Report to Cabinet
Date:Tuesday 31st November 2000
Subject:Neighbourhood Renewal Fund
Report of:The Leader of the Council
Contact Officers:Charles Green, Assistant Chief Executive
0161 793 3406
1. Purpose of the Report
To provide information on the New Neighbourhood Renewal Fund Consultation paper recently published by the DETR, and to agree the process to respond .
2. Recommendations
That Cabinet approves the pulling together of a formal response to Government - but given difficulties in timescale, that the formal response be delegated to the Leader of the Council for agreement.
3. Background
As a result of the Comprehensive Spending Review, Government has announced a commitment to narrowing the gap between deprived areas and the rest of the Country in line with the emerging National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal.
To facilitate this, Government has announced a new Neighbourhood Renewal Fund – the proposals of which are outlined in a consultation paper published in October 2000.
88 local authorities in the most deprived areas of England will benefit from the new Neighbourhood Renewal Fund (NRF), worth £800m over the next three financial years starting 2001/02. For Salford this means additional resources of £10.8 million over the three year period with a breakdown of £1.36m in 2001/02; £4.08m in 2002/03 and £5.44m in 2003/04.
Purpose and targets
The purpose of the fund is to assist both local authorities and other partners to focus their main spending programmes in order to deliver better outcomes for the most deprived communities. The emphasis of the NRF is on district-wide renewal strategies - not area based regeneration programmes.
The focus of NRF support is on:
Education
Employment
Crime
Health
Housing
Government will expect to see evidence that NRF funding is being used to improve the delivery of services linked to targets set in Public Service Agreements (PSAs). Specific targets have been set in the following areas:
Education - targets fall into two areas. Firstly, to reduce to zero the number of LEAs where less than a set percentage of pupils achieve level 4 of the Key Stage 2 English and Maths. Targets to be announced. Secondly, to increase the percentage of pupils obtaining 5 or more GCSEs at grades A* - C (or equivalent) with at least 38% to achieve this standard in every LEA by 2004.
Employment – over the 3 years an increase in the employment rates of disadvantaged areas and groups, taking account of the economic cycle; people with disabilities, lone parents, ethnic minorities and the over 50s. The 30 LAs with the poorest initial labour market position will need to achieve an overall reduction in the difference between their employment rates and the overall rate.
Crime – Reduce domestic burglary by 25% (with no LA area having more than three times the national average) by 2005
Health – Narrow the gap in childhood and throughout life between socio-economic groups and between the most deprived areas. Specific targets to be developed in consultation with external stakeholders and experts in 2001.
Housing – to ensure that all social housing is of a decent standard by 2010. By reducing the number of households living in social housing that does not meet these standards by a third between 2001 and 2004; with most of the improvements taking place in the most deprived local authority areas as part of a comprehensive regeneration strategy.
Nature of the Grant
The fund will be operated under the Special Grant powers in sec 88(b) of the Local Government Act 1988. It will need approval of a Special Grant Report by Parliament and is hoped that approval will be obtained as part of the Revenue Support Grant debate in late January to early February 2001.
Selection of eligible areas
This is no bidding process – the allocation of funds is based on a formula linked to the Index of Deprivation 2000. Government has used the six measures in the Indices to determine eligibility and allocation of resources. The six measures are:
Concentration: the severity of the worst pockets of deprivation in each district;
Extent: how widespread are severe pockets of deprivation in each district (what % of the population of each district live in one of the 10% most deprived wards in England;
Employment scale: how many employment deprived people there are in each district;
Income scale: how many income deprived people there are in each district;
Average scores: what is the average of the deprivation scores of all wards in the district;
Average ranks: what is the average of the ranks of all wards in each district.
When the Neighbourhood Renewal strategy was announced some months, indications were that only the worst 44 districts would be targeted for funding. The position has now changed with 88 districts now eligible.
Those authorities which appear within the top 50 most deprived districts on any of these six indicators are eligible for the NRF. On this basis, 81 local authorities have been chosen. A further 7 eligible under the previous Index have been included as a transitional arrangement.
