Promoting community economic development: an assessment of an experimental scheme in cleveland

Traditional economic planning policies do not, largely, benefit residents of run‐down inner city neighbourhoods. Planners have therefore begun to look at other ways to improve the economic well‐being of unemployed people in such areas. One such initiative has been the location of Community Employment Development Officers in economically depressed areas by Cleveland County Council — one of Britain's unemployment blackspots. Their remit is to encourage and initiate action to create jobs and this paper looks at the experiment, drawing out some of the lessons.