From Total Place to Total Neighbourhood: the Resident-led Renewal of Balsall Heath in Birmingham
The Balsall Heath of yester-year could not help itself or mend its broken windows. So, service providers had to vainly try to mend them and tidy the environment and arrest prostitutes, cure the mentally ill and tend the elderly etc, etc. That was a very expensive uphill battle. The vice squad of the police alone cost £350k/year. Each arrested prostitute cost £5k. As 200
Today, neither of these costs need now be paid. That is, the transformed, new, vibrant village prevents a whole range of expensive-to-solve problems such as these from arising. And, as the saying goes: 'Prevention really is better – and cheaper – than cure'.
So, once identified, just how much of both the neighbourhood's centrally retained and devolved budget can either (1) be saved or (2) diverted into the funding of preventative, cost saving measures?
Initial research suggests that Balsall Heath costs the Welfare State:
Two exciting questions immediately arise:
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About this case study
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Dick Atkinson Balsall Heath Forum Dick Atkinson provided Governance International with this case study on 15th May 2010. |