The Building Communities initiative aims to reverse the decline of many of the region's neighbourhood centres that has occurred over the past 30 years. Focusing on a small number of exemplar projects, this initiative has piloted a new approach that complements the existing Rural Renaissance and Market and Coastal Towns initiatives. Building Communities looks at the most effective way for the South West RDA to meet its regeneration objectives in the major towns and cities of the region, exploring the possibilities of major capital investment with revenue support

This initiative has two separate but linked components: Sustainable Neighbourhood Centres (SNCs) and Communities of Interest.

• Sustainable Neighbourhood Centres (SNCs) - focussing on a small number of exemplar projects in working to reverse the decline of neighbourhood centres seen over the past 30 years. The aim is to create vibrant, attractive and sustainable developments that offer a range of facilities and services that cater for local needs.
• Communities of Interest - support for voluntary and community sector umbrella organisations, which operate on a regional basis, and whose activities contribute to the achievement of South West RDA's economic regeneration objectives.

An integrated part of both will be evaluation and learning, with the lessons learned being widely disseminated.  
 
The key principles of the initiative are: 

• Sustainability in promoting viable community regeneration, through community involvement, the creation of community assets, and the long-term engagement of mainstream programmes.
• A commitment to partnership working, joint funding, and integrated development which addresses the full range of economic, social and physical change.
• Achievement of high quality in the economic, social and physical regeneration of run down local centres
• Support for the role of the social economy
• The provision of appropriate assistance and advice, with support for innovation, evaluation, learning and the sharing of good practice.

Detailed Building Communities Guidance (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 120.25kb) on this initiative has been issued. It is important that the guidance is read in conjunction with the reports produced by University of the West of England below.

The South West of England Regional Development Agency commissioned the Cities Research Centre at University of the West of England, Bristol (UWE) to carry out a consultation on an important regeneration initiative - Building Communities: A Regeneration Initiative for the cities and towns of the South West (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 867.95kb). The results of the consultation have been combined into a Final Report (Adobe Acrobat Reader Document - 281.71kb).

The active participation of local communities in developing and progressing proposals is crucial to the success of each initiative. Four pilot projects are being developed in partnerships which include, endorse and encourage community representation.