Book review -- Urban Regeneration in the UK (2nd edition) by Andrew Tallon

Abstract

You wait three years for a ‘regeneration in the UK’ book, then two come along at once. Regeneration policy in the UK has been something of a moving target for the last 50 years, so the timing of publication
is never easy. The timing of Tallon’s first edition in 2010 was a tad unfortunate, with the book just missing out on the change of UK Government, so there was an expectation of a second edition.

Full text

You wait three years for a ‘regeneration in
the UK’ book, then two come along at
once. Regeneration policy in the UK has
been something of a moving target for the
last 50 years, so the timing of publication
is never easy. The timing of Tallon’s first
edition in 2010 was a tad unfortunate,
with the book just missing out on the
change of UK Government, so there was
an expectation of a second edition.
Happily, the second edition’s major
strength is the insightful analysis of the
early years of the Conservative-led
Coalition Government’s reorientation of
urban regeneration policy (at least in
England, more of which later). Wisely,
Tallon has retained the main strengths of
the first edition: the comprehensive
coverage, the intricate detail, the critically
informed insights, the copious referencing
and the end of chapter key readings.
Together with additional material
analysing the Coalition Government’s
approach (chapter 6), this is a textbook
that students will find extremely useful.
Regeneration in the age of austerity (as
Tallon calls it) brings problems, but has
also stimulated various innovations in
regeneration at the local level.
1
One
outcome of austerity regeneration is likely
to be the growth of the social economy
sector in the UK and elsewhere.
2
Academics and practitioners will also
find this book an invaluable reference
source for all those important details that
refuse to stick in the memory. Tallon also
retains the structure that served the first
edition so well: partly chronological,
sections one and two; partly thematic,
section three. And it is in the first two
chapters where Tallon scores over the
second book to come along: Phil Jones
and James Evans’ text which has the
strikingly updated title, ‘Urban
regeneration in the UK: Boom, bust and
recovery’ (Sage, London, 2013). Although
the two books of necessity cover similar
ground, it is the extended historical
context section in Tallon’s book that helps
account for its greater comprehensiveness
and larger size.
While the structure remains the same,
small but useful changes in this second
edition are the bullet points setting out
the aims of each chapter, in preference to
the previous discursive paragraphs. Each
chapter has clear aims and is based on
meticulous secondary research that will
hopefully inspire students to aim to be as
thorough. Each of the chronological
chapters brings out the intricacies and
dilemmas of urban regeneration policy
and the shifts in approach due to the
changed political priorities of incoming
governments. Tallon’s discussion of the
various definitions of regeneration sits
292 Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal Vol. 7, 3, 292–294 䉷Henry Stewart Publications 1752-9646 (2014)
Book reviews
Urban Regeneration in the UK
(2nd edition)
By Andrew Tallon
Routledge, London, 2013, 352 pp, £28.99 (pbk), £99.00 (hbk),
ISBN 0415685036