The Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) has joined with Arts Council England (ACE) and four other national agencies to launch an initiative to place culture at the heart of the regeneration agenda. Where we live! is designed to offer guidance and practical support to local authorities in using culture and sport as tools to help build sustainable communities. English Heritage, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, and Sport England, as well as ACE, will be working together to make the case to Government departments and other national bodies for the inclusion of culture in community planning and redevelopment.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM), the government department with particular responsibility for developing new communities, has been leading on plans for four large-scale home-building schemes in the South East of England as well as efforts to regenerate urban and rural areas in the Midlands and Northern England. In 2003, ODPM launched the Sustainable Communities Plan which recognises that to develop communities in which people wish to live, housing policy needs to be linked to improving economies, public services, transport and the environment at a local level. In the past, cultural and sporting organisations have expressed concerns that where these plans have focused on the local environment, emphasis has been placed on open spaces and commercial centres and have not acknowledged the value that the opportunity to engage in cultural activity can play in developing new communities. Launching the initiative, Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, said, Where we live! is an exciting new collaborative way of working, for the Department and its agencies, that promises to offer more than the sum of our individual strengths& Cultural opportunities should be available to all parts of the community. As well as being valuable in themselves they can also offer ways to engage with people that other local services find hard to reach.
Creative Industries Minister, James Purnell, said: Providing places and resources for study and lifelong learning, securing affordable workspace for creative businesses, and supporting economic growth by contributing to the development of skills are all essential ingredients for the prosperity of local economies. The creative industries are a high growth sector and experience shows that developing a cultural infrastructure can stimulate investment and job creation more generally.
The Where we live! partnerships first publication is targeted at local authorities and poses a number of questions about support for cultural activity. It questions whether authorities have considered how culture can help deliver Local Area Agreements and regional commitments to the Governments Every Child Matters programme. It also suggests local authorities look at their relationships with cultural agencies and regional cultural consortiums.