Developing deprived areas in Yorkshire & Humber

People don’t thrive in deprived, depressed areas; and deprived areas don’t improve if the people who live there aren’t thriving. This is a vicious circle which needs to be broken by external interventions.

How are we breaking this cycle?

Yorkshire Forward is working to help regenerate deprived areas by creating economic opportunities whic will kick-start a new cycle of life and hope. We’re bringing inward investment, skills and jobs into deprived areas so that people can begin to become more prosperous in their own area, rather than moving away, so that their local communities can, in turn, improve.

We intervene on property as well as on urban and rural renaissance, helping to attract enterprise and bring in business investment. We also help to provide equal access to skills and jobs.

What are people doing for themselves?

Communities themselves are increasingly helping to design and develop the activities which benefit their areas. This can be seen in community membership of local strategic partnerships and the ‘town teams’ which are shaping the development of the renaissance town and cities in our region.

Where are we focusing our attention?

Our focus is on areas where there are the highest levels of deprivation. Our areas of greatest deprivation are concentrated in the urban areas—those with the highest levels of economic inactivity, matched with lower income levels. These equate to local ward and ‘super-output’ areas in Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham, Sheffield, Hull, Leeds, Bradford, Wakefield, Kirklees, Calderdale, North-East Lincolnshire, Scarborough and Goole.

Who are we working with?

We are aligning our investments in the most deprived areas through close links to the ERDF, the Local Enterprise Growth Initiative, the Neighbourhood Renewal/Working Neighbourhood Fund, and our renaissance and enterprise programmes.

How are we measuring our success?

To measure the impact of community participation in this work, Yorkshire Forward and our partners developed Active Partners, a set of benchmarks used successfully by many groups in the region.  Training and support are delivered by the Active Partners Unit of the Regional Forum.