Every time it changes hands within the community, it means income for a local person. in other words, if something is bought locally then some of that money will be re-spent in the local economy.  

Most regeneration strategies tend to look at how to attract more money into these types of areas - even though this has proved very difficult to achieve. But a major challenge to the long-term survival of these communities is that money flows much too quickly out of these poorer local economies, just like out of a leaky bucket.

In fact, in some of the poorest urban estates, money comes in and leaves immediately since there are no businesses on the estates - not even a local shop. 

Simply pouring more money into these leaky economic buckets is not in itself going to bring about long- term change. This means that even when local authorities successfully attract external investors - businesses, supermarkets, additional tourists - these investors often only remain for a temporary period or they extract more from the community over time than they put in.


In 1998, the National Retail Planning Forum published a survey of 93 out-of-centre food stores and concluded that in each case within a 10 mile radius there was a net average loss in retailing of 270 local jobs.

That means that successful neighbourhood renewal strategies are going to have to include helping money to circulate more effectively within a community.

This is also a much easier economic development strategy for a poor community to control. The strategy of Plugging the Leaks means mapping how different parts of the local economy link together and how money leaks out of an area. Then finding ways of keeping the money within the community.

This could include, for example, using local  building materials, favouring local firms who tender for contracts, or supporting the village shop. A good example to illustrate this is the village shop. 'A recent survey revealed that, in rural areas, local food producers often start their food production businesses on a small- scale and could not do so without the outlets the small shops provide. 'Re loss of these village shops has been compared with soil erosion: if you take away the trees (shops) then the soil (wealth) erodes away.