Further Reading
Member News
I suspect that all too often these brave new estates and regeneration schemes may fail when the gloss comes off.
Grant Shapps
The Conservatives have promised to tackle inner city problems of the kind which prompted riots when the party was previously in government.
In a speech on Tuesday, shadow housing minister Grant Shapps admitted that the Conservatives previously failed to tackle some sources of urban tension.
He also outlined how a Tory government would create partnerships with residential communities to create lasting regeneration of disadvantaged housing estates.
"It has perhaps been too tempting for previous governments – including Conservative administrations – to try to oversimplify solutions; finding it easier to identify or even blame a specific group, than to propose solutions to complex social problems," he told an event hosted by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
"I suspect that all too often these brave new estates and regeneration schemes may fail when the gloss comes off. I visit places already displaying the tell-tale signs of neighbourhoods in decline.
"Broken beer bottles reveal the all too familiar story of the night before and create a hazardous path to the local shops.
"And most worrying of all; a group of youngsters – no more than perhaps 13 years old – who should surely be in school, aimlessly hanging around as if waiting for something or someone to inspire them."
His comments come after shadow home secretary Chris Grayling's statement last eek that parts of inner-city Britain are like the American TV series 'The Wire'.
Riots in the 1980s in areas such as Brixton, Toxteth and Handsworth were associated with young people suffering from a lack of employment as well as racial tensions.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd