Strong Communities Hold the
Key to Long-Term Defeat of Poverty
Embargo: for publication after 00.01 hrs Friday 27th February
2004
(See Note to Editors for details of event at The Thistle Hotel,
Cardiff).
The Welsh Assembly Government has taken a lead in tackling poverty
and social exclusion through community improvement that holds important
lessons for the rest of the UK. But while Wales has risen rapidly
up Britain’s job creation league in the past five years, high levels
of chronic sickness and other economic inactivity continue to place
it near the top of the UK statistics that measure social disadvantage.
This mixed picture of innovative, community-based action and persisting
pockets of poverty especially in the Valleys of south Wales will
be drawn today by the Institute of Welsh Affairs (IWA) at the Cardiff
launch of Overcoming Disadvantage a Joseph Rowntree Foundation
report that features long-term solutions proposed by five leading
think-tanks. The report has been specially commissioned to mark the
start of the Foundation’s centenary year.
The IWA notes that since the advent of the National Assembly in 1999,
Wales has ‘leapfrogged’ Northern Ireland, Scotland, London, the West
Midlands, the north West and Yorkshire to become the UK region with
the fourth lowest official unemployment rate. However, Wales still
has relatively high levels of ‘economically inactive’ adults, not
counted as actively seeking work, as well as rates of family poverty
that are above the UK average.
The IWA authors suggest that the ‘typically Welsh’ starting point
for initiatives to improve the life chances of disadvantaged families
and individuals has been to consider how best to strengthen the communities
where they live. For example, Communities First, the Assembly Government’s
main programme for reducing social exclusion is spending £83 million
in its first three years, targeting 142 of the Principality’s most
deprived neighbourhoods.
But they argue that Communities First and other long-term initiatives
for tackling disadvantage could be improved by applying the lessons
from three examples of good practice at local, rural and national
level in encouraging local enterprise and empowering local people
to take the lead in renewing their communities.
These are:
* The Gellideg Foundation in Merthyr, where residents have created
their own organisation on a formerly run-down estate to provide job
training, restore buildings and establish new community facilities,
including a café, a crèche and outdoor sports area. The Foundation
has raised more than £700,000, including European Union money, and
now employs 13 members of staff.
* A fresh approach to planning rural development proposed by the Centre
for Enterprise and Rural Development at the University of Wales, Bangor.
Existing ’islands of poverty’ in the Welsh hinterland would be helped
to attract new investment and jobs by linking them with nearby towns
to create specially-funded ‘development domains’.
* The Community Enterprise Wales initiative, established through the
Welsh Development Agency to help disadvantaged communities to generate
their own enterprise and employment opportunities. Although it has
helped to establish more than 400 social enterprise groups across
Wales, the IWA authors argue that it needs to become a mainstream
part of the Communities First programme to achieve its potential.
John Osmond, the IWA’s Director and co-author of the report, said:
“On the surface in Wales, unemployment appears to have reached tolerably
low levels, but when combined with sickness and disability claimants,
the proportions not working are higher than almost anywhere else in
the UK. There are pockets of extreme poverty throughout. The Valleys
pose particular problems, with their legacy of ill-health, low skill
levels and low employment activity rates. But there are also concentrations
of poverty along the North Wales coastline, in south Pembrokeshire
and in parts of Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.
“The location and scale of these problems mean they are unlikely to
be tackled effectively by the conventional means of attracting inward
investment or persuading private firms to move in and provide jobs.
The challenge is to empower local people to develop the social economy,
because only then will there be a realistic chance of putting in place
the more normal mix of private, public and voluntary sector activity
that characterises less disadvantaged parts of the country.”
He added: “Wales has more poverty and deprivation to overcome than
most other parts of the United Kingdom. But it also has a political
leadership that is sensitive to the challenge and determined to try
to address it. More important than that Wales enjoys a powerful sense
of community that others could learn from, and that holds the key
to finding sustainable, long-term solutions.”
Note to Editors: Overcoming Disadvantage: An agenda for the next
20 years is published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and available
from York Publishing Services, 64 Hallfield Road, Layerthorpe, York
YO31 7ZQ price £8.95 plus £2 p&p. It can be obtained as a free download
from www.jrf.org.uk
In addition to the IWA, Overcoming Disadvantage: An agenda for
the next 20 years includes contributions from the IPPR (Institute
for Public Policy Research), the Social Market Foundation, Policy
Exchange and the Scottish Council Foundation.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s working paper, Tackling Disadvantage:
A 20-year enterprise by David Darton, Donald Hirsch and Jason
Strelitz, was published in 2003 and is also available from York Publishing
Services price £11.95 plus £2 p&p, and as a free download from the
JRF website.
The report will be launched before an audience of Welsh policy makers
and senior figures from public agencies and voluntary groups at 10.30
for 11am on Friday February 27th 2004 at The Thistle Hotel, Park Place,
Cardiff.
Speakers include: Huw Lewis AM, Deputy Minister for Communities, John
Osmond and Jessica Mugaseth (IWA) and Victoria Winckler, (Bevan Foundation).
Journalists are welcome to attend.
For further information contact: John Osmond and Jessica Mugaseth
(IWA authors) 029 2057 5511
Issued by David Utting, Associate Director (Public Affairs) 020
7278 9665 / 07930 313790 / david.utting@jrf.org.uk
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