Housing Monthly Diary Archive

Community Regeneration

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April 2000
Strategy for Reviving Poorest Communities

Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, used the launch of a new report from the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) to reveal the Government's proposals under its National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal.

The report's findings show that:

• Three-quarters of the income in some of the poorest communities comes from the public sector.

• Unemployment rates on the poorest estates reach 30%.

• Four out of ten of all adults and six out of every ten children on these estates are in poverty.

• Twenty cities lost half a million jobs in the last 20 years and poverty became more concentrated.

• Unemployment is six times the national average in the poorest communities.

• Four out of ten of those aged between 16 and 18 in the poorest areas are outside education, employment and work.

The Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) was set up in December 1997, with a remit to help improve Government action to reduce social exclusion by producing joined up solutions to joined up problems. During its first two years, the Unit has reported on five key areas:

• Truancy and School Exclusion.

• Rough Sleeping.

• Neighbourhood Renewal.

• Teenage Pregnancy.

• New Opportunities for 16-18 Year Olds Not in Education, Employment or Training.

The launch of the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal is a follow-up to the 1998 SEU report on deprived neighbourhoods - Bringing Britain Together - which set out the need for a national strategy to be an agreed response across Whitehall and beyond to the problems of deprived areas. The main building blocks of the National Strategy are the reports of the 18 Policy Action Teams, PATs, as well as lessons drawn from other new programmes such as the New Deal for Communities. Included in the many proposals made in the National Strategy are a number specific to tackling crime and anti-social behaviour:

• A named person to tackle anti-social behaviour in each locality.

• The introduction of neighbourhood wardens and super-caretakers to patrol estates.

• Amending further tenancy agreements to prevent nuisance neighbours.

• The selective demolition of estates which cannot be rescued.

The Government's specific proposals for neighbourhood management are contained in a further report from the Policy Action Team. That report's main recommendations are:

• Local people have one person at neighbourhood level to report problems to.

• Efforts must be made to achieve better neighbourhood management of the physical environment, with more joined-up action from local services to tackle problems in the most deprived areas.

• The approach is tested through a Pathfinder programme to see how neighbourhood management delivers results.

The Government also announced that seven of England's very poorest estates have successfully bid for a total of over £300m under the New Deal for Communities programme, which is one of the flagship initiatives to take forward the National Strategy:

• Brighton (East Brighton) £47.2m.

• Hull (Preston Road) £54.9m.

• Liverpool (Kensington) £31m .

• Newcastle (West Gate) £48.9m .

• Norwich (North Earlham & Marlpit) £18.7m .

• Nottingham (Radford) £55.1m.

• Tower Hamlets (Ocean Estate) £56.6m.

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