Communities and Local Government

• Corporate
• Newsroom
• Latest news
• New Deal for Communities is turning around England’s most deprived areas

New Deal for Communities is turning around England’s most deprived areas

The Government's £2bn New Deal for Communities programme is delivering real improvements to people's lives, raising satisfaction, and bridging the gap between some our most deprived neighbourhoods and the rest of England, according to a new independent report published today.

39 deprived areas including in Lambeth, Bradford, Plymouth, Manchester, Leicester, Hackney, Oldham, Middlesbrough and Hull are making huge strides in improving quality of life and opportunity.

Key findings covering NDC areas between 2001-02 and 2005-06 show:

• a reduction in total crime rate, fear of crime, feelings of being unsafe after dark, lawlessness and dereliction;
• an 11 percentage point increase (from 26 per cent to 37 per cent) in the number of children gaining 5 + A*-C GCSEs;
• a decline in the number of smokers and those who believe their health is not good;
• increased satisfaction with the NDC area as a place to live of 11 percentage points (from 60 per cent to 71 per cent);
• more people who feel a part of their community (up from 35 per cent to 42 per cent).
• 57 per cent of people believe that NDC has improved their area (up from 33 per cent) and 80 per cent of people think that their quality of life is good (up from 76 per cent);
• NDC areas significantly out-perform other similarly deprived areas on public satisfaction with the areas as a place to live, the environment and the extent to which neighbours look out for each other.

In all 32 of 36 indicators used show improvement with a more mixed picture in the other four. The report shows that 'evidence of change at the area level is overwhelmingly positive'.

Communities Secretary Hazel Blears said:

"NDC projects are transforming areas that for too long have been blighted by the cycle of deprivation. For some people NDCs have helped, it is the first time that they have felt proud of where they live, getting involved with and feeling part of their local communities.

"But I recognise that there is more to be done to narrow the gap that still exists between the richest and poorest neighbourhoods in our country. That is why we have launched the Working Neighbourhoods Fund, targeting £1.5billion to those communities most in need, and tackling worklessness that has gone on for too long for too many.

"Today's report shows we are making real progress through the New Deal for Communities. We must use this now as a springboard to further success in the future."

Notes to editors

1. New Deal for Communities: A synthesis of new programme wide evidence: 2006-07 has been produced by the Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research (CRESR) at Sheffield Hallam University This can be found at: www.neighbourhood.gov.uk/publications.asp?did=1930 (external link).

2. The New Deal for Communities programme was launched in 1998 and is a central part of the Government's strategy for regeneration in the thirty nine most deprived areas across the country. The programme focuses on community regeneration and aims to bridge the gap between these neighbourhoods and the rest of England. £2 billion has been allocated over 10 years to the 39 partnerships in the most deprived neighbourhoods around the country.

3. The report also shows that NDCs are a recognised and valuable source of experience in community-led renewal and the programme provides good learning for others responsible for implementing neighbourhood regeneration:

• NDC programme areas can provide valuable insights relevant to all local authorities who have been tasked with tackling their deprived neighbourhoods.
• there is a positive relationship between spend and outcomes: the more an NDC has spent on projects that aim to impact on people based outcomes, the greater the change in the people based outcomes for that area.
• interventions focussed on tackling one aspect of an area's problems reap benefits across a range of others: as the housing and physical environment in an area improves, crime rates reduce; as the worklessness rate of an area decreases, health outcomes improve.
• the evidence suggests that there may be a crime reduction 'halo effect' of the NDC Programme resulting in a reduction in crime in surrounding localities (up to 1km radius), rather than crime displacement.

The findings from this evaluation are continually fed into policy to influence policy development. The next evaluation report, which focuses on six in-depth case studies is expected to be published in February 2008.

Twitter

Keep up to date with the Department by following us on Twitter (external link).

Media enquiries

Visit our newsroom contacts page for media enquiry contact details.