Fifteen years ago, the term ‘community capacity-building’ (CCB) was not to be found anywhere within the policy literature. Now it is used world-wide, particularly in the context of urban policy, regeneration and social development. The paper argues that the term has been introduced as part of a political fashion but that in practice it is difficult to distinguish it from the practice of community development. A critique, drawing on experience worldwide, suggests that its widespread use represents a continuing failure of governments properly to engage in ‘bottom-up’ development, is built on a ‘deficit’ model of communities which fails to engage properly with their own skills, knowledge and interests, and helps to obscure structural reasons for poverty and inequality.