§ Mr. Michael Clapham (Barnsley, West and Penistone)I am grateful that this subject was chosen for debate. It will highlight Labour's policy on exclusion as it applies to Barnsley, and to my constituency in particular, and allow me to bring to the Government's attention the progress that has been made by the Communities that Care project, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which operates in the Worsborough electoral ward in my constituency. It will allow us to consider the scope of future developments as well as the important issue of funding that important project.
I shall provide some background information against which the economic and social dislocation of the area can be understood. In the mid-1970s, the area was prosperous. The fortunes of the local economy were linked to the energy economy, which was defined at that time in relation to two sources—coal and nuclear energy—based on the security of supply and sustainability. That provided stability for the local economy. However, after the Coal Industry Act 1980, the bitter wind of competition from imports began to be felt. In its wake came the 1984–85 miners strike and the rest is history.
Inevitably, the Barnsley economy was hit hard over the next decade by colliery closures that followed in the wake of the strike. More than 20,000 jobs were lost in mining and the multiplier effect made the blow much wider and much worse. The social structure came under great strain. Unemployment, poverty, low esteem, low educational achievement, substance abuse, family break-up and a general loss of community followed. That was made worse in a borough with the highest rate of disability in the country.
The local economy went into a severe depression and there was little help from the Tory Administration. Statistics collected by the local authority in the mid-1990s graphically show how depressed the locality had become. The average household income per year on the council estates was between £5,000 and £6,000. The average across the borough was £11,000, which compares with an average in Yorkshire and Humberside at the time of £ 18,300. Almost 30 per cent. of households contained a disabled person, 12 per cent. of the population were carers and the locality had, and still has, one of the highest mortality rates in England. I draw attention to that because I want to make a point about the health action zone.
It was estimated that the area needed to create 19,000 jobs over three years from the mid-1990s just to reach the average national level of employment. Not surprisingly, a great deal of the work that the local authority undertook was directed towards creating conditions to attract new companies to the area to bring jobs. There has been some success: brownfield sites have been cleared and new roads have been built to provide access to the sites and to a route that will link them directly to the M1. However, too few companies, particularly high-growth and high-value companies, are being attracted to the area. I understand that the local authority recently undertook a survey that shows that Barnsley has a deficit of 2,500 companies compared with similar areas.
192WH Although the new deal is admirable, it is less effective in Barnsley than in an area with a solid industrial base. Consequently, far more people in the area are without jobs. Even unemployment figures hide the real extent of the problem. For example, Sheffield Hallam university carried out a study when the survey to which I have referred was undertaken. The university calculated that the real unemployment level in Barnsley was 24.6 per cent., whereas the official rate was 8.4 per cent.
It is now three years since the Labour Government were elected. The policies that they have pursued have brought improvements, but there is still a long way to go. The minimum wage, the working families tax credit and the increase in child benefit have all contributed to raising the income of the most needy households in the Barnsley borough. Figures from the Budget show that 2,875 households will benefit from the working families tax credit. Of the 15,366 pensioners who will benefit from the increased winter fuel allowance, 6,147 will enjoy a free television licence from this autumn. In addition, 11,200 people will receive the increased child benefit. Labour's approach to tackling inequalities is beginning to produce improvements in Barnsley.
Historically, low educational attainment was associated with the heavy industrial base of the local economy. Now, it is recognised that low attainment levels impact adversely on work force skills. The local authority has responded by setting an ambitious target of reaching the national average level of attainment within the next five years. The Government have assisted in that by establishing an education action zone. I visited the education action zone with other hon. Members to see the work being done. It was commendable.
Barnsley people suffer from poor health. It is estimated that the illness rate is 43 per cent. higher than the national average and that the death rate from heart disease is 25 per cent. higher than the average. For that reason, the borough was included in the South Yorkshire Coalfield health action zone. It is therefore disappointing that that zone's budget was cut by 24 per cent. with immediate effect from 21 June. That is a reduction of £789,000 on the programme budget of £3.037 million. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will raise that matter with Ministers at the Department of Health and urge them to reconsider.
Since the civic hall was mothballed two years ago, the town has lacked a sizeable theatre. That deprives local children of access to live theatre and excludes them from a cultural experience that most children take for granted. Last year, the Arts Council of England turned down the authority's bid for funding to renovate the theatre. That was disappointing. A new bid is to be made and I urge the Arts Council to address the problem of cultural deprivation in Barnsley and ensure that it has facilities for children to come into contact with live performances.
I recognise that closing the gap and reducing inequality in Barnsley will take time, but the figures that I gave show that a step has been taken in the right direction. Bringing about a cultural change and reversing the trend of the past decade will take longer and the Communities that Care project in Worsborough in my constituency, which is funded by the Joseph 193WH Rowntree Foundation, is important. It also provides an opportunity to roll out the benefits of the project throughout the borough.
