Support for high-pressure areas

By Dominic Casciani
BBC News

Housing competition: Perception of unfairness being targeted

The government is naming 27 areas which it says need intensive support to survive pressures from recession, migration and social change.

Communities Secretary John Denham said the areas would be targeted to help residents understand they had not been forgotten by decision-makers.

A full list of 130 areas is being finalised over the coming months.

The move comes amid internal government debates about how best to reach out to disenchanted white working classes.

The areas, some as small as a housing estate, have been identified from economic data, broader measures of what local people think and analysis from local officials.

ENGLISH LOCAL AUTHORITIES TARGETED IN FIRST WAVE North West: Blackburn with Darwen, Cheshire West & Chester, Cumbria and Liverpool North East: Sunderland and Gateshead Midlands: Birmingham, Stoke, Nottingham, Leicester and Lincoln South West: Poole, N Somerset and Swindon South/London: Milton Keynes, Bexley, Bromley and Barking and Dagenham East: Broxbourne and King's Lynn Yorks/Humber: North Lincolnshire See the full list Send us your comments

Many of the areas to be targeted are predominantly white and working class where traditional jobs have gone amid dramatic social changes.

Some have seen a rise in far-right political activity or long-term anti-social behaviour problems.

Others have seen a collapse in trust in local authorities and services and resentment over the arrival of Eastern European workers. In all cases, existing funding and regeneration plans have not led to a change in perceptions.

Mr Denham said £12m would be spent across the areas to work out exactly why people in these areas feel aggrieved and under pressure.

He said he wanted to combat a perception that some areas were favoured over others in a competition for resources.

Mr Denham called on people in the targeted areas to speak out, even if their fears raised "difficult and uncomfortable issues".

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He said: "These are communities that are under a great deal of pressure, they have certainly had a lot of money invested in them but lives have changed.

"Work has changed, migration may have changed the communities, people feel that there a lot of competition for social housing and other resources in the community."

The initiative comes amid continuing pressure from some town halls for help in how to deal with massive social change in areas which have never had to deal with it before.

Some councils have told government they have struggled to maintain the confidence of local people who feel they had been left behind as policymakers have appeared to focus on the needs of incomers.

Mr Denham denied these areas had been largely "forgotten" by policymakers, but acknowledged that some were susceptible to extremist far-right recruitment if people's grievances were not dealt with.

"These are areas where we know that people will often say, I'm not sure that someone is speaking up for us, does anyone really understand what is happening to our lives."

"We have to demonstrate that people do and that we are on the side of every community in this country, no special favours, privileges, just fairness."

TARGETED AREAS LISTED BY LOCAL AUTHORITY AND WARD NAME

Number	Local authority name	Ward name		Number	Local authority name	Ward name
1	Broxbourne	Bury Green Ward		15	Cheshire West & Chester	Ellesmere Port
2	King's Lynn	North Lynn		16	Cumbria	Cleator Moor
3	Leicester	New Parks		17	Liverpool	Speke
4	Lincoln	Abbey Ward		18	Birmingham	Kingstanding, Stockland Green & Erdington
5	Nottingham	Aspley		19	Birmingham	Druids Heath, Brandwood Ward
6	Barking & Dagenham	River		20	Birmingham	Bartley Green & Weoley
7	Barking & Dagenham	Becontree		21	Stoke	Blurton
8	Barking & Dagenham	Thames		22	Stoke	Burslem & Shelton
9	Barking & Dagenham	Heath		23	Milton Keynes	Tinkers Bridge, Woughton Ward
10	Bromley	Cray Valley & Mottingham		24	North Somerset	Weston-Super-Mare Central Ward
11	Bexley	Colyers & North End		25	Poole	Bourne Valley, Rossmore
12	Gateshead	Felling		26	Swindon	Park Ward, Walcot East
13	Sunderland	Castle, Redhill & Southwick		27	North Lincolnshire	Caistor Road Estate, Barton ward
14	Blackburn with Darwen	Little Harwood