Frenchman backing legislation for redevelopment (7)
I believe the answer is:
renewal
'redevelopment' is the definition.
'frenchman backing legislation' is the wordplay.
'frenchman' becomes 'rene'.
'backing' says the letters should be written backwards.
'legislation' becomes 'law' (I've seen this before).
'law' written backwards gives 'wal'.
'rene'+'wal'='RENEWAL'
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for renewal that I've seen before include "Act of refreshing" , "what happens in a library" , "Extension of validity" , "Resurrection" , "Reinvigoration" .)