Promoting urban revitalisation

Peer review

18 February 2025

By Platform

The Policy Learning Platform conducted a peer review for the City of Duisburg, Germany, and Duisburg Business and Innovation (DBI) on 12–13 February 2025.

Main Policy Challenge

Duisburg’s city centre has experienced a gradual decline in its retail sector over the years, particularly in key shopping streets such as Königstraße and Kuhstraße. Increasing retail vacancies are contributing to urban desertification, which is negatively impacting the area’s vibrancy and economic health.

Current State of Affairs

The decline of Duisburg’s downtown retail sector has resulted in vacant properties, reduced foot traffic, and decreased economic activity. These factors further exacerbate urban desertification and weaken the city’s economic and social dynamism.

To address this challenge, DBI has been working closely with the City of Duisburg to create a more attractive and vibrant city centre, guided by the Integrated Action Plan for the City Centre 2022.

A key policy instrument in this effort is the Duisburg Urban Development Strategy 2027, which aims to revitalise the city centre and mitigate urban desertification. This strategy includes comprehensive urban planning, focused on rejuvenating retail spaces, attracting new businesses, and enhancing public infrastructure.

Peers from across Europe

In collaboration with Astrid Severin and Arnault Morisson from the Policy Learning Platform, six excellent peers participated in the peer review:

Dario Marmo, LAMA Impresa Sociale Soc. Coop., Florence, Italy
Farhan Sahito, Privanova, Paris, France
Federico Camerin, Universidad de Valladolid, Spain
Konstantinos Karamarkos, URBACT & EUI Lead Expert, Greece
Rose Power, Southern Regional Assembly, Southern Region, Ireland
Stephen Coyne, Dublin City Council, Ireland

These peers shared their experiences and provided tailored policy recommendations to address the challenges faced by Duisburg. Their insights, expertise, and practical suggestions were invaluable in shaping solutions for urban revitalisation.

Key recommendations

Strengthen Duisburg’s governance structure for urban revitalisation

To strengthen Duisburg’s governance structure for urban revitalisation, it is recommended to enhance the existing governance arrangements for Team Duisburg. This can be done by reinforcing the alliance between DBI shareholders, existing task forces, and city stakeholders. A steering group should be established to move beyond policy discussions, while dedicated task forces should focus on various aspects of urban revitalisation, such as vision and strategy, green corridors, funding support, and target groups. The approach should aim to improve coordination and effectiveness without creating new institutions, ensuring only a minimum level of institutionalisation for streamlined decision-making.

Experiment with temporary uses to test different approaches for city centre revitalisation

To experiment with temporary uses to test different approaches for city centre revitalisation. Temporary uses allow for greater flexibility, enabling stakeholders to explore new urban functions and engage with the community before implementing permanent changes. Several successful examples, such as those from T-Factor, IMPETUS, and LAMA, highlight how temporary initiatives can breathe new life into underutilised spaces. Additionally, Duisburg can take inspiration from German peers, such as the City of Bremen and its temporary use agency (ZZZ), to develop adaptive and creative solutions for its retail and public spaces.

The host’s policy challenges, and all the peer suggestions will be available shortly in the follow-up report.

“Thank you for an intensive, open and very honest exchange with our peers. Many great ideas for urban revitalisation have been presented and I am looking forward to our future collaboration.”

Jan Tiemann - Duisburg Business & Innovation GmbH

Germany

“I was delighted to take part in a two-day peer review with the city of Duisburg. It was a fascinating, if brief, insight into the challenges the city faces and the opportunities it’s seeking to harness.”