Keynote address at the CLES Summer School

23 June

Shaping Fairer Places for the Future

Thank you very much for inviting me to open this CLES Summer School on ‘Shaping Fairer Places for the Future’

It’s a subject that goes to the heart of why I came into public services and then entered politics

And it also encapsulates one of the biggest and I think most urgent challenges we face – not only in Government, but as a country

That’s why I want to talk today about what I believe ‘shaping fairer places for the future’ requires of us, as well as why it matters

‘Fairness’

I want to start by focusing on ‘fairness’: a simple but immensely powerful idea that is central to progressive politics, not only here but right across the world

Today, in a highly developed 21^st century economy like ours, it is clear that fairness doesn’t happen by chance

A couple of weeks ago the latest poverty figures came out and I would be the first to say they were very disappointing

They showed that while child poverty has been cut by 600,000 since 1997, there was a slight increase between 2005-6 and 2006-7, the most recent year for which figures are available

In the same year, the incomes of the poorest 20% of households fell by 1.6% while those of the richest households rose by 0.8%

The same analysis also showed that the slice of national income going to the richest fifth of households has risen from 40.9% to 42.6% since 1997, while the share taken by the poorest families has dropped from 7.7% to 7.2%

So we have to face the fact that the gap between the groups at opposite ends of the income distribution has grown over the last decade

And yet, it is clear that without the unprecedented investment in anti-poverty measures this Government has made since1997, the numbers on low incomes would have been a great deal higher

Had we uprated the tax and benefit system, for example, but done no more than that, we estimate there would have been a massive 1.7 million more children living in poverty today

Nothing could better demonstrate the scale of challenge we face in seeking to create a fairer and more equal society

As someone put it the other day, it’s like trying constantly to run up a down escalator

Because global economic trends tend to increase inequality though placing a premium on skills and qualifications

Meaning those without them are at great risk of being left behind

In future we know skills will play an even greater role in driving individual, local and national employment, and thus prosperity

The development of China and India into world economic powers will lead to the creation of an estimated billion extra skilled jobs over the next 25 years, but this will also exert downward pressure on the employment of less-skilled workers in our country

The demand from employers for highly skilled workers is certain to grow. The creative industries and financial services already account for almost a fifth of the UK economy and we expect the proportion to continue to increase

For sure, the new global economics has some potential downsides but it also offers us tremendous, unprecedented opportunities

Because global competition will increasingly not be a race to the bottom, competing on low pay, but a race to the top, competing on ever higher skills

The countries that will succeed will be those that bring out the best in their people and their potential – increasing skills levels, reducing worklessness and, in the process, tackling poverty and creating stronger societies

I think that’s a vision worth fighting for and I will return to what we need to do to make it happen a little later

‘Fairer Places’

But first I want to ask what we mean by ‘a fairer place’

Is it somewhere with a good social and economic mix, in which levels of inequality are low?

The answer must be ‘yes’, but a fair place also has to be sustainable; and it must offer all its people decent housing and green space, as well as access to excellent educational and other opportunities – indeed, access to first class public services of all kinds

In addition, a fair place must be and must feel safe

Perhaps above all, it must offer people a good quality of life and promote their well-being

It is probably all too easy to conjure up an image of what an unfair place looks like – it’s polar opposite

In the 18^th century Hogarth painted Gin Lane in London to bring to life this idea of an area of profound exclusion and inequality

In the 19^th century, Engels drew on life in the back to back streets of Salford, to do the same

I think most people’s image of an unfair place today would be a barren social housing estate, probably on the edge of a city, disconnected from mainstream life

In her book on estates, published last year, Lynsey Hanley writes, “Estates are nothing to be frightened of unless you are frightened of inequality.”

That’s because social housing is increasingly a residual form of tenure. It is here the greatest concentrations of vulnerability, poverty and exclusion are now usually to be found

The latest poverty figures I have already referred to bear this out: almost half of households living in social housing are poor

And when they are clustered tightly together, the adverse consequences of poverty and exclusion are often compounded

In a report for the Housing Corporation and the Smith Institute, published earlier this year, Leon Feinstein demonstrates that growing up in social housing has become increasingly predictive of poor outcomes in adulthood, over recent generations

He shows that for children born in 1970, growing up in social housing was a major risk factor for social exclusion as an adult, much more so than for those born in 1958; whereas for children born in 1946, living in social housing wasn’t predictive of lifetime disadvantage at all

Feinstein calls for the risks and concerns of those living in social housing to be addressed, saying that unless they are, our broader social goals of eradicating child poverty and reducing inequalities cannot possibly be met

And he cautions that creating more mixed communities in terms of housing tenure will not be enough on its own to address these issues, because the real problem that needs tackling is the poverty and marginalisation of social housing tenants and their families

 ‘Shaping’ Fairer Places

So to create fairer places, what do we need to do, and how do we go about doing it?

