Deprived communities being left behind, MPs warn

Report says ministers have no adequate strategy for dealing with regeneration of some of Englands's poorest neighbourhoods
Regeneration plans
MPs warn that ministers are focusing on growth rather than dealing with poor communities. Photograph: Dave Thompson/PA

Ministers have no "adequate strategy" to tackle the complex problems posed by England's most deprived communities and worse is to come unless cash to regenerate neighbourhoods can be found, warns an influential group of MPs.

In a report looking at the coalition's approach to regeneration, the communities and local government select committee warns that a paper produced by ministers focuses on economic growth rather than dealing with poor communities who face being left behind.

The MPs say the ministerial document, Regeneration to Enable Growth, "lacks strategic direction and is unclear about the nature of the problem it is trying to solve". They add: "It focuses overwhelmingly upon the achievement of economic growth, giving little emphasis to specific issues faced by deprived communities and areas of market failure."

Clive Betts, the Labour chair of the committee, which has a Conservative-Lib Dem majority, said: "The government has cut public funding for regeneration programmes dramatically and has produced no adequate strategy for regeneration sufficient to tackle the deep-seated problems faced by our most deprived communities."

He said a billion-pound programme to renovate housing in sink estates had been cut – with just £30m left as a "transition fund" effectively "marooning old age pensioners in a sea of poverty". "These often old women cannot sell their houses and release equity," he said. "Instead, they have been left to rot."

Despite government talk of decentralising power, only two projects where local councils can seek to pool budgets together to run services on a regional scale are in the pipeline. Betts said Greater Manchester was attempting to combine budgets for housing, transport and job skills training. He said: "That would be really revolutionary but we have promises. Basically the government doesn't have a strategy."

He was critical of the focus on big investment projects such as high-speed rail and London's Crossrail scheme. "The measures identified by the government focus overwhelmingly on the pursuit of economic growth. The government's measures will not attract sufficient investment for renewal into those communities where the market has failed.

"There is no sign that the private sector is filling the gap as public resources are being withdrawn. Indeed private investment is only likely to be attracted in partnership with public funding. Without further investment targeted at those places most in need, ministers will store up serious social, economic and environmental problems for the future."