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Working together
'We recognised that just holding public meetings wasn't going to work. So we looked for interactive ways to consult people in a way they would enjoy'
Local New Deal for Communities co-ordinator
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Partnership working and consultation with local residents is at the heart of the new approach to regeneration. Many past regeneration initiatives did not work because they did not involve local residents. All that is starting to change.
Building productive partnerships
Key to delivering neighbourhood renewal at the local level will be local strategic partnerships (LSPs). LSPs identify local problems and deliver solutions to regenerating neighbourhoods. They bring together public, private and voluntary sector service providers with the community and business and help co-ordinate national and local initiatives to improve people's quality of life. They aim to cut out duplication and reduce bureaucracy by simplifying the many partnerships that exist already.
Bringing people in
At the heart of this agenda is a commitment to ensuring that local communities' needs and concerns are given the importance they deserve. Local people know best what the priorities of their own neighbourhood are.
It is essential that they have the opportunity and the tools to get involved in whatever way they want.
That means talking and listening to communities and, in particular, trying to include difficult to reach groups - young people, ethnic minority residents, the elderly and disabled people. In many areas, faith groups are playing a leading role in local partnerships.
There's opportunities for people to get involved at a national level as well. The NRU has set up the Community Forum, which will advise it on how community groups and residents can play an inclusive and effective role in neighbourhood renewal.
There are also two 'pots' of funding on offer to help support community involvement. The Community Empowerment Fund, which will amount to £36 million over three years, supports community and voluntary sector involvement in LSPs in the 88 NRF areas. Community Chest, worth £50 million over three years, will provide small grants of up to £5,000 to help pay for community projects - anything from toys and equipment for parent and toddler groups to training and IT for refugee projects.
Involving local business
Business has a fundamental role to play in neighbourhood renewal. The NRU is working to encourage business involvement through its own work and the activities of other government departments and other partner organisations.
A key factor fuelling the decline of deprived neighbourhoods over the past generation has been the decline of old industries leading to mass unemployment focussed on communities with a low or redundant skills base. New industries usually demand higher skills and have sometimes been located in different locations. This process has led to a dislocation between business and deprived neighbourhoods, which can manifest itself many ways including businesses discriminating against employing people from certain neighbourhoods and people in those neighbourhoods lacking the confidence to apply for jobs even when they have the abilities needed. Thus pre-existing disadvantages are made worse and the gap between poor and successful neighbourhoods increased.
What can be done
The dislocation between business and deprived neighbourhoods can be tackled by a range of activities ranging from corporate social responsibility (for example reading volunteers from business supporting inner city primary schools) to helping business to discover profitable new markets amongst deprived communities. All these activities share a crucial common factor that they bring benefit not just to society but also to the businesses involved. There is a range of initiatives in place or being developed, led by a variety of government departments, to further such activity. These include:
Business Brokers
A pilot Business Broker initiative has been developed to support Local Strategic Partnerships in engaging the private sector to help deliver their neighbourhood renewal strategies. Business Brokers will focus their efforts on initiatives, which support the achievement of the jobs floor target, build enterprise in deprived neighbourhoods and support the regeneration of shops in these areas. However, there may well be significant variation in the work of different Brokers depending on the particular needs of each LSP.
The Business Brokers pilot is funded by the NRU, the Phoenix Fund and the Home Office. It has been developed in partnership with government departments, the Regional Development Agencies, Business in the Community and British Chambers of Commerce. It will fund one Business Broker in each region (yet to be announced) and a central support unit or Partnership Academy based at Business in the Community. This Partnership Academy will not just support the pilot Brokers but also any other LSP wanting to develop its own form of business brokerage.
Phoenix Fund
The Phoenix Fund, worth £96m over four years, has been set up to encourage enhanced business support for entrepreneurs from disadvantaged groups or neighbourhoods, including social enterprises. It is administered by the Small Business Service. Activities being financed include mentoring, community finance initiatives and innovative methods such as business incubation.
City Growth Strategies
The City Growth Strategies pilot, which will be launched later this year, will fund a number of cities to map their inner city business base, providing information highlighting the competitive advantage of these areas to encourage increased private sector investment and help develop plans for business growth.
Index of Inner City Business
This will profile 100 of the fastest growing, unquoted companies in the most disadvantaged areas of major cities; and help dispel the perception that these areas are 'no-go' areas for business.
Useful links
British Chambers of Commerce: www.britishchambers.org.uk
Business in the Community: www.bitc.org.uk
Small Business Service: www.sbs.gov.uk
Joining it up locally
The right levels of investment are crucial if we are to tackle the problems of deprived neighbourhoods. But it is equally important that investment is spent wisely and on those things that the community has identified as priorities. Difficult issues have all-too-often been passed from one body to another with no-one taking overall responsibility.
To combat this, £45 million has been made available through the Neighbourhood Management programme over three years to test out new ways of delivering priority services.
One person - or a team - will be responsible for making sure that key services are delivered at neighbourhood level. Neighbourhood managers will offer a single point of contact for residents and businesses and will have the clout to negotiate with service providers - like the local authority and government agencies - about how services are delivered. By making sure there is someone taking overall responsibility at neighbourhood level, residents will get services that meet their needs.
Keeping a watchful eye
The Neighbourhood and Street Wardens' programme is an important practical element in improving 'liveability' in deprived areas. Neighbourhood wardens provide a uniformed semi-official presence in a residential area with the aim of improving the environment, quality of life and safety. They work closely with police and local authorities to tackle deprivation and anti-social behaviour at a grass roots level. They may promote community safety, assist with environmental or housing improvements or help with neighbourhood management.
Street wardens will be similar to neighbourhood wardens but have more of an emphasis on caring for the physical appearance of an area.
Although still relatively new, wardens are already proving a hit with many communities as their work can make a real difference to an area in a short space of time.
A new deal for communities
The approach set out in the national strategy is already being tried out on a smaller scale through the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme, for which the NRU is responsible.
The NDC has been running since autumn 1998 and has been an important test-bed for many of the ideas and policy initiatives being developed to support renewal.
NDC partnerships have been established in 39 neighbourhoods across England. Over the ten-year duration of the programme, they will receive a total of £1.9 billion. Partnerships bring local communities together with service providers and other agencies to tackle the problems in their neighbourhoods in an intensive and co-ordinated way.
These partnerships are already teaching us valuable lessons, which will be passed onto the rest of the country through the wider neighbourhood renewal programme. In particular, the NDC programme has made race equality an integral part of its framework and has developed race equality guidance.
Raising the game
Better skills and knowledge are fundamental to neighbourhood renewal. Too often people are expected to deliver ambitious programmes without being given the tools they need to do the job. People need new skills to work in new ways, to provide better public services. And we must share knowledge of what works - and what doesn't - much more effectively.
- The NRU's skills and knowledge programme will invest £21.6 million over the next two and a half years to ensure everyone has the skills and knowledge they need to deliver effective neighbourhood renewal.
A booklet to accompany the programme (Adobe Acrobat 270kb) was published and has been distributed to over 6,000 addresses, including regeneration programmes and national voluntary sector organisations. A free copy of the booklet is available from the DTLR distribution centre on 0870 1226 236.
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