Strategy Unit, Cabinet Office

Government proposals aim to turn around deprived areas by 2021 (31/1/2005)

Today the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's Neighbourhood Renewal Unit published further plans to tackle the causes of deprivation and reverse what they identified as the 'cycle of decline' which creates disadvantage, including a lack of employment opportunities, poor living conditions and low performing public services. The report concludes that the Government's goal should be that by 2021 no one should be seriously disadvantaged by where they live.

The report, 'Improving the prospects of people living in areas of multiple deprivation in England', identifies the factors that combine to drive an area into decline.
They are:

• Low levels of economic activity and concentrations of worklessness
• Poor housing, badly managed local environments and failure to address anti-social behaviour which creates unstable communities
• Key public services such as health and education performing poorly, so that the most deprived areas receive the least support

The Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy launched in 2001 set out a 10-20 year programme for tackling the differences in outcomes between deprived areas and the rest of the country. Much has been achieved in just four years, but there remains concern about the extent and severity of some concentrations of deprivation.

The report sets out a number of proposals that will:

• Strengthen local economies and help get people into work
• Improve housing and the quality of the physical environment
• Improve the performance of public services and the delivery of regeneration support in deprived areas

Prime Minister Tony Blair said:

'I strongly welcome this report. In 2001 I set the ambition that no one in Britain should be held back by the area they live in. We have made some progress on a number of indicators including some education, employment and crime indicators and many neighbourhoods have been significantly improved. However, to fulfil our aim we must do more.

This report highlights the factors which create a cycle of decline and identifies the strategies which can turn areas around by creating a positive cycle of improvement which can set neighbourhoods on the path to stability and prosperity.

We must tackle concentrations of worklessness by helping those trapped on benefit, particularly the 1 million on incapacity-related benefits who we know want to work, back into jobs. By involving local people in managing their own housing, their local services and, increasingly, local policing, we will tackle the fundamental drivers of decline and disadvantage. And we must ensure that our programme of public service reform puts choice and power in the hands of those who live in our most disadvantaged areas.'

The Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, welcoming the report said:

'After only four years Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy is starting to show progress in closing the gap between the disadvantaged areas and the rest. For example, education is showing progress across a range of measures. The gap between the average pass rate for five good GCSEs (A*-C) in the 88 Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF) areas and England as a whole has narrowed between 1997 and 2003 and employment in the NRF areas has increased by 1.7 percentage points since 1997, compared to 1.4 points nationally. This represents an extra half a million more people in jobs from deprived areas, but this is a 20 year strategy and there is more to do.

Today we are also publishing three other documents: People, Places and Prosperity, Making it Happen in Neighbourhoods, and Citizen Engagement and Public Services, which show how the government is taking forward delivering better services and involving communities.'

The report sets out a package of measures that aim to tackle all of these drivers in an integrated fashion, from work levels to poor housing, recognising the complex linkages between them.

Key measures contained in the deprived areas report include:

Strengthening local economies

Measures needed include tackling barriers to work for individuals through:

• Addressing skill shortages by building on measures set out in the Skills White Paper such as supporting adult education
• Helping working age people who are living long-term on benefits (lone parents, the long term unemployed, Incapacity Benefit claimants) get back into work
• Better childcare for working parents, including the introduction of up to 2,500 Children's Centres by 2008

Government will also leverage private and public sector investment to support regeneration through:

• Refining the focus of Regional Development Authorities to ensure that worklessness and enterprise in deprived areas are given greater priority
• Developing guidance for public sector purchasers on social issues in purchasing

Improving housing and the local environment:

Measures needed include:

• Reforming allocation, build and management of social housing to minimise excessive concentrations of deprivation driven by the current system
• Using a 'neighbourhoods' element of the Safer and Stronger Communities Fund to promote management of local environments through methods such as neighbourhood managers, wardens and neighbourhood agreements
• The forthcoming Youth Green Paper will address the poor performance of the youth service in some areas

Improving public service delivery

Measures needed include:

• Using the performance management regime to ensure that public services focus more on the needs of people in deprived areas
• Ensuring that people in deprived areas benefit from wider public service reforms, including the extension of choice, for example through providing greater support to make informed choices in education and health and, where necessary, help with transport needs
• Unifying area-based funding into a single funding stream through Local Area Agreements to increase value for money from area-based initiatives
• Greater support for neighbourhoods to play a more central role in holding local service providers to account

Notes for Editors

1. The Strategy Unit report is available on the Unit's website or by telephoning 020 7276 1881
2. The project's sponsor minister was Lord Rooker, Minister of State for regeneration
3. The project was announced in December 2003 on the Strategy Unit's website The project team has been working closely with officials in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister as well as other key stakeholders including the Home Office, Department of Health, Department for Education and Skills, Department of Trade and Industry, Local Government, Regional Development Agencies, key academics and regeneration practitioners.