I shall outline the way in which the Communities that Care project works. It is one of three similar projects in the country and was the first to kick off. It is a long-term programme and the intention is to deal with the pressures and stresses that young people face in their communities. The project takes a new approach and an important factor is that it is owned by the community. At the core of the programme is the objective of building safer neighbourhoods where young people are valued, respected and encouraged to reach their potential. It is evidence based and founded on a partnership between young people in the community, the community itself, and the statutory and voluntary agencies. It encourages social commitment and achievement and takes a step-by-step approach to map out the risk and protective factors that influence young people in their community. The risk assessment group was assisted in its research by Oxford university. Sheffield university is also involved in evaluating the project.
A survey was carried out among 1,600 pupils at the two secondary schools. They were asked a series of questions about their attitudes, views, families and neighbourhood. Sixteen risk factors were analysed from the returns to give a picture of the risk and protective factors that were influencing the behaviour of young people in the Worsborough community. Following the prioritisation, five factors were identified as high-risk factors in the community: poor parental supervision and discipline; low achievement in school; disadvantaged neighbourhood; individuals, friends and peers condoning problem behaviour; and parents condoning such behaviour.
When the risk audit had been completed, the next step was to prepare a final strategy in the light of the evidence that had been collected from the survey based on an action plan. The purpose of the action plan is to increase the level of protective factors with the redirection of existing services to tackle risk and the introduction of a new focused intervention. It must be emphasised that the Communities that Care project is not trying to reinvent the wheel and I need to get it over to my hon. Friend the Minister that redirection of services and the focusing of intervention are planned in accordance with a menu. It is accepted that services are already being provided in that community—housing, education, social services and so on—but in the context of the Communities that Care project, the intervention is refocused to provide greater effect.
The project is working well. It started in 1998 and was funded for three years. The funding from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation will come to an end at the end of May 2001. Hearing what I have said, my hon. Friend the Minister may say, "What's new? We've been targeting communities in the UK for a number of years." I would not disagree with him, but what is new in this project is the way in which we can identify overlapping risks and protective factors. We need the community and the programme to proceed in an holistic way.
After three years' funding by the foundation, it is crucial to complete the project. All the research and analysis work has been done. Long-term 194WH implementation is now needed, and it must be assured. Various types of funding are available and can be applied for—for example, single regeneration budget and European funding—but the project's future must be more secure. I am aware that the Government's crime reduction strategy includes a £540 million fund for the Sure Start project.
Sure Start is aimed at families and children. It has been approved in Barnsley, but is not under way. Now that it has been approved, that gives us an opportunity to move forward. I ask my hon. Friend the Minister to consider ownership of the Communities that Care project after May 2001 and perhaps the extension of funding from the Sure Start project, so that we can ensure implementation and co-ordination of the Communities that Care project. I see no reason why we should not be able to extend the Sure Start scheme.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security (Mr. Hugh Bayley)I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley, West and Penistone (Mr. Clapham) on raising this subject. He is a persistent and persuasive advocate for his constituency, for Barnsley as a borough and for the coalfield communities as a whole. The way in which he keeps drawing the attention of the House to the needs of a community pushed flat on its back by Tory economic policies in the 1980s and 1990s is a credit to him and in the best traditions of Labour party representation in the House.
In passing, I pay tribute to the remarkable Rowntree family. Not only did they start the business that is now the biggest employer in my constituency—the Rowntree, now Nestle, chocolate factory—but, when Joseph Rowntree, the founder of the dynasty, came to retire, instead of keeping private control of his huge shareholdings in the business, which had grown so remarkably, he put them into trust. He set up three great trusts which, between them, are the biggest independent private funders of social research, and social development programmes, such as the Communities that Care projects, the first of which is running in Barnsley. That was his major legacy to social policy. His son, Seebohm Rowntree, did the three poverty studies in 1901, 1936 and 1952 in York, as a fairly typical town. From those studies developed so much of Labour social policy, especially of the post-war Attlee Government that created the welfare state. They were two great social reformers.
I was interested to learn about the Communities that Care approach, which I like. It is right to build multi-agency networks to tackle the causes of deprivation and to concentrate on young people. The point at which escape from a life of poverty is most possible is when people leave home. That is when they either move into work and escape from poverty, or fail to do so and become trapped in a lifetime of benefits. That fact is recognised strongly in "Opportunity for All"—the Government's strategy to combat and defeat poverty. Everyone in every part of the country should have the opportunity to get on and prosper.
The Communities that Care strategy identifies what it calls the risk factors—such as school failure, teenage pregnancy, sexually transmitted disease, drugs and 195WH crime—that undermine opportunity for all and the ability of individuals to surmount obstacles and make their way in life. It stresses the importance of skills, social inclusion and the protective factors that enable real opportunity for all. It also stresses the importance of listening to and taking account of young people's views, recognising and praising what they do, and allowing them to get involved in their neighbourhoods.
