Financing Turkish urban development (Part IV)

The French system: Since the early 1980s, France has set up a national policy to tackle the problems that face deprived social housing estates inherited from extensive post-war urbanization. Aware of the importance of the integrated comprehensive development of the city, public authorities focused their attention both within the boundaries of these post-war neighborhoods and in the wider urban areas to ensure a global approach to the problem.

Since 1994, the implementation of urban policy has been achieved through the contrats de ville, which are designed to increase the efficiency of public intervention by instituting a development framework based upon this global approach. In total, over 214 contrats de ville covering 1,300 neighborhoods have been executed.

A contrat de ville is executed between the state and its local partners (regional and local authorities, social housing organizations, etc.) to implement political and institutional partnerships within the framework of an agreed urban and social project. Accordingly, the State stimulates a partnership approach that guarantees sound urban governance and support programs that are tailored to local contexts. To implement the program of agreed initiatives, different partnerships can be established. This brings together the different signatories of the contract, as well as other interested third parties such as community groups and local residents.

The State, local authorities, European Union and various partners participate in the financing of local development projects. In order to ensure a level of equity across the country, a specific funding initiative has been implemented by the State to help those municipalities that are in difficult financial positions. The amount of funding made available is based on criteria such as average personal income or level of public sector housing in relation to total population.

The German system: There are a number of comprehensive and multidimensional approaches in Germany regarding urban regeneration. The federal-state programs known as "Urban Restructuring in the new/old federal states" ("Stadtumbau Ost/West") have a focus on physical measures and are ruled by the philosophy of revitalization without growth. The "Socially Integrative City" program ("Soziale Stadt"), eligible for cities that are growing as well as shrinking, is directed at strengthening social inclusion.

Over the past years, a marked increase in cooperation between the public and private sectors for urban development and the operation of (neglected) public services and infrastructure has been observed.

More flexible funding
The UK system: Urban policy in the UK is a very complex system of initiatives and programs. The City Challenge Initiative required partnerships to be set up between local authorities, the private and voluntary sectors to bid for resources. The City Challenge was replaced by the Single Regeneration Budget with the intention of promoting integrated economic, social and physical regeneration through a more flexible funding mechanism. It was discontinued and superseded by neighborhood initiatives like the New Deal for Communities and city-wide coalitions, known as Local Strategic Partnerships.

The New Deal for Communities provided £1.9 billion for seventeen first-round partnerships and twenty-two second-round partnerships to spend over ten years. The Local Strategic Partnership is a single, non-statutory, multi-agency body, which matches local authority boundaries, and aims to bring together at local level the different parts of the public, private, community and voluntary sector.

Urban Regeneration Companies have been promoted by the government and established by a partnership of local authorities, the regional development agency and other business and economy stakeholders, in order to achieve a focused, integrated regeneration strategy for key towns and cities. © Gary S. Lachman

Admitted to the Colorado and Florida Bars, Gary Lachman has been a real estate developer, university professor and government official. At the U.S. State Department, he led the process for selecting and acquiring new embassies and consulates, negotiated bilateral treaties and transacted business in over 40 countries.