The spatial targeting of urban policy initiatives: a geodemographic assessment tool

Government frequently adopts an area-based approach to the targeting of urban policy initiatives as an indirect way of reaching the individuals that the initiatives are intended to help. The paper develops a method for assessing the success of this spatial targeting. It uses a geodemographic classification system to produce a generalised socioeconomic profile for a particular initiative. This profile can be used to examine the targeting of the initiative in different localities, in order to assess whether targeting has been inefficient (the targeted areas have been defined so that many of the people they contain are in fact not those for whom the initiative is intended) or incomplete (deserving cases have been missed because the initiative's boundaries have been drawn too tightly). The utility of the method is demonstrated by employing the P-2 People and Places geodemographic system to assess the targeting of the Sure Start initiative in eight large provincial cities in England.