Supplementary memorandum by the Office
of the Deputy Prime Minister (AR 01(a))
OFFICE CORE NARRATIVE
As Peter Unwin mentioned in his evidence to
the Committee on Monday, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministerial
Team have been taking stock of current policies and programmes
to ensure that these are aligned as effectively as possible in
creating sustainable communities and ensuring the Office is successful
in setting out its priorities clearly during the Comprehensive
Spending Review 2007.
Members of the Committee may be interested to
see the outcomes of this work, summarised in the attached core
narrative for the Office. The goals set out in the narrative focus
on the outcomes that our strategic priorities and PSA targets
aim to deliver. Ministers have today circulated the narrative
to all staff in ODPM and the Government Offices for the Regions.
David Hill
CORE NARRATIVE
Sustainable communities are about things that
matter to people: decent homes at prices people can afford, good
public transport, schools, hospitals, and shops; people able to
have a say on the way their neighbourhood is run; and a clean,
safe environment.
The job of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
is to help create sustainable communities, working with other
Government departments, local councils, businesses, the voluntary
sector, and communities themselves.
We have five year plans and a challenging set
of Public Service Agreement targets which set the overall framework.
We have now completed a stocktake to ensure that we have full
alignment across these programmes to maximise our impact in delivery
and to sharpen our focus in advance of the Comprehensive Spending
Review in 2007.
What did we conclude?
Our programmes are underpinned by three core
values. All our policy and practice should be tested against them.
The values are:
— Empowerment: are we giving people
more power and control over their lives?
— Equity: are we ensuring that we narrow
the gap between disadvantaged groups and areas and the average?
— Value for money: are we reducing
costs and bureaucracy, increasing productivity, and using public
money to lever in resources from the private and voluntary sectors.
There are five key drivers of sustainable communities.
They are central to the delivery of our over-arching goal.
— high quality services: focused on
continuous improvement and the delivery of visible results in
service delivery and public perceptions;
— a good physical environment: clean,
safe and environmentally sustainable;
— a strong economic base: a good infrastructure,
employment and opportunity for all, and a good climate for enterprise
and investment;
— strong leadership: reinvigorated
local democracy, strong partnerships; and
— shared values: building cohesion
and respect across communities.
These are mutually reinforcing and if a community
lacks one or more of them it is unlikely to be sustainable. Good
policy and delivery will bring out these synergies.
Flowing from this work we have developed 11
key priorities for the Office: these consist of high level goals,
critical projects and cross-government priorities:
High-level goals
— A step on the housing ladder for
new generations of homeowners; quality and choice for those who
rent; ensuring mixed sustainable communities based on public and
private investment.
— High quality public services for
all, shaped by individuals and communities to meet their needs,
delivering value for money and visible results.
— Communities—especially the
most disadvantaged—connected to economic activity and social
opportunity.
— Towns and cities world class for
their economic and social life; more power for neighbourhoods
to decide things that matter to them.
— Inclusive communities that are bound
together by values of decency and mutual respect—where we
help prevent anti-social behaviour, enforce rules consistently
and swiftly, and build respect in all communities.
Critical projects
— Improving regional arrangements to
maximise the effectiveness of planning and investment at this
level.
— Supporting robust local government
finance; securing a strategic role for local government.
— Modernisation of the fire and rescue
service.
— Delivering the Thames Gateway programme
as a cross-Government project.
Cross-government priorities
— Managing the Office's contribution
to delivering the Olympics.
— Tackling disadvantage and social
exclusion.
These goals focus on the outcomes that our strategic
priorities and PSA targets aim to deliver. As we prepare for the
2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, we will work to ensure that
our targets, funding, institutions and workforce are aligned as
effectively as possible to achieve our mission to create sustainable
communities.
Building on our work to create sustainable communities
at home, the Deputy Prime Minister is leading efforts across Europe,
under the UK presidency of the EU, and through the development
of a Bristol Accord to agree an integrated approach to the creation
of sustainable communities across Europe.
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