HC Deb 24 June 1976 vol 913 cc1790-1
3. Mr. Steen

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what progress the Government have made in establishing comprehensive community projects.

The Minister of State, Home Office (Mr. Brynmor John)

As was indicated in a reply given to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford (Mr. Luard) on 7th April, the development of comprehensive community programmes as a means of tackling the problems of urban deprivation more effectively is a long-term process. Our Department is now working with Birmingham District Council and the Institute of Local Government Studies, Birmingham University, to establish a framework for the development of comprehensive community programmes.

Mr. Steen

Does the Minister agree that if the comprehensive community programmes are to be a success the people in the areas in which the programmes are based must have power over the decision-making process and control over their own environment? Will he therefore see that each of the programmes has a neighbourhood council based in the locality and that it is monitored properly so that the people can be given real power over their own destiny?

Mr. John

I think that the purpose of working out these studies is to decide in what way the comprehensive community programmes can best be fulfilled. For us to say from the centre that such and such a pattern should be adopted by particular localities is exactly contrary to what the hon. Gentleman said about each locality having power over its own destiny.

Mr. Lane

In the present situation, does not the Minister of State agree that it is not enough for us merely to condemn racialism and racial discrimination—which I hope we all do—but that there is also a need for a stronger attack than hitherto on urban deprivation, from which whites and blacks alike are suffering.

Mr. John

I join the hon. Gentleman in hoping that, in spite of indications to the contrary, all of us in this House condemn racial discrimination. One of the problems about urban deprivation, however, is not merely the amount of money which must be devoted to it in total but how the money can be most effectively used. Many of the problems have been intractable, and that is why a study is being made of how best we can devote our resources as well as of the resources we devote.