A similar approach was taken in the rejuvenation of the Bell Farm estate, which is one of the most seriously disadvantaged estates in my constituency. The project had some support from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, but the key was to knit together the agencies and give a voice to local people, enabling them to shape changes to the streetscape and decide on changes to individual tenants' homes. That approach has worked well. At the beginning of the project, only 4 per cent. of people who lived on the estate thought that it experienced less crime than other parts of York. In other words, almost everyone thought that the estate was a crime hot-spot. At the end of the project, 53 per cent.—a majority—thought that there was less crime on the estate than elsewhere.
The foundation has moved on from the Communities that Care approach, but it follows the same precedent by giving people in disadvantaged communities the opportunity to express themselves and their solutions. That approach dovetails well with the Government's strategy on poverty. In February 1999, the Prime Minister set the Government the ambitious and challenging goal of seeking to eliminate child poverty within a generation. Until the Government published "Opportunity for All", which outlines the strategy for eliminating poverty, people were sceptical about whether that goal could be achieved. If it is challenging for the country as a whole, it is particularly challenging for communities such as that represented by my hon. Friend, but there is a determination in all parts of the country to achieve it.
My hon. Friend described the damage and devastation that the Conservatives' economic policies inflicted on Barnsley in the 1980s and 1990s. He described the consequences for the health of the population of Barnsley in particular, and gave many indicators. This morning, I discovered that 8.6 children per 1,000 live births die in Barnsley. That is the fourth highest infant mortality rate in the country, and compares with 5.6 per 1,000 in England as a whole. It reflects the burden of deprivation that a neighbourhood can face. That is why the health action zone—
§ Mr. ClaphamI assume that my hon. Friend recognises the importance of trying to get the South Yorkshire Coalfield health action zone moneys back on track.
§ Mr. BayleyThat is why I mentioned that. I clearly heard what my hon. Friend said, and I will ensure that his views are conveyed to the Department of Health. The health action zone was established to address such problems.
The basis for achieving the Government's strategy to reduce poverty is the provision of the right macro-economic framework. When the Labour party came to power three years ago, we inherited a legacy of boom 196WH and bust from our predecessors. In just three years, we have made a major change to the nature of the economy. There is more stability. Throughout the country, 1 million more people are at work than in May 1997, and unemployment is falling. That is true even in places facing the highest burden of unemployment, such as Barnsley. In May 1997, the Barnsley travel-to-work area had an 8 per cent. unemployment rate, which has now fallen to 5.8 per cent. That is significantly lower than it was at its peak in the mid-1980s. In 1984, it stood at 14.5 per cent.
§ Mr. ClaphamI should emphasise that there is a great deal of hidden unemployment. The survey that was carried out in the schools at Worsborough showed that 50 per cent. of the households from which the children of Worsborough came had a head of the household who was not economically active.
§ Mr. BayleyMy hon. Friend stresses the nature of the problem.
It is not only a matter of Government policies taking a broad brush approach to unemployment and creating 1 million jobs, but of providing jobs at local level and targeting help where it is needed. That is one of the achievements of the new deal. In Barnsley, 1,251 young people are now in work as a result of the new deal, and 1,158 are in sustained employment. The new deal has worked. It has made the difference between long-term unemployment and employment. Long-term unemployment among young people in Barnsley is now down to 251. Those 251 people are the hard core of those who are most at risk of a lifetime on benefits, and therefore a lifetime of social exclusion. That is what my hon. Friend has highlighted today.
A wide range of initiatives is making a difference, as my hon. Friend knows, because he has argued for them and secured them for his community. The local education authority has secured rapid improvement in the education indicators since 1997, when the Government came to power. The learning gateway is providing opportunities for 400 young people. My hon. Friend also referred to the single regeneration budget, the education action zone and the confirmation of objective 1 status for South Yorkshire.
I stress that the Government's strategy to combat poverty lays a strong emphasis on work, because for most people of working age that is the best route out of poverty. Benefit expenditure tackles the immediate needs of those who cannot work, such as children, sick and disabled people and pensioners, and the Government have done a lot for those groups. Child benefit, having been frozen for years by the Conservatives, has increased by 26 per cent. in real terms to £15 per week for the first child and £10 per week for subsequent children. As my hon. Friend said, 11,200 families in Barnsley benefit from that.
The working families tax credit and the minimum wage will, in October this year, guarantee a minimum weekly income of £208 for a family with one child and one person at work. Couples on income support with two children aged under 11 will, by next year, be £1,500 a year better off. Those measures, taken together, have lifted 1.2 million children out of poverty. The Conservatives trebled the number of children in poverty, and we are taking action to reduce their number.
197WH We are providing more money, in real terms, for disability benefits, and £6.5 billion more for pensioners. We have started by helping the poorest pensioners. In Barnsley, 8,200 such pensioners gain the minimum income guarantee. They had a pension of £62.45 when 198WH we came to power; now it is £78.45. That is £16 more per week for the poorest pensioners in Barnsley as a result of Labour policies. Now we are targeting those whose incomes or savings put them just above the minimum income level, and they will get more too.
§ It being One o'clock, the motion for the Adjournment of the sitting lapsed, without Question put.