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Spending Review
SR2000/X2
18 July 2000
Targets for action in poorer neighbourhoods together with new resources provided by the Spending Review mark a first stage in meeting the Government's key objective to narrow the gap between the most deprived areas and the rest of the country.
The cross-departmental review of Government intervention in deprived areas built on the results of the consultation on the framework National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal to set out a new approach, which will see:
Together with additional resources through initiatives like Sure Start and the Children's Fund, this demonstrates the Government's commitment to extending opportunity to those living in the most deprived communities. Narrowing the gap will inevitably take many years, however this represents a real commitment to improving daily life in the poorest neighbourhoods.
In education, the Government aims to increase the percentage of pupils obtaining 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C (or equivalent) to at least 38 per cent in every authority. A target to reduce the attainment gap at Key Stage 2 in English and maths will be announced in due course.
The Government aims to ensure an increase in the employment rates of the 30 local authority districts with the poorest initial labour market position over the 3 years to 2004 (taking account of the economic cycle). It will ensure a reduction in the difference between employment rates in these areas and the national rate.
The Government aims to reduce the level of crime in deprived areas so that by 31 March 2005, no local authority area has a domestic burglary rate more than three times the national average - while at the same time reducing the national rate by 25 per cent.
The Secretary of State for Health will announce a health inequalities target in the National Plan for the NHS shortly.
The Government will ensure that all social housing is of a decent standard by 2010 with the number of families living in non-decent social housing falling by one third by 31 March 2004, and with most of the improvement taking place in the most deprived local authority areas as part of a comprehensive regeneration strategy.
1. Compared with the rest of England, the most deprived local authority areas have nearly two thirds more unemployment; 30 per cent higher mortality rates; and a quarter more children who do not get a single GCSE. Burglary rates in deprived areas are often many times the national average.
2. In September 1998, the Government launched the New Deal for Communities to pilot new approaches to Government Intervention in Deprived Areas. There are now some 39 individual schemes which will spend close to £2bn across their ten year life-spans narrowing the gap against the key outcomes - jobs, crime, health and education - between their neighbourhoods and the rest of the country. For the last two years, the Social Exclusion Unit has concentrated on drawing up a National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal, working through 18 fast-track Policy Action Teams involving a wide range of experts across Whitehall and beyond. A Framework Version of the National Strategy was issued for consultation in April this year: the consultation finished at the end of June, and the Spending Review takes full account of feedback from the many responses received. A final National Strategy Action Plan which will set out the detail of the Government's response to the consultation will be published in the autumn.
3. The cross-cutting Review of Government Intervention in Deprived Areas was chaired by Sir Andrew Turnbull, the Treasury's Permanent Secretary, and included representatives from DETR, DfEE, DTI, DSS, DCMS, DH, the Home Office, the Local Government Association, Local authorities, the Regional Development Agencies and the Social Exclusion Unit. A wide range of external experts - including voluntary and community sector representatives - were also consulted.
4. The review concluded that, in future, core public services like schools and the police should be equipped to become the main weapons against deprivation. This means refocusing main programmes to ensure that: improving life in deprived neighbourhoods is at the centre of their key objectives; there are new and stronger co-ordinating mechanisms at the local level to enable services to work together more effectively; and area-targeted initiatives play a role that is more genuinely additional to main services rather than attempting to compensate for their failings.
5. Further details on:
6. For more information, contact the Treasury press office on 0207 270 5238.
