From Policy To Action People in areas of severe deprivation with economic, physical or social problems are often caught in a vicious circle. Poor housing causes health problems that lead to absences from school or work and make it difficult to get and keep a job.
Unemployment means little money comes into an area resulting in poor maintenance of housing.
The whole area becomes run down and the quality of life gets worse. This Update Special provides a key to how the Government plans to use targeted programmes and policies to regenerate such communities. These are additional to normal spending on health, housing, education and other services and bring concentrated help for the most deprived areas to help the main programmes be more effective. The aim is to reduce or eliminate the gap between prosperous and disadvantaged communities. I announced the outcome of the Comprehensive Spending Review of both housing and regeneration programmes in a Housing and Regeneration Statement in July 1998.