Conditions on Grant Approval
In order to benefit from the Fund , eligible local authorities must:
Be part of and working with a Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) - e.g. the Salford Partnership;
Have agreed with the LSP a local Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy;
Produce a statement of use for the NRF – i.e. an action plan explaining how the resources will be expended;
Demonstrate that Public Service Agreements (PSAs) are being developed and make a commitment to contribute to the national targets contained within them;
Have a satisfactory Best Value Performance Plan or where there has been adverse audit opinion, an agreed action plan to address auditors concerns
However, Government recognises that it will take time to put the above in place. Therefore, for the first year the conditions will be:
To commit to working with an LSP and agreeing a local neighbourhood renewal strategy with them;
To commit to making a contribution towards the national targets;
To fulfil the Best Value requirement
Links with other strategic guidance - Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and Community Planning
Government has also just published a separate consultation paper on Local Strategic Partnerships – setting out the importance of their role. Government wants to see LSPs built on the best models already in place, with the Salford Partnership promoted as an exemplar in the guidance itself.
The Salford Partnership has done much to promote and improve collaborative working across key partners and its role is becoming more important in meeting Government’s new agenda.
Government expects that Local Neighbourhood Renewal Strategies will be part of a local authority’s overall Community Plan (a long term partnership vision for the City). The consultation paper on Community Planning was published earlier this summer, with further guidance expected during the Autumn.
What happens next?
Local authorities have been asked to comment on both the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund and Local Strategic Partnership consultation papers by 14th November. Following this, Government intends to produce a Neighbourhood Renewal Fund Action Plan later this autumn which should provide more detail on how the Fund will operate and be managed.
Implementation of the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund will commence in April 2001.
4. Our Response to the Consultation paper
The consultation paper has been circulated for comment within the City Council and externally to representatives on the Salford Partnership. Their comments are expected back during the week commencing 30th October and, therefore, a formal response cannot be included within this report. Comments of cabinet are requested so that they can inform the response back to Government.
The following issues require some further thought as part of our feedback process:
a)In general, the aims and objectives outlined in the consultation paper are welcomed and will build on the work already undertaken as part of the City’s Regeneration Strategy and Community Strategy. The Salford Partnership is well placed to respond to Government’s emphasis on Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) and is already progressing work on the new statutory requirement for a Community Plan.
b)The allocation of £10.8m may not be enough to tackle the deep-rooted social exclusion faced by our most deprived communities. With the increased number of districts now eligible for the NRF, Government may be spreading its resources too thinly, which will have severe implications for the effectiveness of the Fund.
c)The Fund has been announced in advance of the Neighbourhood Renewal Strategy and Action Plan being prepared. To some extent local authorities are probably being asked to comment too early in the process without understanding the full implications of this policy development. Indeed, the consultation paper is inextricably linked to strategic guidance on Community Planning and Local Strategic Partnerships. Government could have taken the opportunity to join up these three key strategic papers much earlier in the process.
d)The timescale for developing the strategy within Government and then translating that down to local authorities for implementation in April 2001 is extremely tight. Parallel to that, the resources being allocated through the NRF will not be approved until February 2001 as they are reliant on the Revenue Support Grant debate. Government must ensure that the strategy is both comprehensive and holistic, and this may take more time than is currently planned for. For our part, we will respond quickly and thoroughly to the response timescale set by Government.
e)There is a need to ensure that the strategy is flexible enough to recognise that local problems require local solutions tailored to the needs of specific communities.
f)The targets contained in the report are currently vague and lack clarity – indeed some do not make sense at the moment. Housing targets refer only to social housing and do not recognise the issues pertaining to the private sector. Health targets will not be set until some time during 2001. This creates difficulty for authorities who will be asked to draw up Neighbourhood Renewal Strategies in advance of these targets being set. The message back to Government will emphasise the need for targets that are realistic and appropriate, and linked to the particular problems being faced by local communities.
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