I'm gonna go to bed now. Night!
Urban rebranding doesn't always bring success. The Scotswood and Benwell area of Newcastle has had many attempts at rebranding since WWII. In the 1960s and 1970s, some of the low quality Victorian housing in the area was demolished and council estates replaced them. There have been a lot of policy initiatives like the Urban Aid in the 1960s and the Single Regeneration Budget in the 1990s. As Newcastle deindustrialised, a combination of very low skill levels, few local jobs, low incomes and poor public transport has taken it's toll on the area. The 2001 census showed that 13,759, or 5%, of Newcastle's population lives in the Scotswood and Benwell area. 45% of that has no qualifications and unemployment is around 70% higher then the Newcastle average. Many people who can leave, have left. Around a 1/3 of the population had fallen over 2 years. Many people believe that there's been no regeneration in the area, but just demolition and people moving out. There are frequent complaints that although local residents have been 'consulted', they have been ignored, as top-down policies seek to clear away the old housing, to gentrify the areas. This leads to a new incoming class of residents to replace the older residents. In 2007, the Council launched a new approach to rebrand Scotswood and Benwell. It involves 'growing' the prosperity of the city centre westward. There will be a launch of the Discovery Quarter, the UK's first Housing Expo. There are also plans to building a Science City on the Scottish & Newcastle Brewery site.