Post Programme Review of the Building Successful Communities Programme
A Post Programme Review was carried out to evaluate the Building Successful Communities (BSC) Programme against original plans and objectives, and also included an overview of interventions, including financial, on a pilot area basis. It is intended that the document will assist the Communities Minister and senior officials in helping to inform and shape any future intervention in terms of housing-led interventions, including consideration of integration into a Departmental wide co-ordinated approach to regeneration activities.
Background
The Building Successful Communities (BSC) initiative was part of the Department for Social Development’s (DSD) Facing the Future - Housing Strategy 2012-2017 which aimed to use housing intervention as one of the main catalysts for local regeneration.
The Strategy recognised the significant role housing can play in helping support and sustain economic recovery, create employment and help regenerate some of our most deprived and neglected communities.
The Strategy outlined the then Minister for Social Development’s intention to take a housing-led approach to regenerating communities experiencing blight, dereliction or decline. Proposals for this initiative included:
- working collaboratively across government, with the Housing Executive, Housing Associations and communities to improve housing and infrastructure within communities which were experiencing blight, decline or dereliction
- through a coordinated approach across DSD, and working in partnership with others, to seek to improve current poor housing stock and deliver new social and affordable homes as part of a housing-led approach to wider regeneration activities
- aiming to unlock wider physical and social regeneration in target areas by providing a focus for environmental upgrading, improved access to amenities and access to economic activity
- using housing interventions as the driver to regenerate these areas and start to reverse community decline
The Building Successful Communities Programme was launched in October 2013, and the final BSC funded scheme is due to complete in August 2025.
Report
The Department for Communities has published a report which presents the findings from the Post Programme Review of the Building Successful Communities Programme.