Wired for success

The problem of abandoned or degenerated public housing is one of the most pressing social challenges facing local authorities in the UK. In the face of mounting social problems, spiralling costs and intensifying criticism, local authorities and national planning agencies have begun to seek a solution to the dilemma of decaying estates. But with the weakening of local economies through the loss of manufacturing, efforts to regenerate the housing base are doomed to failure unless new jobs can be created. It is an irresistible logic: improving public housing, without a massive new infusion of public funds, depends upon occupants with an income. But the disappearance of job opportunities in traditional sectors has weakened local economies and accelerated decline. Three factors - creation of new job opportunities, improved skills training and public sector assistance - have become the focus for problem-solving strategies aimed at regenerating local economies.

A fourth strand is the creation of new stable enterprises. One of the most promising and innovative responses to generating enterprises is the Enterprise Televillage. In recent years there have been many 'telecottages' or local telework centres. A televillage weds the telecottage idea, instructed by the experience of successful business resource centres and new business incubators, to the provision of low income housing. Then a three-pronged strategy of skills training, enterprise creation and inexpensive housing may have regenerative effects in local economies.

In other words, if you can identify the components of success in community and business service centres, then the same support package can be provided in centres designed to foster new businesses in declining areas. Furthermore, if these centres are combined with social housing located in empty buildings or flats owned by local authorities or housing associations, an incubator atmosphere can be created for fostering small businesses. This will eventually lead to regenerative effects on the local micro-economy, with successful small businesses increasing employment prospects.

At the University of Greenwich, the Enterprise Televillage Partnership initiative, consisting of collaborative efforts of housing groups Hyde and Amicus, North Kent Architecture Centre, and Kent and London local authorities has been carrying out action research into the Enterprise Televillage idea since 1996. The Enterprise Televillage has been defined as the integration of entrepreneurship, business incubation and (social) housing within a telematics support system. The concept is both flexible and dynamic. It can be adapted to urban or rural environments, inner cities or small towns and involve public and/or private sector initiators. At least five types of Enterprise Televillage have been identified so far.

There are currently two Enterprise Televillages operating in England which are providing inspiration for the action research at Greenwich University. At Crickhowell in North Wales, Ashley Dobbs has led in the construction, sale and management of the Acorn Televillage, which has received considerable international attention. He proposes a similar private venture in St Louis, Missouri. In the heart of Newcastle-upon-Tyne a regeneration initiative, Project Northeast, with the backing of a public/private investment company, has successfully recycled ageing office blocs, rewired them for high volume telebusiness, and rebuilt them for successful home-teleworking.

Working through state of the art information technology and communication networks, an Enterprise Televillage can offer units that are particularly suitable to smaller professional design and service businesses. These can be desktop or bench-based teleprofessional services, in contrast with the "traditional" range of offerings in business incubators. Such businesses as computer game design, role playing games and website designs, which are easily identified with younger people from social housing backgrounds, are often developed in these settings. Enterprise Televillages are also especially appropriate for younger people entering the work force as entrepreneurs. They provide an incubator for businesses being started by graduates.

This idea has many positive consequences for local economic development, particularly in regeneration areas, in providing a visible locus of prosperity and investment. The main benefits are six-fold: (1) local enterprise development, especially in urban regeneration locales; (2) technology-based small business creation, ideally with full backup from college and university business schools; (3) sustainable housing not requiring car commuting; (4) building design and technology innovation; (5) telematics systems design for smaller businesses; and (6) marketing and ecomanagement of real estate development.

Other benefits emerge as well. Enterprise Televillages are based on wired, or "smart", houses, where the focus can be on comfort and control, as well as on work enablement. One of the main ways of reducing social exclusion and strengthening social networks (through widespread use of, for example, email) is "wiring up". As such Enterprise Televillages may be entitled to a government subsidy for increasing access to an array of electronic networks for disadvantaged and lower income households.

Second, Enterprise Televillages may encourage social landlords to change their allocation policies to ensure they help social cohesion within new communities, as recommended by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's recent publications. Third, some research has suggested that informal social contacts may become important trading partners. For example, Local Exchange and Trading Schemes (LETS) are a new sort of barter system in which local people swap goods and services. Enterprise Televillage approaches can be a great enabler of local economic and microbanking networks.