A review of the BURA awards for best practice in urban regeneration

The British Urban Renewal Association’s (BURA) “Best Practice” annual awards were launched in 1991 to recognise outstanding examples of urban regeneration. Since then some 46 projects have been successful and they embrace many aspects of urban regeneration. This paper provides a case study of the “Best Practice” awards which begins with an outline of the awards criteria, principally economic contribution, environmental impact, sustainability, catalysis and community benefit. A sample of award winning schemes is used to provide some illustrative flavour of the range of projects deemed to have demonstrated best practice and this is followed by a discussion of how winning projects have sought to demonstrate fulfilling the award criteria. In many cases environmental improvements have generated obvious and immediate impacts and they are vitally important in providing a platform for economic and community benefits but it is the ability to self‐sustain these benefits which may deliver the long‐term judgement on urban regeneration.