Perry Common is an estate of council houses constructed with defective materials. The area is undergoing a massive redevelopment, with nearly one thousand council houses having been demolished in the last ten years. A once strongly cohesive community has been fractured as families have been displaced elsewhere across the city during the demolition and construction phase.

Although there was much physical and material regeneration occurring in the Perry Common area it was felt by local residents that the human needs of the community had been disregarded.

This case study looks at the work of Perry Common Regeneration Partnership; an initiative owned, run and managed by residents of Perry Common in partnership with the local Anglican Church.

The partnership was established to improve the quality of life for residents through meeting their social, economic, health and emotional needs.

Perry Common Regeneration Partnership was established to address the human needs of the community. Through community consultations they built trust and connections with the community.

They also provided a link between local residents and service providers through a new one-stop community shop (which also hosts courses for residents) and an Employment and Training Worker, who acts as a broker between local adult education providers and the community.

Next they plan to employ a parish nurse who will integrate nursing with a 'whole person' approach to health.

The community shop serves the needs of around seventy residents per month. Early evaluation suggests these are residents who haven’t been reached by other community consultations.

In the first six months over sixty local residents have undertaken adult learning courses, over fifty percent of these had no formal qualifications.
43% of residents stated in 2003 that they like living in the area (up from 37% in the baseline survey of 2001).

This change is felt to be the result of:

Residents of Perry Common are the main beneficiaries.

Resources used included a one-stop community shop and an Employment and Training Worker.

Regen WM
enquiries@regenwm.org

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case

Urban Policy > Urban environment > Urban renewal

Housing estate redevelopment