This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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New £104 million anti-poverty Fund
12/07/2004
A new £104 million Community Regeneration Fund has been
established to bring improvements to Scotland's most
deprived areas and help individuals and families escape
poverty.
The fund combines and replaces existing programmes like
Social Inclusion Partnerships and will be targeted on the
communities identified last month in the
Scottish Index of Multiple
Deprivation.
Communities Minister Margaret Curran outlined the six
objectives, agreed by the Cabinet Sub Committee on Closing
the Opportunity Gap, that will be used to drive future
anti-poverty initiatives.
Using the Community Regeneration Fund as the main tool
to help:
- Regenerate the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods,
so that people living there can take advantage of job
opportunities and improve their quality of life
And with other programmes:
- Increasing chances of sustained employment for
vulnerable and disadvantaged groups - to lift them
permanently out of poverty
- Improving the confidence and skills of the most
disadvantaged children and young people - to provide
them with the greatest chance of avoiding poverty when
they leave school
- Reducing the vulnerability of low income families
to financial exclusion and multiple debt - to prevent
them becoming over-indebted and/or to lift them out of
poverty
- Increasing the rate of health improvement for
people living in the most deprived communities - to
improve their quality of life, including their
employability prospects
- Improving access to high quality services for the
most disadvantaged groups and individuals in rural
communities - to improve their quality of life and
enhance their access to opportunity
The Minister said:
"The Community Regeneration Fund focuses efforts on our
national priorities to improve the education, health and
job prospects of Scotland's most deprived communities. It
will help build safer, stronger communities where people
want to live and bring up their families.
"We are serious about regenerating these communities.
This investment can deliver real change and make a
difference to people's lives and neighbourhoods.
"But the Fund is only part of the picture. I want to be
sure that this significant resource is being spent
effectively and is targeted on real improvements.
"If we are serious about closing the opportunity gap,
then councils, the health service, the police, the
enterprise networks and others must work with us and with
the communities themselves to help secure these
improvements.
"I expect to see the Community Planning Partnerships
which will lead on our anti-poverty work to demonstrate
that this is happening in their area and to set ambitious
local targets towards achieving our bigger goal of reducing
poverty."
The Executive will publish a set of detailed targets to
underpin its objectives in the autumn.
The Community Regeneration Fund replaces the SIP fund
(£61 million for 2004/05), the Better Neighbourhood
Services Fund (£31.2 million for 2004/05) and the Tackling
Drugs Misuse Fund (£3 million for 2004/05).
The Scottish Index ranks areas of around 750 people,
called data zones, from the most deprived (No. 1) to the
least deprived (No. 6,505). Two thirds of the CRF has been
allocated to the most deprived 15 per cent of data zones
(i.e. Nos. 1 to 976).
The remaining funds have been allocated to those
Community Planning Partnerships with above average (i.e.
more than 15 per cent ) concentration of deprivation in
their area (marked with an asterisk below). Transitional
arrangements to smooth the change from existing programmes
to the new Fund are also in place.
The CRF allocations to each Community Planning
Partnership are indicative allocations showing the
potential grant which can be attracted to support community
regeneration in each of the Community Planning partnership
areas.
In 2005/06:
- Aberdeen City £1,218,000
- Aberdeenshire £135,000
- Angus £203,000
- Argyll and Bute £986,000
- Clackmannanshire £1,104,000 *
- Dumfries and Galloway £675,000
- Dundee city £5,775,000 *
- East Ayrshire £4,033,000 *
- Easy Dunbartonshire £271,000
- East Lothian £126,000
- East Renfrewshire £406,000
- Edinburgh £7,118,000
- Eilean Siar £338,000
- Falkirk £791,000
- Fife £1,806,000
- Glasgow City Council £39,886,000 *
- Highland £609,000
- Inverclyde £5,381,000 *
- Midlothian £68,000
- Moray £361,000
- North Ayrshire £3,403,000 *
- North Lanarkshire £9,847,000 *
- Orkney £0
- Perth and Kinross £203,000
- Renfrewshire £4,527,000*
- Scottish Borders £203,000
- Shetland £0
- South Ayrshire £1,767,000
- South Lanarkshire £6,861,000 *
- Stirling £406,000
- West Dunbartonshire £4,956,000 *
- West Lothian £677,000
Community Planning Partnerships bring together key
public service providers such as councils, the NHS, police,
fire services and the enterprise networks together with the
communities they serve to plan services that better meet
the needs of people who use them. There are 32 Community
Planning Partnerships covering each local authority area in
Scotland.
Community Planning Partnerships will spell out how they
intend to use the Community Regeneration Fund, alongside
their own resources, to deliver specific regeneration
improvements for Scotland's most disadvantaged communities
through three-year Regeneration Outcome Agreements or
ROAs.
Regeneration Outcome Agreements will be assessed by
Communities Scotland on behalf of Ministers and will
provide the basis for the award of firm allocations to
Community Planning Partnerships early next year.