Public bodies in England, Scotland and Wales are persistently failing to fulfil their duty to consider race equality when forming regeneration plans.
Herpreet Kaur Grewal
Public bodies in England, Scotland and Wales are persistently failing to fulfil their duty to consider race equality when forming regeneration plans, an investigation by the Government’s race adviser is expected to report.
The Commission for Racial Equality’s investigation into physical regeneration is due to say that local authorities, regional development agencies and national regeneration bodies, are “broadly and consistently” failing to consider race “in an intelligent way in consultation or planning stages” when embarking on major renewal schemes, according to a source close to the inquiry.
This is despite public bodies having a compulsory duty to consider the impact on race equality of the work they do.
The final report, to be published in two weeks, is also expected to find that certain schemes fail to use an evidence-based approach “in finding out what the impact may be for different ethnic groups”, and that when carried out, race equality impact assessments done by planning departments are generally poor.
It is also expected to say that there is a lack of clarity about the role of urban regeneration companies and housing market renewal pathfinders in helping engender race equality – with many thinking that it is the local authority’s responsibility rather than their own.
The source told Regeneration & Renewal: “The picture is a lot worse than we anticipated when we set out (to carry out the investigation). In many cases race equality is swept aside in favour of ‘harder’ targets, such as the number of housing units (needed in an area), because it’s easier to measure those things.”
Harsher penalties for public bodies that do not follow the duty should be considered by the CRE’s successor body the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, the source said.
A Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) spokesman said the Government would not comment directly on leaks, but added: “We take our responsibilities under the race equality duty very seriously and expect local authorities to do the same.”
A spokesman for the regional development agencies said that the organisations are committed to promoting equality, and that RDA chief executives “recently agreed with DCLG a number of priorities for driving the equalities agenda forward”.