moving there) were much more likely to suggest that the estate's reputations were undeserved than their counterparts who wanted to leave the estates or who would not consider moving there. For this latter group of participants, image and reality coincided and only drastic measures such as flattening the estate, rebuilding it and moving the residents elsewhere would be sufficient to change their attitude to it:

"Take all the nice people out and just leave all the dross in and build a brick wall with a cage and a lock and just keep them all in there"
(Non-resident, Meadow Well)

By contrast, residents who wish to continue to live on the estates often represented their estate's population as an asset, and only occasionally a liability:

"Its just your few bad ones … the rest are all nice people"
(Resident, Castle Vale)

Residents who want to stay and non-residents who might consider moving to the estates considered image to be a very important problem for the estates, although they rejected it as a reflection of what the estates were like. They blamed the media for creating and perpetuating stereotypes, for focusing on problem stories and for using old photographs or out of date footage to illustrate a local story. As was highlighted earlier, residents felt the effects of the image in many spheres of their lives, believing that it affected their life chances. For some, the persistence of the reputation might be cause enough for them to consider leaving. For potential residents, the reputation could represent a real obstacle to their moving to the estate, even though they thought it to be largely undeserved. Those residents most likely to consider moving to one of the estates were those who believed that the reputation was beginning to change.

Thus it was clear that it was not appropriate to talk about the image of an estate, rather to delineate the differences or fractures in the image. A key task in the research was to characterise the different perspectives on the estates and to account for how these perspectives related to the beliefs, prejudices and experiences of participants. Figure 2 below presents a typology which shows the warmth of the various focus groups towards the estates. It shows that residence is not necessarily a predictor of warmth, but shows how attitudes and tenure interact with residence. The Figure characterises the attitudes of the focus groups towards the estates. The groups fall into six types, descending from hot, through a lukewarm then cool zone, to very cold.

Figure 2: Warmth towards the estates: a thermometer

Hot: These are residents who choose to stay. They are typically long standing residents, well connected within the estate, regularly use its facilities, and are family orientated. On the basis of these attitudes we can think of these people as committed residents.

Warm: Current owners willing to consider the estate are often former residents who are attracted by the price, size and quality of housing. Current renters who are willing to consider the estate typically have fewer connections to it but are aware of changes and willing to consider buying a first home in the area. We can think of these people as budding incomers.

Lukewarm: Renters who want to leave experience regeneration efforts as inconvenient. They report crime and neighbour problems, traffic, noise and dirt, and regard other estate residents as causing its problems. While they expressed a desire to leave the estate when recruited to the research most are not actively trying to move, and they are unlikely to leave the rented sector. On the basis of their dissatisfaction these people are conceived of as potential leavers.

Cool: One group, renters who at the recruitment stage were unwilling to consider moving to Pilton, displayed more complex attitudes in the group. They are mainly young professionals, left leaning in politics, with little connection to the estate. On the basis of their changing opinions in the course of the focus group, and their reactions to estate publicity, they are termed doubtful incomers.

Cold: Owners who want to leave the estate are generally recent incomers who believed change on the estate would be rapid and substantial. They now feel betrayed by the regeneration process and threatened by the social renters around them. They have less community connection than other residents and avoid using estate facilities. This group can be seen as probable leavers.

Very cold Owners who are unwilling to consider the estate are generally young and aspirational professionals. The estate does not have the type of property they are seeking, and is not the type of area they desire. They have little connection to the estate, little awareness of changes, and see no reason to spend time in the area. Similar are the Birmingham and North Shields renters who reject Castle Vale and Meadow Well as places to live. These groups can be termed improbable incomers.

Arguably the typology presents a useful tool which allows regeneration initiatives to understand the attitudes to the estates of various stakeholders and may suggest how some new residents could be attracted to the estates.

This discussion has clearly demonstrated that the three case study estates retain their problem reputations and shown how, left untouched, the persistence of such a reputation could damage the regeneration process and the achievement of neighbourhood stability. It has suggested that the changes within the estates can remain largely invisible to outsiders and demonstrated the importance of drawing them onto estates to experience the changes for themselves. The discussion has also highlighted the role which local estate agents, employers and journalists can play in sustaining a negative image of an estate and suggested the need for regeneration initiatives to find constructive ways to engage them in the process of change. Finally, the fact that there are a range of perspectives on the estates amongst residents and non-residents has been highlighted, emphasising the need to find ways of communicating effectively about progress on the estates to a range of distinctive viewpoints. The concluding discussion suggests ways in which regeneration practice could respond to the issues raised here.

Conclusion - implications for regeneration practice

The paper has identified the importance of addressing a problem image as part of the process of estate regeneration. A key problematic in relation to the place marketing literature relates to how negative images can be overturned (Selby and Morgan). The discussion which follows suggests a range of possible avenues of exploration based on the findings from the research and the earlier discussion of marketing.

NB this is only in note form

– Need for targeted marketing - there is a segmented market of residents and potential residents. Different segments have different attitudes to the estates, different concerns and priorities. Must communicate with them on those bases

– Crucially need to target residents, including those who want to stay. Need to look after loyal customers. Need to find ways of integrating new owner occupiers into estate communities

– Require to target and educate other actors about the process of change. Need to find ways of bringing employers, estate agents, journalists on board as stakeholders in overturning negative images

– Link to place marketing literature - need to support initiatives to develop civic pride such as arts projects

Modifications required to regeneration practice

– Need to increase the visibility of the regeneration effort. Corridor regeneration useful where local residents are involved in the decision to focus on the most obvious parts of estates

– Need to draw outsiders onto estates so that they can witness change for themselves. Could involve developing new facilities or changing road layouts

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