Creating better neighbourhoods

This content applies to England only.

Most of us want to live in an area that’s clean, attractive and safe with good services and a thriving community, but for many, having such a home is financially out of reach.

Shelter believes everyone has a right to a decent home, which includes living in a good neighbourhood. We also believe that improving housing and neighbourhoods can have a positive impact on education, health, poverty and crime, and that policy-makers need to take this connection more seriously.

How housing and neighbourhood issues are linked

Home is somewhere you should feel safe and supported, but whether you do or not depends largely on your neighbourhood. High crime levels, poor facilities and services, and a lack of employment opportunities can all contribute to stress at home.

Bad housing can also create social problems for a local community. Evidence shows that run-down or insecure housing has a massive effect on young peoples’ health and emotional well-being, which in turn harms their ability to achieve at school, emotionally develop and form healthy relationships. Poor housing can exacerbate levels of social exclusion, homelessness and crime. Poor social housing allocation, which concentrates households with significant social and economic problems in one area, can also increase the risk of anti-social behaviour and community breakdown.

Living in a deprived neighbourhood affects your life chances, making it less likely you will ever be able to move away. The links between housing and neighbourhood issues cannot be ignored.

Improving neighbourhoods to create better homes

The Government currently has several policies aimed at improving problem-ridden neighbourhoods. Neighbourhood renewal targets existing communities, seeking to reduce inequalities in access to health, education and employment, as well as improving housing conditions, local environments and crime rates. In planning future neighbourhoods, the Government wants to promote mixed communities, integrating housing of different tenures into an inclusive community. And with Britain’s increasing diversity, the Government is placing more emphasis on community cohesion, to ensure all groups feel included in local activities and services.

Shelter’s vision of a good neighbourhood is one that is mixed, inclusive and welcoming, where people are able to live, learn, work and feel safe. To this end, we support the current direction in Government policy, but we believe more needs to be done. In particular, the Government needs to explicitly acknowledge that improving housing is key to delivering its commitment to end child poverty in England by 2020. We also believe that the Government should do more to promote the use of early intervention as a preventative measure to tackle anti-social behaviour, and that eviction for anti-social behaviour should only be considered as a last resort.

Campaign demands

We call on the Government to:

• prioritise the improvement of public transport, employment opportunities and community facilities in struggling communities
• actively develop mixed communities that provide decent accommodation of all tenures, ensuring that households of varying needs and sizes are catered for
• remove barriers to community cohesion so that all social groups feel included
• adopt a preventative approach to tackling anti-social behaviour
• make it the responsibility of local authorities to assess, understand and meet the needs of all children living in temporary accommodation.