Business Associations and the Politics of Urban Renewal: The Case of the Lower Don Valley, Sheffield

Previous research has indicated that indigenous small business communities may be adversely affected by, and not well integrated into, the wider strategic objectives being pursued by regeneration agencies. At the same time, the ability of small business communities to contest damaging programmes of renewal has been characterised as being ineffective, because of the politically weak position of such communities and the cleavages within them. It has been suggested that this powerlessness has been compounded in recent times by new quango institutions of urban governance (such as Urban Development Corporations), which are accountable to central government and therefore effectively truncate local political challenges to their strategies and programmes. This paper addresses the theme of small business associations and their scope for localised political influence on a government quango by using the example of the redevelopment of the Lower Don Valley area of Sheffield. This was where a small business association developed and mounted a relatively successful, although limited, challenge to the redevelopment strategy of the Sheffield Development Corporation. The paper concludes that localised interests, if able to mobilise effectively and to adapt to changing circumstances, can influence elements of urban renewal schemes.