Don’t blink

John Denham apologises, most sincerely, for the wait. His last meeting - with serious-looking advisors - overran by 20 minutes.

After a firm handshake and the offer of a seat in his office, the secretary of state for communities and local government is straight down to the matter-in-hand: promoting his department’s latest brainchild. Announced last month, Connecting communities is a £12 million plan to ‘reinvigorate’ neighbourhoods. And social landlords have an important part to play, Mr Denham assures.

The widely respected minister - described by Jon Cruddas, Labour MP for Dagenham, as ‘a decent bloke’ - joined the Communities and Local Government department from the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in June. His predecessor Hazel Blears quit after a botched attempt to salvage her expenses-hit ministerial career with a bout of cheque waving.

Connecting communities is one of 56-year-old Mr Denham’s first major initiatives in the CLG role. It aims to help predominantly white working-class neighbourhoods where people feel ‘under pressure’ because of decline in traditional industries, changing demographics and prevalence of anti-social behaviour.

It’s an ambition the Labour Party has been somewhat sluggish to realise. I meet Mr Denham in the week Conservative leader David Cameron is winning headlines with his audacious vision for tackling poverty and social cohesion. He claims that the size and scope of Labour’s ‘big government’ has bred selfishness and individualism and has called for more responsibility for individuals and local communities. With the general and local elections looming next year and British National Party leader Nick Griffin’s Question Time appearance a recent reminder of the alienation felt by Britain’s poor, indigenous communities, Labour has ground to make up.

Should the government stand accused of falling asleep on its watch, ignoring the concerns of its traditional voters - particularly around immigration? Mr Denham looks me straight in the eye and argues not. ‘The migration system is much more robust than people acknowledge,’ he says. ‘However, I do acknowledge that when you go down to local community level, people have not necessarily been involved in that debate.’

Which is where the Connecting communities plan comes in. ‘We are recognising that there are communities that have seen a huge amount of change over the last 10 years,’ Mr Denham says, slightly at odds with his insistence that Labour has stayed on top of its communities game. ‘A changing economy means that traditional jobs have continued to disappear, and in areas which changed through migration, or are in the vicinity of areas that have changed, communities have felt under pressure,’ he continues.

A good listener

Dagenham’s Mr Cruddas is impressed with the decisive action Mr Denham has taken in this area, where the BNP has had success in local elections and boasts 12 councillors. ‘He listens well and he understands issues such as migration and demographic change, which have not been central to the communities department for years,’ says Mr Cruddas.

Mr Denham wants to prove that communities are not being ignored and tackle the myths surrounding migration - notably that housing allocation systems favour migrants, a theory propagated by the BNP in east London.

Steve Stride, chief executive of east London housing association Poplar Harca, was at the University of Southampton with Mr Denham in the late 1970s. The pair, along with Richard McCarthy, director general of housing and planning at the CLG, were active in student politics together. Mr Stride recalls that Mr Denham, who was president of the student union, demonstrated ‘a social conscience’ from the very beginning of his political career.

Social landlords, like his old university mate Mr Stride, will play a ‘key role’ in driving the minister’s aims for Connecting communities. They can do this by being transparent about their processes and making people feel involved in decisions about their areas, he adds.

This is hardly news to housing providers, many of which routinely use ‘myth-busting’ and other measures to engage disenfranchised communities. The CLG has an annual budget of £37.4 billion. Money talks, but will the £12 million Mr Denham is bringing to the table for Connecting communities make a difference?

‘You can’t deal with those issues by telling people “you’re wrong” and shutting the door on them. You’ve got to be prepared to have the discussion which enables people to understand how the system operates,’ states Mr Denham, who spent a decade as a local councillor before becoming MP for Southampton Itchen in 1992, and so is well-versed in handling constituents’ concerns.

His council-based background means that he is a ‘strong believer in the role of local authorities’, suggests Mr Stride. Indeed, his support for localism is in line with his party’s thinking.

Twenty-seven areas have projects ready and waiting to benefit from the Connecting communities pot, with each expected to receive up to £50,000. These include communities in Blackburn, Birmingham, Stoke, Poole, Sunderland, and BNP stronghold Barking & Dagenham. A total of around 100 areas have been identified as potential beneficiaries.

‘[The money] just gives the capacity to make sure we’ve had a good, real, discussion about the issues and come up with a way of dealing with them,’ explains Mr Denham.

In some of the 27 areas, social housing providers are the major landlord and Mr Denham is impressed with the way they ‘respond to people as tenants, the extent to which they give people a voice in the service, [and the way they] deal with anti-social behaviour’.

There’s a role here for development teams too, he says. ‘Social landlords are going to be heavily involved in investment in new housing. It’s very important that people see that investment as a response to them and their aspirations for new housing. You have got to leave people feeling: “I’ve had a real say in this.”’

Double act

It is notable that Mr Denham has not taken the lead on housing during his five months at the CLG. Labour Party sources say that he is confident leaving complex policies such as reform of the housing revenue account to housing minister John Healey.

The pair joined the department around the same time, with Mr Healey gaining a higher profile than many of Labour’s previous eight housing ministers since 1997.

‘John and I work incredibly closely together, and I think we have made sure that the local government agenda and the housing agenda are completely integrated and there is not a separation between them in the department,’ says Mr Denham, across the large boardroom table which likely hosts discussions between Mr Healey and his boss.

That’s not to say the latter doesn’t have strong opinions about housing as election season approaches. A focused Mr Denham identifies housing as ‘one of the huge dividing lines between us and the Conservatives’. If Mr Cameron had his way, he says, the housing budget would have been £2.3 billion lighter this year. ‘On 5 January, David Cameron called for cuts in the spending of this department in the current financial year - £800 million of those cuts would have fallen on the housing programme.

‘We have increased the investment in social housing by £1.5 billion this year. So there is a £2.3 billion difference between the two political parties on investment in social housing this year: that is vast,’ he explains.

What of Mr Cameron’s latest pet policy area: worklessness? After all, Mr Denham was influential in former prime minister Tony Blair’s inaugural social security team, beginning his ministerial career in 1997 as an undersecretary in what is now the Department for Work and Pensions.

He laughs when asked how to reform housing benefit, saying that his work in this area was a long time ago. But he is looking at ways to give social landlords a greater role in tackling worklessness and he has already started tapping up housing associations for ideas. Last Friday he launched a £40 million scheme to help families that are long-term unemployed.

‘Up and down the country there are very good examples of housing associations and arm’s-length management organisations having a social action part of their work,’ he states. ‘They know the families that need the most intense support. I think we could do that more systematically.
‘I am keen to look at whether we can more systematically work with [social landlords] to tackle worklessness. As we go forward, looking at regeneration strategies, I think the focus on worklessness and the role of housing organisations in tackling that is going to be crucial,’ he finishes, wrapping up in a polite and business-like fashion.

‘That’s lovely,’ he concludes, before turning to the photographer. ‘Right… where do you want me?’

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