Memorandum by the Social Exclusion Unit
(UPW 120)
URBAN WHITE PAPER
1. David Harrison's letter of 30 March asked
for a short memorandum indicating how the work of the Social exclusion
Unit (SEU) on neighbourhood renewal interacted with the development
work for the Urban White Paper. This memorandum gives answers
to each of the letter's three questions in turn.
What account has the SEU's work taken of the Urban
Task Force Report and of the likely contents of the Urban White
Paper (UWP)?
2. The UTF and UWP work looks at a subject—the
renaissance of towns and cities— that overlaps with the
SEU's work on deprived neighbourhoods, as most of these neighbourhoods
are urban.
3. However, both the DETR and the SEU have
recognised that deprived neighbourhood issues comprise a subset
of wider urban renaissance issues. There is a range of issues
(eg architecture, suburbs, competitiveness) for which the overlap
is much less marked.
4. DETR and SEU have responded to this by
dividing up the work clearly, with the SEU in the lead on issues
relating to deprived neighbourhoods. Its main vehicle is the new
National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal report (a consultation
document).
5. This report pulls together a proposed
strategy for addressing the needs of deprived neighbourhoods,
drawing mainly on two sources: first, the work of the 18 Policy
Action Teams (PATs) and second, the cross-cutting review of Government
Interventions in Deprived Areas (GIDA).
6. The UTF report has provided a third influence.
Several UTF recommendations have been particularly influential
in SEU thinking. All of these have been endorsed in the recent
National Strategy document:
— giving priority to the public transport
needs of regeneration areas within Local Transport Plans (LTP)
(Chapter 3). The SEU has worked with DETR to make sure that the
revised LTP guidance better reflects the transport needs of deprived
neighbourhoods;
— supercaretakers and neighbourhood
wardens (Chapter 4). PATs 5 (Housing Management) and 6 (Neighbourhood
Wardens) have recommended the wider use of supercaretakers (and
other forms of high quality, on-the-spot housing management) and
neighbourhood wardens respectively. A Unit is being set up in
DETR to provide pump-priming funding to test out neighbourhood
warden schemes;
— piloting neighbourhood management
(Chapter 4). PAT 4 (Neighbourhood Management) has recommended
that there should be a pathfinder programme for neighbourhood
management, funded from regeneration programmes. This is being
considered in the GIDA review; and
— allocating social housing by a more
open allocation system than just strict need to be accommodated
(Chapter 11). Several PATs made recommendations of this kind,
all of which are being taken forward in the "improving choice
in social housing" element of the Housing Green Paper.
7. The SEU has kept closely in touch with
DETR, to ensure that SEU proposals are consonant with the wider
UWP. For instance there has been work to ensure that the local
co-ordination proposals in both workstreams do not result in duplication.
PAT 17 (Joining It Up Locally) examines how Urban Priority Areas
(UPAs) could fit with wider Local Strategic Partnerships.
How will the SEU's focus on neighbourhoods fit
into the broader concentration of the UWP on the whole city?
8. As noted above, the work on deprived
neighbourhoods has been taken forward by the SEU, with key input
from DETR. Work on less deprived neighbourhoods has fallen to
DETR, as have the wider issues of development and city economies.
9. However, these workstreams have not been
treated as entirely separate. First, they have both been overseen
and steered by Hilary Armstrong, the Minister for Local Government,
Regeneration and the Regions.
10. Second, there is an explicit acknowledgement—spelt
out in the National Strategy document—that "reviving
local economies" is fundamental to the regeneration of deprived
neighbourhoods, and that supply side labour market measures (on
which the Strategy and PATS concentrate) need to be complemented
by wider measures to revive and bolster the economies of cities.
What Contribution will the SEU make to the UPW?
11. Reversing the decline of severely deprived
neighbourhoods is the goal of the SEU's National Strategy. This
is a necessary condition for an urban renaissance—the Strategy
notes that "one of the reasons why people will not move back
into cities is the presence of deprived neighbourhoods. For instance,
people are scared by the crime that is generated in and around
these neighbourhoods, and worried by the perceptions that services
like schools are poorer in or near them."
12. However, reversing their decline is
not a sufficient condition for an urban renaissance. There are
many other issues that affect people's desire to live in cities—such
as congestion, planning and architecture, which will be covered
in the UWP.
13. The UPW will need to cover both kinds
of issues. But it would provoke duplication and confusion for
the UWP to set out a separate range of measures to tackle neighbourhood
deprivation. Instead, in discussing deprived neighbourhoods, the
UWP is likely to concentrate mainly on setting the ideas of the
National Strategy in a wider context. The SEU will work closely
with the DETR in writing this element of the UWP.
Social Exclusion Unit
April 2000
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