Address to the Chief Executives’ Forum – 1 December 2009

Thank you for inviting me here this evening to talk to you about my work as Social Development Minister, and about how this links with your agenda as a forum for considering new ideas and approaches.

I was very pleased to see that the Chief Executives’ Forum has building ‘Strong and Prosperous Communities’ as one of its current themes.  As Minister for Social Development, much of my work impacts directly on communities.

My department has a wide remit, ranging from urban regeneration and community and voluntary sector development, to housing and social security benefits. The responsibility for pensions and child maintenance in Northern Ireland also falls to my department.  The wealth and strength of our community is therefore one of my key concerns.

And this raises an important question: do we speak of ‘community’ or ‘communities’?   

I am, as I hope you are aware, a strong supporter of the shared future agenda.  Our aim must be one shared community for all of our people, if we are to grow our economy and connect confidently and competitively with the wider world.

I’m sure that in considering your ‘strong and prosperous communities’ theme, you have struggled over the past year or so with the question of how real, measurable improvements can be delivered for the most disadvantaged in our society.  Recent evidence shows us that the greatest poverty and alienation occur – for both sides – in areas where the population is mainly single identity.

I have held many public meetings across Northern Ireland on this subject in recent months, because I want to initiate a dialogue with people.  I want people to tell me what they think and how we can share more.

And I have already learnt a lot about what we need to do, as a community, to move forward.  Those of us in positions of influence need to continue to be accountable to the people for our work - for our decisions and our actions.  We have the power to make progress for our community, if we are prepared to work together.

But we need to take definite and positive steps to help this process along.  After all, we still live apart, we are educated apart, we mostly socialise apart - and that is just not the behaviour of a normal, modern society.  Peaceful co-existence is no substitute for a Shared Future.  The added costs of peaceful co-existence mean that we will never be as strong and prosperous separately as we would be together.

Further, I believe if we sit back and do nothing, then the cycle will repeat itself and all of our prejudices and fears just get handed to and carried on by the next generation.   

We owe it to future generations to somehow break this cycle.

And the only way to do that is to consciously set out to dismantle segregation.  Will this come about of its own accord with the passage of time?  Should we leave it to chance?  I believe the pursuit of the goal of normality is a major project, but one worth pursuing.

As Social Development Minister there are clearly a number of areas where I can have a positive impact.

In terms of urban regeneration, we don’t just need shiny new buildings, we need new public spaces which are accessible to all.  We may define shared public space in a number of ways.

For example, we may seek to create neutral spaces, where there is contact between many communities, such as our town and city centres.   

But they run the risk of being sterile “no-man’s lands”.

We really need to create shared spaces, where there is opportunity for engagement between communities and across perceived divides, be they the historic peace lines or in our university areas.

And we may also wish to produce something new, re-creating spaces with a more cosmopolitan feel, which will encourage new interactions, such as the Titanic Quarter development.

These ideas bring to mind the familiar debates around multi-culturalism.  Do we work towards a society where there is tolerance of difference, but limited interaction between our community traditions?  Or do we aim for a more inter-cultural society, one in which our communities are strong enough, confident enough and committed enough, to engage with one another, to everyone’s mutual benefit?

This is significantly more challenging than creating bright new buildings, or well-lit town centres with high-quality paving.  Our physical developments set the scene.  However, focusing on the physical space issues will not deliver lasting community changes.

We need to create spaces where people and communities can flourish.  We need to engage with communities, to understand their attitudes and behaviours, as a starting point to achieving this.

If I may give you one example, my new housing agenda will make significant moves to reduce the extent of segregation in our communities.  To date, sixteen estates comprising nine thousand households have agreed to participate in the Shared Neighbourhood Programme – that is about twenty-six thousand people.

This demonstrates the useful impact this programme can have in making real inroads into the widespread segregation that exists within social housing here in Northern Ireland.

The programme is geographically dispersed in an attempt to ensure that every area of Northern Ireland has a shared neighbourhood nearby.  This will help to spread the word that sharing is a good and desirable way to live.

But the programme has much to do before it can reflect the preferences stated in the Northern Ireland Life and Times survey – that eight out of ten people would prefer to live in a mixed neighbourhood.

The Housing Executive has now adopted the approach that all new-build schemes should be considered as ‘shared future’ unless there is a compelling reason not to do so.   

This, undoubtedly, will deliver more shared future schemes and make greater headway in developing neighbourhoods that welcome diversity.

There are other challenges ahead for us.  The re-structuring of public services, as part of the reform of local government in 2011, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve local service delivery, to make it more effective and responsive to people’s needs.  Councils will have a key role in place-shaping and in place-making.

The new focus on community planning aims to ensure that people and communities are genuinely engaged in decisions made about the public services which affect them.

Community planning offers us two opportunities. Firstly, the chance to join up public services in order to create a more cohesive experience for our people, tackling the more complex challenges that may cut across our current organisational boundaries.

Secondly, treating communities as assets rather than simply end-users will generate more engaged and sustainable neighbourhoods, which are able to influence the decisions that affect them.

I have talked to you this evening very briefly about the challenges that we face at present.  The cost of segregation.  The new challenges that the review of public administration can offer.  And about the urgent need to develop a shared agenda with which we can all engage.

To sum up, I am all too aware that the work that my Department does, in renewing town and city centres across Northern Ireland, in targeting disadvantage in our most deprived neighbourhoods, is vital to our community.

We have the opportunity before us now to establish a way forward that will make Northern Ireland a place where ambitious people want to come to live and work.  A place we can share.  A place that will prosper.

I thank you for your interest in my views, and I look forward now to hearing from you.