Neighbourhood Renewal

Neighbourhood Renewal is a long term approach to challenging the way in which people living in some areas experience greater difficulties in acessing services, experience greater health inequalities and are less likely to take advantage of personal, social and economic opportunities than people living in other areas in the town.

Nationally, in January 2001, the Government launched A New Commitment to Neighbourhood Renewal:National Strategy Action Plan.  The overall vision is that:

"Within 10-20 years no one should be seriously disadvantaged by where they live.  People on low incomes should not have to suffer conditions and services that are failing, and no different from what the rest of the population receives".

The Government selected 88 local authorities to be prioritised for neighbourhood renewal activity and funding, based on those areas which had the highest number of wards in the top 10% of the Indices of Deprivation for Wards in England 2000.  On this basis, Swindon was not identified as a priority area.

A Swindon for the Future

The Community Strategy for Swindon recognises that in order to "Create a Swindon For the Future", we need to ensure that quality of life is enjoyed by all who live and work in Swindon.  It recognises that there are individual neighbourhood and communities whose experiences, achievements and access to effective services do not match those of the wider population.

The Strategy is a starting point for achieving improvements for local people across the neighbourhood renewal themes of:

• Health
• Education and skills
• Employment
• Community Safety
• Housing and Environment

An additional locally identified theme for Swindon is transport.

Identify Change

The Strategy will identify a range of targets and commitments to ensure that there is a real change in the quality of life for people living in areas which demonstrate the greatest need. Need will be identified through a consideration of statistical data from sources such as Census 2001.

The emphasis of the Strategy will be on partnership work and shared principles of community involvement and equality.  The Strategy will also be used to support bids for external resources and will be pivotal in delivering improvements across mainstream services.

The Strategy has been developed through a partnership of Swindon Borough Council, Swindon Strategic Partnership and key stakeholders such as Swindon Primary Care Trust.