Neighbourhood Maze

CBMEA Member Lincoln Lim offers a reality check on the neighbourhoods agenda

So here we are. The neighbourhoods agenda is well and truly upon us. Government has spoken and Camden has responded, setting up neighbourhood partnerships and supporting these partnerships with (not insignificant) funding. Is this the way of things to come? If so, what does this mean in terms of service delivery? Is each partnership going to be devolved its own neighbourhood budget? If so, what does this mean for small community groups who operate on a pan-borough basis (in a wide-range of neighbourhoods)? Will we be required to make multiple applications for funding or just one? Perhaps most puzzling of all, how does all this link into the local area agreement agenda?

So many questions but so few clear answers. And that’s the problem. The neighbourhoods agenda has developed with little clarity as to how a broad range of potentially tricky issues are to be resolved. Lacking too is a systematic step-by-step approach explaining, what is happening now, what will happen in the future and what the implications will be.

This is not to say that the notion of empowering communities and neighbourhoods to have a greater say in setting the priorities, budgets and determining who provides services in their areas is anything but a good idea. Rather the issue is making sure that both objectives and intentions are communicated more clearly. For example, what role does the Council propose to play in the new set up - an arbiter, regulator, benevolent auntie/uncle? Clarity on issues such as this enables voluntary and community organisations to begin to engage the debate in a more meaningful way.

As a service provider to a pan-borough minority ethnic community, I am concerned that, unless there is greater transparency, my organisation’s ability to provide seamless services could actually be undermined by the neighbourhood agenda. The effect of course being that neighbourhoods will make it harder, not easier and create exclusion and confusion, when it should increase opportunity and clarity.

These may appear to be relatively minor points of detail to both Whitehall and the Town Hall, yet they have major implications for local communities and the various voluntary and community groups serving them. It’s time to unravel the neighbourhood maze.

Revised on 29 Jan 2007