Self-financing regeneration? Capturing land value through institutional innovations in public housing stock transfer, planning gain and financialisation

Abstract

Social, economic and environmental aspects of building sustainable communities receive ample academic and policy attention; far less is paid to finding financially sustainable models of urban regeneration. This case study of the Hattersley Estate in Greater Manchester, England, provides insights into an innovative approach to financing estate regeneration via novel mechanisms of planning gain, stock transfer and tenure diversification, influenced by the Mixed Communities agenda. In the context of enduring spatially concentrated deprivation, state withdrawal of regeneration funding and residualisation and neglect of public housing stock by an absentee landlord - together rendering estate renewal too expensive for conventional stock transfer - regeneration partners have instead sought to leverage local land values for a ‘self-financing’ method of regeneration. This article describes how a novel business model and financialisation fix were conceived and implemented for Hattersley’s relatively successful estate regeneration; explores the political-economic implications and contradictions of this financialised approach for urban development trajectories; and draws critical connections between research on financialisation, land value capture and municipal entrepreneurialism.