Complementarity Between Statutory and Strategic Planning in Urban Regeneration Under EU Cohesion Policy—Lessons from the Spanish Experience

Sonia De Gregorio Hurtado () and Álvaro Andueza Lacarra
Additional contact information
Sonia De Gregorio Hurtado: Department of Urban and Spatial Planning, School of Architecture, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Álvaro Andueza Lacarra: Department of Urban and Spatial Planning, School of Architecture, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-20

Abstract: The European Union (EU) has been identified as a leading stakeholder relating to urban regeneration. In cases such as Spain, on which this research focuses, the EU influence has resulted in an understanding of urban regeneration as a policy of strategic nature. The literature on the urban dimension of regeneration has reinforced the need to implement strategic and statutory complementarity in urban transformation to address the complex physical problems of vulnerable urban areas. This work focuses on this policy issue using a qualitative methodology based on a literature review and the analysis of planning documents through the storyline analysis tool. The research identifies that under the urban EU Cohesion Policy (CP) 2014–2020, only 4 out of 28 integrated sustainable urban development strategies in Spain implemented the urban regeneration strategic approach in complementarity with statutory instruments. This has led to regeneration projects with restricted capacity to address the physical problems identified, a fact that perpetuates the disadvantage of the neighbourhoods where it operated and limits the efficiency of EU funding. The results highlight the value of reviewing urban instruments under the CP, advancing towards a vision in which statutory/strategic approaches work in complementarity in the post-2027 period.

Keywords: urban regeneration; EU Cohesion Policy post–2027; urban policy of the EU; strategic planning; statutory planning; physical transformation; integrated approach; complementarity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/8039/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/8039/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:8039-:d:1743730

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().