Is the ‘New Deal for Communities’ a New Deal for Equality? Getting Women on Board in Neighbourhood Governance

Across the EU, neighbourhoods have been the focus for achieving social cohesion and reducing social exclusion. Neighbourhood renewal and community involvement were central themes in the UK Labour government's urban policy. This article focuses on the challenge of community engagement given the heterogeneity of individuals and neighbourhoods. It uses the case study of a New Deal for Communities (NDC) partnership to explore the experiences of different women on an NDC board, including those from minority ethnic groups. The NDC in the case study provides optimism about the possibility of including diverse groups and people in neighbourhood governance, yet too little attention is still given at both national policy and neighbourhood levels to working politically and productively with concepts of ethnicity and gender

Area-based urban interventions: rationale and outcomes: the new deal for communities programme in England

It is now 40 years since the first area-based initiative (ABI) was launched in England. New Deal for Communities (NDC), announced in 1998, is one of the most ambitious of English ABIs in that it aims, over a period of 10 years, to reduce the gaps between 39 deprived areas and national standards in five outcome areas: crime, education, health, worklessness, and housing and the physical environment. Change data from the 2001-05 national evaluation are used to explore three considerations: change across the programme; drivers of mobility; and change at the partnership level. Barriers operating at the neighbourhood, city-wide and national levels have impacted on the implementation of the programme.</p

Overcoming the factors inhibiting the mainstreaming of gender into spatial planning policy in the United Kingdom

This paper investigates why gender is not being effectively mainstreamed into the work of local planning authorities in the UK. It discusses means whereby this reluctance might be overcome. Research undertaken for the Royal Town Planning Institute is drawn upon to illustrate the situation. Whilst generic mainstreaming is widespread, it predominantly relates to personnel matters and social policy issues; but there is little evidence of the mainstreaming of gender issues into spatial policy. Factors that hinder progress are identified at central and local government levels. Drawing on principles from a gender mainstreaming toolkit, developed as part of the research, key stages and components of the planning process are identified through which gender might be more successfully mainstreamed into substantive spatial policy. © 2005 The Editors of Urban Studies