I thought the latest report from the Strategy Unit would be of interest to
the list members.

Best wishes,
Adam Coutts.
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Report available at:
http://www.strategy.gov.uk/files/pdf/da_report.pdf
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Government proposals aim to turn around deprived areas by 2021

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