Communities First (Rob Speht Working hard for Landore Ward)

Rob Speht Working hard for Landore Ward <robertspeht@gmail.com>

Communities First

January 24, 2012 5:42 PM
By Peter Black
Originally published by Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal Democrats

Peter Black: I agree that some communities have seen improvements. However, as of March of last year, over £342 million had been spent on Communities First, with no discernable reduction in poverty across most of the 155 areas that it supports. I have another example in the county of Bridgend, which is also in my region. Look at some of the Communities First areas there and their relative positions in terms of the index of multiple deprivation. Bettws and Brackla 3 are more deprived now than they were in 2005. Caerau 1 and 2 are now in the bottom 2%, having dropped from thirty-fifth and sixty-sixth to eighth and thirty-eighth respectively. Clearly, there are issues in many of the communities where Communities First is in place of not achieving the objectives of eliminating poverty, raising people up, helping them to get back on their feet or delivering the fundamental change that Communities First was first intended to address. I have concerns that, despite the many changes that have been put in place, we have not yet got a scheme that is going to deliver what we need it to deliver.

The Minister referred to me harking back to previous schemes. I think that that is still relevant, because, although we have this model in front of us-I suppose that we have moved from a Ford Focus to a Prius, perhaps-we still have no guarantees that it is going to work, and I still have concerns that, unless we start to involve local government and the money it spends-unless we start bending its programmes as well as our own-we will still not achieve that. If you are going to introduce a top-down structure, effectively controlled from the centre, you are not going to get that buy-in from those other partners who operate on a local level, who will feel disenchanted and disempowered by the way that this new scheme will be delivered.

5.45 p.m.

We believe that one of the biggest weaknesses of the Communities First programme since its inception has been the failure to engage with the private sector, particularly local businesses, in regenerating local communities. There needs to be a set of indicators that shows specifically how money that is being spent in the Communities First area will produce an outcome and which will measure how successful it is. Clear targets must be set for that money and not necessarily for the whole range of programmes of which it performs a small part. Empowerment is very much a part of that and of how we deliver it.

We have already referred to the Wales Audit Office and its view, as well as that of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which said that, between 2001 and 2008, some conditions have improved in first-generation Communities First areas and that, on average, population and house prices have increased and economic inactivity has declined. However, it said that, in comparison to similar neighbourhoods, the gains that have been made in the first-generation Communities First areas have been relatively marginal. What we want from this new scheme is to go above the marginal. We need to start introducing a step change in the way that communities are empowered and improved. The latest incarnation has a great deal to prove to deliver on that.