Section Menu

City Growth - An Introduction

City Growth was originally supported by the Enterprise Directorate's Phoenix Development Fund, which closed as of 31 March 2006. All the City Growth initiates across England continue with alternative funding.

City Growth is a market-based approach to urban revitalisation that recognises sustainable economic development in deprived areas will only be achieved by building a competitive business environment that generates jobs, income and wealth opportunities. It was launched in the UK in July 2001.

City Growth is not a new programme or policy. It is based upon a model developed by the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) - a US think-tank led by Professor Michael Porter, and is driven by Chancellor Gordon Brown's commitment to address disadvantage through the growth of enterprise. It helps prioritise and organise existing policies and programmes at the local level and offers a very different approach to developing distressed communities. Led by the private sector, City Growth puts business at the heart of inner city regeneration.