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Urban Policy and Practice is a practical and critical guide to urban policy in contemporary Britain. The book covers a range of topics including: * Quality and consumerism in the public sector * Community development * Public Health * Environmental issues * Local intervention in the creation of skills and jobs Case studies are drawn from housing, planning, the social services, economic development, and local government finance. Throughout, the concern is for a clear analysis of corporate strategies, democratic control and sustainable development

Where people live matters to their health. Health improvement strategies often target where people live, but do they work? Placing Health tackles this question by exploring new theoretical, empirical and practice perspectives on this issue, anchored by major studies of England's Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy and the Programme for Action on health inequalities

Teenage pregnancy rates in the UK are high compared with many other countries but there is marked variation across local areas, including those with high deprivation. This study uses the method of Qualitative Comparative Analysis to identify conditions associated with the presence or absence of a narrowing gap in teenage pregnancy rates as measured by the differences between deprived local authority areas and the national average. A higher proportion of black and minority ethnic groups in the local population is found to be a sufficient although not necessary condition for narrowing to have occurred. Surprisingly, a good assessment of commissioning practice – combined with other conditions – was associated with areas where the gap has not been narrowing.

This article examines the social care of older people in six contrasting European countries. Family, institutional and community care are compared, focusing on vulnerability, empowerment and the gatekeeping of resources. The article considers the position of older people in each care system by presenting individual case studies. The six countries include the family‐oriented systems of Ireland, Italy and Greece, and the individual‐oriented systems of Denmark, Norway and England. To improve the care of older people in any of these welfare cultures, resources need to be developed that work with existing sources of care but extend the rights of older people, at least to assessment and an equitable matching of needs to the care services available. Overall, the different levels of provision of organised social care services are a major aspect of inequality within and between the countries. Whilst there is little prospect for any major policy transfer across national boundaries, there is potential for selective cross‐national learning with regard to particular service developments.

Local social services departments in the UK are expected to distribute their cash‐limited budgets for community care in ways that achieve an equitable allocation of resources in situations where, with present levels of funding, they cannot meet all the needs with which they are presented. This paper discusses a case study of the introduction of a "needs‐based" formula to allocate a local authority's budget for home care services and a follow‐up survey to investigate whether services reached the people intended to benefit. The article argues that the "gatekeeping" role of community care assessments is important to safeguard equity without the inflexibility of highly standardized tests of eligibility. However, with the new Labour government seeking to reduce dependency on public expenditure, and a growing lobby for national standards of social care, it will be increasingly important that local authorities justifiy their different practices with evidence about how they relate to local needs.

The British planning system has come under strain in recent years with the combination of large-scale urban restructuring and heightened environmental awareness. This article considers the underlying conflicts of social values and interests which are suppressed by planning and its `public interest' ideology. A study of public inquiries is presented, drawing on the recent inquiry into the Belfast Urban Area Plan, to illustrate how public inquiry discourse reflects a system of public administration which is strong in powers but weak in social policy. The implications of this for both the legitimacy and role of planning are discussed.