This paper compares three sites of major urban regeneration in London and the role in this process of the associated community organisations (Paddington Development Trust, People's Empowerment Association for Custom House and Royal Docks Communities Voice). Local statecraft and grassroots organising tactics developed to address issues of power, politics and development at a neighbourhood scale arising in the context of an increasingly dominant speculative city logic are examined. The impact of government policy change over the last three decades on such community based initiatives is then explored: From the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) direct funding to improve the quality of life for people in deprived areas via direct funding provide financial resources to local authorities, community organisations, and other stakeholders, to the current Opportunity Area Planning Frameworks (OAPFs) that seek to provide certainty to the development process and for investment and build consensus between public and private stakeholders. How successfully formal and informal neighbourhood and community groups responded to such policy contexts in terms of gaining power and funding as recognised, situated and legitimate civic political bodies is questioned. In conclusion the underlying trajectory of regeneration into one of a public land value extraction process through disposal and development consent in a quasi public private partnership arrangement is problematised to strip away conventional understandings of this ‘speculative city’ model with resultant insights used to inform a reframing into one that recognises the potential role of localised commons practices, asset stewardship and governance structures in mediating and directing both market and state power in collaborating on creating just and sustainable place making outcomes.
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