Case study: Contract of districts in Brussels

ENTP

Presentation to the Mayor of Almere

Brussels 27th June 2007

Some facts about Brussels 1 Region of 1 million inhabitants 19 Municipalities 2 linguistic Communities 2nd richest region in the EU per GDP One of the poorest region in the EU concerning the overall income

of inhabitants Rate of employment: around 18% and 34% for youngster under 25y Rate of immigrants: 27% (more than 55% are from the EU) Long years of deprivation of some districts due to: a lack of

investment from the federal state, the non existence of the regional level and the financial speculation for the land.

The contract of districts - Organization

An integrated approach in: The issues

Social housing Housing under convention PPP to involve owners in the

regeneration of housing Creation and development of public

spaces (infrastructure, transport, environment)

Social regeneration (from infrastructure to economic regeneration)

The territories City Districts Neighbourhood Surrounding areas

The actors EU Federal government Regions Towns Associations Citizens

The contract of districts - how it works

Partnership between the Municipality and the Region

Positive discrimination: 15 disctricts representing 1/3 of inhabitants and receiving 80% of the city’s policy funding

4 years programmes

Maximum 90% of subsidies from the region and minimum 10 % of subsidies from the Municipality

Participatory approach: there is a Commission of concertation in each “quartiers” composed by 8 representatives of the inhabitants (elected by the inhabitants), 8 representatives of institutions, 4 delegates of NGOs businesses and schools and 1 representative of the local employment office

Cooperation between the different level Municipalities, associations and inhabitants set up projects Region, EU, federal government, municipality fund the actions

Interconnected priorities Last 5 years only 20% job created in Brussels were taken by people living in Brussels The residents are choosing to live in the suburbs So employment policy need to be accompanied by housing policy, policy on public spaces, mobility and education

The Contract of districts- Evaluation

Conditions for success Political will Sustainability in time Scale of policies (degree of involvement, degree of cooperation, degree of integration

between the different policies etc…)

Positive aspects Creation of new housings Improvement of public spaces Better social cohesion with the increase of the participation of inhabitants, the building of

collective equipment and action on training and Professional insertion

Negative aspects Lack of visibility of the results for the inhabitants Complex organization and procedures can create a segmentation of the initiatives Involvement of the inhabitants: from passive observer to active citizen not always the case Complexity of the relationship between associations, inhabitants and administration

The Contract of Districts - Main conclusions

It is a good practice of an integrated approach in urban regeneration

The need for coordination is even more pregnant in the belgian context

Positive and real impacts at the local level for the inhabitants but.....difficulties to find the best ways to involve them.

Thanks

ContactsPascaline Gaborit: Pascaline.gaborit@newtowns.net Alfredo Corbalan: alfredo.corbalan@newtowns.net

Marie-Violaine Polonowski: marie.polonowski@newtowns.net

www.newtowns.net