04 May 2001
The areas have been allocated £1.1bn from the second round of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme. Seventeen pathfinder partnerships were given £774m in the first round.
The NDC was set up to narrow the gap between richer and poorer areas by funding schemes to tackle crime, poor job prospects, poor health and educational underachievement. The NDC-funded partnerships are driven by local residents, community groups and voluntary organisations.
Regeneration minister Hilary Armstrong named the funding winners on April 30. 'This announcement reaffirms our commitment to help people in the most deprived communities in England to bridge the gap between their neighbourhoods and the rest of the country,' she said.
'This money will allow people through their NDC partnerships to make a real, positive change to the places where they live and work – according to their own priorities.'
The latest recipients will receive about £50m each. Projects range from community health centres to schemes to bring the Internet and other new technologies to deprived areas. The partnerships stretch across the country from Devonport in Plymouth to Sunderland's East End.
Successes in the first round of NDC funding included East Manchester, which witnessed a 30% drop in crime following the introduction of a community-driven package of crime-fighting measures, and Brighton, where an anti-crime strategy was rewarded with a 28% fall in burglary.
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