Damp capital

About

|

Organising principles

Search

Search IconIcon to open search

Managed decline

    ‘Managed decline’ refers to the management of the decline or “sunset” phase at the end of a lifecycle, with the goal of minimising costs or other forms of losses and harm. The concept originates in business where it referred to the management of companies and industries, but has since spread beyond to be used in other contexts.

    In 1981, Chancellor Geoffrey Howe proposed a strategy of managed decline, or strategic abandonment

    to Margaret Thatcher for the city of Liverpool, following the Toxteth riots. Since this moment, the phrase has taken on new urgency and understanding in relation to the urban environment.

    Frequently, housing campaigners frame the conditions of the estates they live on as the result of ‘managed decline,’ in which sites are tactically allowed to fall into a state of dilapidation

    . From this framing, the conditions are seen to have resulted from the deliberate and strategic withdrawal of maintenance services and related work, often with the goal of later being able to justify the regeneration

    Regeneration

    ONE : the act of improving a place or system, especially by making it more active or successful: The Council is committed...

    10/4/2022

    of the estate due to the level of disrepair.

    Managed declineGeoffrey Howe on MerseysideDilapidationRegenerationNeglectRegulation of Social Housing23/02/22, Architects Journal11/08/21, SW LondonerBallotsMaking Homes UnhomelyThe Dilapidated DwellingAylesburyBlake CourtCentral Hill EstateEastfields, High Path, and RavensburyAccumulative dispossessionBarnsbury Estate ballotGentrification30/06/22, the GuardianJennifer Brathwaite tweet15/04/22, My London01/06/22, Southwark NewsPeabody GroupSurvey response 051Interview 10Interview 03AusterityTerritorial Stigmatisation and Poor Housing at a London ‘Sink Estate’StigmaSurviving Squalor: Britain's Housing ShameClarion Housing Group