ODPM urged to loosen reins on regeneration

17 Apr 03
MPs this week launched a scathing attack on the government's complex community regeneration initiatives, claiming that Whitehall has too much control over the budgets for local schemes. The Commons' urban affairs sub-committee blasted the Office of th

18 April 2003

MPs this week launched a scathing attack on the government's complex community regeneration initiatives, claiming that Whitehall has too much control over the budgets for local schemes.

The Commons' urban affairs sub-committee blasted the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for its failure to 'loosen the reins' and allow councils the freedom to choose local solutions to local problems.

The committee, chaired by Labour MP Clive Betts, published its long-awaited report on regeneration on April 15. The effectiveness of government regeneration initiatives highlights how Whitehall dictates that hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent in the same deprived areas each year 'without bringing a significant or lasting improvement' to the areas.

The number and complexity of Whitehall-led programmes was the root cause. Regional development agencies, set up to deliver regeneration schemes, claimed that, at any one time, as many as 27 separate initiatives could be running in the same area.

Betts also said that the Regional Co-ordination Unit, the 'gatekeeper' established by the government to reduce the number of regeneration initiatives, is not effectively filtering out poor schemes, and claimed that there was no adequate mechanism for scrutinising the use of government cash.

He also said the way government cash was distributed to the regions could have helped spark the 2001 community riots in Oldham and Burnley.

'Focusing resources on a predominantly white council housing estate or an Asian area of rundown housing could cause serious resentment in the area that did not receive funding,' the MPs said.

But a spokesman for the ODPM claimed the RCU was effective and that the department had loosened Whitehall's grip in recent years.

'The National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal, [which is] designed to tackle postcode poverty by taking a local, bottom-up approach, is putting communities at the heart of renewal,' he said.

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