Regeneration policy in the 1980s and early 1990s was dominated by the physical renewal of unsightly gaps that industrial change had created in the landscape of Britain’s urban centres.

Now the government has adopted the more challenging and ambitious objective of closing performance gaps – the gaps that exist between deprived communities and more advantaged ones in educational attainment, health standards, unemployment levels, crime rates and many other social and economic indicators.

Physical rebuilding of such areas as the former London Docklands and Cardiff Bay drew on commercial investment, design and construction skills. The rebuilding of communities offers a powerful incentive for private sector experience gained on corporate social responsibility programmes to be allied to wider government and local authority regeneration objectives.

Lord Falconer, the regeneration minister, went to Newham in east London recently to launch the first annual report of New Deal for Communities, the government’s long–term programme to help neglected neighbourhoods address the range of problems confronting them.

New Deal for Communities aims to make on–the–ground partnership working a genuine reality, giving people who live in deprived neighbourhoods a high degree of influence over deciding priorities for change – something Business in the Community has pioneered and advocated in its own approach to regeneration.

One of the central objectives of the programme is to improve the quality of public services in deprived areas, but there are opportunities for private sector involvement.

In Newham, Reed in Partnership manages Elite – East London into Training and Employment – a new approach to employment agency services. It offers the community an integrated work and benefits service, with outreach sessions in community centres and Benefits Agency staff operating alongside employment advisers.

Newham council has also been quick off the mark among local authorities to establish a Local Strategic Partnership, another government initiative.

Public service delivery and regeneration efforts have often been blighted by fragmentation at local level. Local strategic partnerships will bring public authorities together with the private sector, residents organisations and other interests to agree overall community strategies and priorities for tackling deprivation, and co–ordinate other partnerships and initiatives.

The scheme contains the potential for developing a crisper style of local strategic planning. If successful, it will give the private sector a vehicle for increasing its influence in decision–making, and aligning corporate community involvement efforts with Local Strategic Partnership priorities.

But some of the most potent corporate contributions to regeneration can be driven by robust business motives. Tesco’s programme of regeneration partnerships is a striking example. The company has made a conscious decision to develop new stores in deprived areas, working in partnership with public authorities and voluntary organisations to offer training and employment to local people.

Two stores have already opened – the first at Seacroft, Leeds, and the second at Durham – and many more are in the pipeline. The store at Seacroft, a particularly disadvantaged estate, was developed in partnership with Leeds city council and other agencies. It has provided 320 local jobs – 243 of them going to people who were previously unemployed – with a drop out rate after the first six months’ trading of less than 2 per cent.

Arrangements for each regeneration partnership store will vary according to local circumstances. But the basic package includes guaranteed job offers subject to successful completion of training, extra support to overcome numeracy and literacy problems, and recruitment on the basis of aptitude rather than qualifications. The scheme is backed by Usdaw, the shop workers’ union.

Martin Venning, Tesco’s regeneration manager, sees the initiative as a powerful example of how private, public and community expertise can work in partnership to deliver a range of benefits.

“There are many advantages that can be identified in addition to providing employment in places where there is a shortage of jobs. Regeneration stores will tend to be built on brownfield land, which is often contaminated, so we are adding to the community wealth by cleaning it up. And deprived areas are often food deserts, so we shall be increasing the quality and range of produce available locally,” he says.

“But I do not see this as an altruistic activity. Tesco does some things that are directly charitable, but this is business. A new store might cost £20m to develop, and we have to do everything we can to make sure it is a good investment.

“Helping stimulate local economies is one way of doing that. And, in a competitive retail sector where people do not have to shop at Tesco, showing our commitment to the community in this way should help the company build lasting customer support.”