Tackling disadvantage in deprived areas

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:

government departments, for the first time, will be given explicit targets for improving life in deprived areas. Less crime, better education, more jobs and improved health will lead to a narrowing of the gap between the poorest areas and the national average. Details are set out below;
These demanding targets will be backed by substantial increases in resources for public services in deprived areas - as the Departments responsible for them review their funding and allocations processes to make sure that a generous share of the new money for health, education and other services reaches deprived communities;
to kick start this process, an extra £100 million in 2001-02, £300 million in 2002-03 and £400 million in 2003-04 will be given to local authorities in the most deprived areas over the next three years through the new Neighbourhood Renewal Fund;

more resources will be provided for the New Deal for Communities to help local people influence the public services provided for them, promote community involvement at local and neighbourhood level;
Local Strategic Partnerships will be set up across the country to bring local service providers together with voluntary, community and private sector groups to work together to tackle the problems facing individual neighbourhoods; and
a new range of 'neighbourhood statistics' to help diagnose, solve and monitor problems in small neighbourhoods.

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.

Targets for narrowing the gap

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.

Notes for editors

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:

the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund are set out in Press Notice SR2000/DETR3;
the Children's Fund, see Press Notice SR2000/X1;
the next phase of the New Deal for Communities will be announced alongside the National Strategy Action Plan in the autumn; and
local strategic partnerships will be published in guidance in the autumn. In most places LSPs will form part of the 'Community Planning' process as suggested in the draft guidance on 'Preparing Community Strategies' issued by DETR on 27 June.

6. For more information, contact the Treasury press office on 0207 270 5238.

Tackling disadvantage in deprived areas

Targets for narrowing the gap

Notes for editors

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