Poverty remains despite efforts of coalfield schemes
Although national regeneration schemes have achieved some positive results, a third of former coalfield communities remain among the most deprived areas in the country.
Whitehall revival initiatives have helped to make the sites more attractive places to live and work, according to the National Audit Office (NAO), but have been hampered by delays and a lack of strategy, with training and business opportunities overlooked.
The NAO says the programme, which has cost £630m to date, must be quicker, better planned and offer more value for money.
Amyas Morse, NAO head, said: ‘The coalfields regeneration programme has achieved positive results in job generation and improved environments.
‘However, the programme has taken much longer than expected to deliver results and needs to be much better planned.
‘What we want to see is a concerted effort to deliver to the coalfields the best possible value for money from the remaining £450m of funds.’
While jobs are being created, and despite a 3% improvement from 2004, data suggests ex-coalfield areas have been particularly affected by the recession. In 2007, 37% of former coalfield areas were ranked among the most deprived in the country.
The regeneration scheme has three strands: the National Coalfields Programme (NCP); the Coalfield Regeneration Trust (CRT), and the Enterprise fund,
Progress to date across the three includes bringing into new use 54 of 107 former coalfield sites and making them suitable for private development or recreational use, private developers building housing and employment space on 44 sites and funding for more than 3,000 community projects.
But it will take the NCP twice the original ten-year timescale to achieve its housing and employment space aims, while future CRT projects are at risk because of strict funding cycles.
The NAO also found ‘no overall strategy’ to coordinate the three initiatives, with each working and reporting in isolation.
Commenting on the report the national chair of the Industrial Communities Alliance, Eion Watts, said: ‘The NAO report makes a number of fair points about ways in which the initiatives could be made to work together better in future, but we should not lose sight of the fact that many aspects of these initiatives have been exemplary.
‘In particular, I would highlight the excellent working relationship that the HCA and its predecessor English Partnerships have sought to build with local councils in delivering the sites programme.
‘As the report notes, there is still some way to go in delivering the full benefits of the initiatives. This is an excellent moment to take stock, and we look forward to working with government to ensure that coalfield regeneration efforts continue until the task is properly completed.’
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