Neighbourhood renewal
The attached report is the Bedfordshire and Luton Economic Development Partnership (BLEDP) Needs Analysis for the Investing in Communities Business Plan.
Written by the Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI) the report is based on a brief to "strengthen and build the evidence base of economic and social need upon which robust decisions can be made about priorities for action and investment". The project brings together a wide range of material from national, regional and local sources to fulfil the three broad aims of the brief:
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Strengthen the deprivation evidence base: Bring together a comprehensive set of data, analysis and reports covering different forms of social and economic deprivation at small area level across Bedfordshire and Luton. This will be available to all groups across the Bedfordshire and Luton Partnership, supporting strategic and service planning, regeneration funding proposals, performance management, and further detailed research studies. Existing research and evaluation reports from national, regional and local sources will be brought together with the new material developed as part of this project.
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Increase understanding of deprivation: Assess the levels of deprivation across Bedfordshire and Luton relative to the broader contexts of England and the region, using evidence from local and national datasets as well as previous research. The project will identify the key themes having the greatest impact on deprivation levels across the area, highlighting populations and communities at increased risk of deprivation.
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Identify the specific geographical areas and forms of deprivation that have the biggest impact: Provide a set of recommendations on areas and themes across the Partnership appropriate for more detailed studies and/or intervention programmes, for potential funding under the IiC programme. Specific attention will be paid to deprivation affecting rural communities, and benchmarking Bedfordshire and Luton against other areas in the region.
The project analyses the deprivation evidence base in the context of the IiC programme, in other words focusing on those aspects of deprivation relevant to the IiC targets. The study is not intended to be an overall analysis of all aspects of deprivation across Bedfordshire and Luton, and in particular we do not carry out in-depth analysis of certain aspects of deprivation including severe health morbidity, or deprivation affecting older people or young children.
The full OCSI Report* and Summary is available below in the Related Documents section.
(*please note that this report is over 100 pages in length.)
Contact information
Sarah Hughes
Enterprise & Regeneration Manager
Bedfordshire County Council
Cauldwell Street
Bedford
MK42 9AP