Certainly, we have to stop searching for the single intervention that will be the one-time fix

Forget about choosing between economic development, public safety, physical rehabilitation, school improvement or any other one-dimensional service reform

We have to take a broad view and do all these things together

And – unusual though you may think it for a Minister to say this – we also need to adopt a long term approach

We have to be prepared to build towards a better future, the full benefits of which our own generation may never see

This maturity of approach underlies our ten year child care strategy: a programme to transform our child care provision from sub-standard to world-class that will take all that time to achieve its potential, but which is already yielding results - helping unemployed parents back into work, and giving poor children a flying start in life

We also need to integrate service provision and target it effectively within a system of progressive universalism

Implementing reforms that recognise the crucial inter-generational continuities between outcomes such as early parenthood, worklessness, ill-health, disengagement and housing need

And I think, responding to Feinstein’s research and redoubling our efforts to alleviate the poverty and exclusion of social housing tenants and their children, especially on hard pressed estates

As many of you will know, localities have been developing Sustainable Community Strategies and negotiating Local Area Agreements, and these include stretching targets to drive improved performance

This work will need to be underpinned by local development plans to deliver improvements on at least 5 fronts: local economic growth; employment opportunities for local people; physical and spatial improvements; community cohesion; and social policy objectives relating to health, education, crime, and conditions in neighbourhoods

Recognising that councils are best placed to understand the scale, nature and causes of deprivation in their area, Government recently consulted on a new economic assessment duty on local authorities

It would require upper tier and unitary authorities, in consultation with local businesses and investors, to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of their local economy; this feeding in to the Sustainable Community Strategies and Local Development Frameworks they produce

Helping to ensure that thinking about regeneration, tackling exclusion and promoting economic prosperity happens as an integrated whole

There’s always a risk a more joined up approach ‘does unto’ local people, rather than works with them

We must avoid this at all costs: securing buy-in from the local community at the start and maintaining their full involvement throughout

This is not only the right thing to do; it has also been shown to be essential for a successful outcome

Just as fairness won’t come about by chance in 21^st century Britain, so fairer places won’t materialise on their own either

We know they have to be nurtured, managed and ‘shaped’

And I think we are now much closer than ever before to having the right policies and approaches to make this happen

I am thinking here of the place-shaping agenda set out in the Local Government White Paper and subsequent legislation, which offers councils the chance to exercise strong local strategic leadership

And the new economic duty proposed in the Sub-National Review, which ought to make the promotion of economic development much more central to what local authorities do

And I am thinking too of the new Multi-Area Agreements, designed to allow issues to be tackled at the sub-regional level, because it is clear that economies and labour markets are invariably sub-regional in nature

I am sure you will hear more about the Manchester Multi-Area Agreement during this event, but I do want to say that it seems to me potentially to create exciting synergies in delivering on employment and skills: the kind of creative approach we should be in the business of promoting

But my belief is this is only the start

I think we need to go much further in aligning policies and services that have often been unhelpfully separate until now, to succeed in making places fairer and more equal

As Minister for Children, for example, I am aware there is sometimes quite a distance between Children’s Services and the corporate centre in local authorities

This is a concern because it undermines the chances that poor children and their families will get the help they need to address all the barriers they face - which may be to do with the places where they live, as well as problems like mental or physical ill-health, low skills and indebtedness

The 10 year child care strategy – the Children’s Centre element especially – is beginning to bridge the gap, and the transfer of responsibility from the LSC to councils for 16-18 learning and skills will, I hope, do more to help

That’s because most councils will be working in sub-regional clusters to carry out their new responsibilities, allowing them to develop more integrated approaches across learning and skills provision for young people on the one hand, and efforts to increase employment and drive economic prosperity on the other

Apprenticeships are, of course, central to the new 14-19 landscape and we have ambitious targets in place for the numbers that need creating

Working with the National Apprenticeships Service, Children’s Services will need to engage much more extensively with employers than has happened to date

So the direction of policy not only supports stronger relationships between Children’s Services and the corporate centre of local it demands it

And not before time, I believe

Children, young people, families and communities should all benefit as a result

Conclusion

I want to end on a note of optimism, plus a dose of realism

Let me start by saying I have no doubt that there are many good examples of effective integrated approaches that are genuinely helping to create fairer places

But we need to do much better at identifying and sharing them

My Department is currently funding a joint project with the LGA and 100 councils that is exploring ‘what works’ in narrowing the gap in children’s outcomes, and I am told the project has now identified close to 200 examples of excellent integrated practice that are making a demonstrable difference, some at least of which are scaleable and capable of adaptation to varying local circumstances – rural as well as urban

Within the next month I am assured these will be written up so they can be widely shared

Personally, I can hardly wait

But finally for that dose of realism - from Lynsey Hanley again

She says, “It’s not something you think about when you’re growing up. ‘Wow, I’m really alienated. My school is suffering from its single-class intake. What this estate needs is a decent public transport infrastructure.’ It’s more a sense you have. A sense that someone who lives in a proper house, in a proper town, sat on the floor of an office one day with a box of fancy Lego bricks and laid out, with mathematical precision, a way of housing as many people as possible in as small a space as could be got away with. And in so doing, forgot that real people might get lost in such a place.”

We often talk about supporting children to develop high aspirations, and rightfully so; but it is easy to forget – or not to know – what this really means

This quote may be focused on social housing, but it is also a great of how it feels to be excluded

So I accept that creating fairer places requires good technical management skills; a relentless focus and smart policy thinking

But it requires a strong political vision too

I agree strongly with CLES that we have to connect economics with social inclusion, and kindle a passion for tackling poverty and inequality among all the professionals who work in these areas

That’s why it is such a pleasure for me to be here with you today

I hope you have an excellent two days and that together, you create a wave of enthusiasm for pursuing fairness through regeneration, the beneficial effects of which will go a lot further and last a lot longer

It’s certainly vitally important that you do