Making Sense of Community

Article

Drawing on research carried out in three Coventry neighbourhoods, this report shows how policy makers decisions can affect community, and gives recommendations on planning and development, crime and policing and frontline service delivery.

Since coming to power in 1997, one defining characteristic of Labour's policy agenda has been its stated commitment to the value of community. This focus is long overdue. Community - the character and quality of the local social relationships where we live - clearly has a significant impact on our quality of life. This report argues that although this Government's record on issues of community is a significant advance, there is still some way to go, both in joining up thinking on key issues, and in addressing quite fundamental problems.

Drawing on research carried out in three Coventry neighbourhoods, this report offers both a framework to help policy makers think about the effects of their decisions on community, and many specific recommendations across a variety of issues such as planning and development, crime and policing and frontline service delivery. "It's not always comfortable reading for government politicians, but it offers thought-provoking recommendations, orientated to practical action, for rebuilding a sense of community in Britain today."

Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, Home Secretary

Related items

  1. A little girl in a red school uniform looks at the camera while another student writes with a pencil next to her

    What comes next: A fairer approach to primary assessment

    England’s primary school accountability and assessment system is not working well for disadvantaged children.
  2. A woman’s hand filling in a postal ballot / voting form.

    A durable majority?: How public opinion on the EU performs under pressure

    A decade on from Brexit, Andy Burnham has signalled that a reassessment of the UK’s relationship with the EU might be around the corner.
  3. Flags of Great Britain and European Union

    New world, new relationship: Our future with Europe

    Britain’s assumptions about its place in the world no longer hold, upturned by Russian aggression, American unreliability and Chinese coercion.