‘Areas of Urban Decline Tend to Be Fairly Clearly Defined, and Despite Efforts to Change the Situation, Their Problems Tend to Persist’. Discuss the Validity of This Statement

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Urban decline is the process whereby a previously functioning city falls into disrepair and decrepitude. This process can be defined as the deterioration of the physical, economic and/or social environment, occurring particularly in the inner-city areas due to loss of industry. It can be measured by the Index of Multiple Deprivation, which is composited of the following aspects; income, employment, health deprivation and disability, education skills and training, barriers to housing and services, crime and the living environment. The areas that have experienced urban decline, including Sheffield, Manchester and the London Docklands are isolated, which supports the idea that ‘areas of urban decline tend to be fairly clearly defined’. Following their decline, these areas have undergone regeneration or revitalisation projects. However, the outcome for each varies and I shall assess these variations in order to explain why ‘despite efforts to change the situation, their problems tend to persist’ is both a valid and void statement. The statement deduces that ‘areas of urban decline tend to be fairly clearly defined’. Urban decline is generally the result of loss of industry and cities with industrial heritage are therefore greatly affected. In fact, due to loss of industry, between 1960 and 1981, more than 1.6 million manufacturing jobs were lost in the UK. In 1994, the inner cities of Britain had an unemployment rate 50% higher than the rest of the country, indicating that urban decline is dominant in inner-city areas; the distribution of which do tend to be clearly defined. Since the 1950s there has been widespread movement of employment away from the large conurbations to smaller urban and rural areas, which has had a knock-on effect on the deterioration of the physical and social environment and furthering the economic decline, all of which are components of
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