Can national policy address the problems of deprived neighbourhoods? What have been the successes and failures? This presentation illustrates a few of the issues - for some context, see my post here: http://livingwithrats.blogspot.com/2010/04/not-as-broken-as-you-might-think.html

1. Bridging the gap or
growing apart?
Successes and struggles
of neighbourhood renewal

2. Cycles of disadvantage
Source: Power and Mumford, 1999

3. ‘Wicked issues’
1942: Beveridge’s Five Giants

4. 1997 - Bringing Britain Together
‘Over the last generation, this has
become a more divided country.
While most areas have benefited
from rising living standards, the
poorest neighbourhoods have
tended to become more rundown,
more prone to crime, and more cut
off from the labour market.’

5. 1998-2000 -
Policy Action Team reports
Skills Antisocial Community
Jobs Business
behaviour self-help
Young
Neighbourhood
Housing Schools people
management
management plus
Shops Joining it up locally
Arts and
Neighbourhood sports Information
wardens Unpopular technology
housing Financial Learning
services lessons

6. 2001 - National Strategy for
Neighbourhood Renewal

7. 2001 - National Strategy for
Neighbourhood Renewal
‘We should be able to arrest and reverse the
wholesale decline of deprived
neighbourhoods, and prevent it from
recurring.’

8. 2001 - National Strategy for
Neighbourhood Renewal
‘We should be able to arrest and reverse the
wholesale decline of deprived
neighbourhoods, and prevent it from
recurring.’

9. 2001 - National Strategy for
Neighbourhood Renewal
‘We should be able to arrest and reverse the
wholesale decline of deprived
neighbourhoods, and prevent it from
recurring.’
• Floor targets

10. 2001 - National Strategy for
Neighbourhood Renewal
‘We should be able to arrest and reverse the
wholesale decline of deprived
neighbourhoods, and prevent it from
recurring.’
• Floor targets
• Neighbourhood Renewal Fund for 88 most
deprived local authorities

11. 2001 - National Strategy for
Neighbourhood Renewal
‘We should be able to arrest and reverse the
wholesale decline of deprived
neighbourhoods, and prevent it from
recurring.’
• Floor targets
• Neighbourhood Renewal Fund for 88 most
deprived local authorities
• ‘Narrowing the gap’

12. ‘within 10 to 20 years,
nobody should be
seriously disadvantaged
by where they live’

13. 2004 - The Sustainable
Communities Plan

14. 2008 - Working
Neighbourhoods Fund

15. 2008 - Working
Neighbourhoods Fund
• Floor targets abandoned

16. 2008 - Working
Neighbourhoods Fund
• Floor targets abandoned
• Focus on worklessness

17. 2008 - Working
Neighbourhoods Fund
• Floor targets abandoned
• Focus on worklessness
• ‘Economics first’ approach to
neighbourhoods

18. Ten years of narrowing the gap:
what was achieved?
Biggest successes:
• Education: key stage 2 and GCSE performance
• Infant death rate
• Gap between low-paid women and male median
earnings
• Over-65 mortality rate
• Single pensioners in low-income households
• Low income households without a bank account
• Non-decent homes
• Adult victims of burglary or violent crime
- Source: JRF, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2008

19. Ten years of narrowing the gap:
what was achieved?
Biggest failures:
• Low income households paying full council tax
• Value of out-of-work benefits for working age
adults without children
• Pay gap between high-paid men and women and
male median earnings
• Pensioners not taking up benefits
• Over-75s helped by social services to live at home
- Source: JRF, Monitoring Poverty and Social Exclusion 2008

20. Ten years of neighbourhood
renewal: the difficulty
Source: NSNR evaluation, CLG 2010

21. Ten years of neighbourhood
renewal: complex change
Source: NSNR evaluation, CLG 2010

22. ‘Wicked issues’
• Individualism, consumerism and a decline of
community
• Drugs and alcohol
• A decline of values
• Families and young people
• Inequality and poverty
• Institutions, apathy and a democratic deficit
• Violence and crime
• Gender inequality
• Religion
• Social diversity, immigration and intolerance
• Health and care
• Environmental issues
Joseph Rowntree Foundation survey, 2008

23. But...
There are striking local success stories...
Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, London SE1

24. Against the odds? Changing deprived
neighbourhoods
Source: Guide Neighbourhoods Programme

25. Against the odds? Changing deprived
neighbourhoods
Source: Guide Neighbourhoods Programme

26. A future for
neighbourhoods?

27. A future for
neighbourhoods?
• Confident

28. A future for
neighbourhoods?
• Confident
• Social

29. A future for
neighbourhoods?
• Confident
• Social
• Productive

30. More from me at:
• New Start magazine:
www.newstartmag.co.uk
• http://livingwithrats.blogspot.com
• www.twitter.com/juliandobson
• www.slideshare.net/juliandobson