Beyond the Boundaries: Vacancy Chains and the Evaluation of Urban Development Corporations

Recent years have seen the establishment of numerous spatially bounded regeneration agencies in the United Kingdom, prominent amongst which have been urban development corporations (UDCs). Attempts to evaluate such agencies have so far focused almost exclusively upon the impacts within formally delimited areas and have neglected to consider the effects on surrounding nondesignated areas. In this paper, an attempt is made to address this by devising a technique for assessing the wider effects of spatially bounded regeneration agencies and programmes. Drawing from a government-commissioned evaluation of UDCs at Leeds, Bristol, and Central Manchester, we explore the extent to which government intervention in delimited areas has generated a net beneficial impact on the wider local economies of the three cities. By use of data on the nature of vacancy chains for commercial properties in the three UDCs and in their respective surrounding areas, an attempt is made to measure the degree of displacement or additionality engendered by UDC activities.