Urban renewal programmes for neighbourhoods
Turning neighbourhoods into sustainable, resilient, people-centred communities.
Urban Renewal Programmes for Neighbourhoods achieved sustainable urban development in Ghent (BE) by moving away from short-term projects that only provide ad hoc solutions lacking context, to initiatives with a long-term vision. This sustainable change involved balancing social, economic, spatial, and environmental aspects, and tailoring the approach to each neighbourhood’s unique characteristics.
An integrated strategy that focuses on communication, people-centred planning, and community participation is key to success. Programme managers streamlined projects behind the scenes, while communicators engaged with stakeholders and provided information to residents. This approach allowed the realisation of urban renewal to meet Ghent’s needs.
What are urban renewal programmes?
These are programmes targeting the creation of positive change in specific parts of the city which require extra attention. This is done using programme management, in which different projects, experiments and activities are established and coordinated in order to reach common goals, under the overarching ambition of improving the quality of life in those specific districts.
Building on the sustainable and integrated urban approach
Ghent's urban renewal programmes start by creating a human-centred vision for each neighbourhood, with actions to achieve multiple goals. Priorities include green spaces, energy efficiency, and sustainable mobility with a focus on cycling and walking, to create a healthier city.
The city fosters revitalisation by supporting local businesses, creating vibrant zones that attract investment, and enhancing workforce skills to boost economic growth and resilience.
Ghent's approach focuses on social equity and community engagement to ensure affordable housing, improved public services, and social cohesion. Community participation from an early stage is encouraged, through consultations and collaborative planning processes, so that residents' views shape urban development. This integrated and sustainable approach creates synergies, to simultaneously tackle multiple urban challenges and build a resilient, adaptable urban fabric.
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How and why we do it?
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Why do we do programme management?
Learn about the challenges that drive us.
Our city faces great challenges, such as climate change, housing shortage and urban mobility. Based on the following considerations a number of tasks for the renewal of the city have been passed to the service for Urban Renewal:
- Complex social challenges require an innovative approach
Our society is confronted with very many diverse issues, which together form a complex whole. If these issues are combined in one neighbourhood, innovative and adapted methods are required.
- Attention to the unique context is essential
Each neighbourhood has its own unique characteristics and circumstances. It is crucial to thoroughly analyse these specific contexts and integrate them in our approach.
- Long-term planning is a must
Sustainable solutions require a vision that goes beyond the short-term requirements. By establishing long-term plans, we can anticipate future challenges and opportunities.
- Balanced approach to different pillars
When solving problems, it is important to maintain a balance and tackle all relevant aspects (for example, environment, economy and social welfare).
- Human-oriented planning from the life perspective
The focus must lie on the people who reside, live and work in a particular environment. Plans must be based on their experiences, needs and wishes in order to actually achieve effective and acceptable solutions.
- Link with communication, participation and co-creation
Successful planning and implementation depend on good communication and collaboration. Through participation and co-creation, diverse stakeholders can give their input and be involved in the process, resulting in solutions that are better supported and more effective.
These complex problems require innovative and sustainable solutions. Using programme management, we address these challenges with long-term planning, human-oriented approaches and close collaboration with all those involved.
- Complex social challenges require an innovative approach
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Who is involved in programme management?
Meet our programme directors and communicators. Discover the different roles and teams.
The service for Urban Renewal is responsible for the programme management for urban renewal within the City of Ghent.
Five programme managers work at the City of Ghent to keep these complex and integral programmes running smoothly. They often operate behind the scenes. They align different projects, highlight problems to the appropriate bodies and support project leaders from the City's various departments.
They are assisted by three programme communicators, who ensure that all information about these programmes flows to Ghent's residents and specific target audiences at the right time and in the correct manner. If there are questions, they point people in the right direction.
Of course, they do not do this alone. The programme management organisation incorporates different roles and teams:
- Core team: Responsible for daily management and preparation of discussions. This team comprises at minimum the programme manager, programme communicator and neighbourhood manager.
- Programme team: Shapes the content of the programme and determines the desired outcomes. Project leaders plus relevant strategy and field workers are accommodated here.
- Steering group: Makes formal decisions about the progress and completion of programmes. The steering group for the programme is the College Management team.
Various roles:
- Programme manager: The central point of contact that shapes the programme and takes care of organisation and follow-up.
- Beneficial owner: Responsible for monitoring the programme benefits and results. This role is performed by the neighbourhood manager.
- Programme communicator: is responsible for stakeholder management. Takes care of correct communication at the right moments to diverse target audiences throughout the course of the programme.
- Programme director: Acts as a sounding board for the programme managers and communicators, and leads the service for Urban Renewal.
- Effort leader: Responsible for leading specific projects or activities within the programme. These individuals are project leaders, field workers, strategy workers, etc. who are involved in a programme.
- Sponsor: Gives global direction to the programme and supports the diverse objectives. In our organisation, the head of the department of business operations acts as the official sponsor and the mayor is the political sponsor.
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How do we do programme management?
Explore our methodology, principles and phases.
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The approach is based on the principles of programme management, as described in ‘Managing Successful Programmes (MSP)’. This means that a cyclical approach is adopted with different phases (middle circle in the diagram):
- Identification: Recognising areas and opportunities for urban renewal and deciding to launch a programme.
- Definition: Establishing goals and planning the required actions.
- Installation and Evaluation: Performing the planned activities and measuring the progress. Each effort is also evaluated and adapted accordingly (cyclical process).
- Closure: Completing the programme and evaluating the results.
Throughout all of these phases, there are principles (outer circle) and topics (middle circle) which continue to shape the programme approach.
When devising the content of a programme, we start with the overarching objective of “increasing the quality of life in the neighbourhood X”. From there, the objectives are refined to suit the neighbourhood, depending on the specific needs and requirements. Then, when we compare the analysis of the existing situation, this gives us a framework in which to develop projects, activities or experiments. These initiatives are connected and must therefore be coordinated.
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Ongoing programmes
Ghent is currently running 10 urban renewal programmes, some initiated over 20 years ago and some still in the planning phase. These long-term programmes align with the city’s urban development vision, prioritising resident participation, additional housing, energy-efficient renovations, green spaces, and social initiatives. The urban renewal efforts aim to increase the quality of housing, and make renovation and replacement more efficient. Temporary use of vacant land and buildings is encouraged.
Check out our ongoing programmes
A summary of the current 10 urban renewal programmes on the map of Ghent.
Urban renewal in neighbourhoods: 10 programmes PDF (5.3 MB)Contact
Do you want to know more about urban renewal programmes in Ghent or want to meet?
Please contact us.