Dated November 2008. Government response to the Committee's 10th report, HC 369-I, session 2007-08.

A new form of migration is evident, with many economic migrants not planning to stay long term, and this presents challenges for integration and cohesion. Many migrants make significant contributions to local communities, for instance working in our public services such as the NHS. The arrival of new migrants need not have a detrimental effect on cohesion, although it can have a negative effect on community cohesion, particularly in areas that are experiencing a rapid pace of change and/or deprivation. There is significant public anxiety about migration, some of which arises from practical concerns about its effect on local communities. Such concerns include: the limited English of new arrivals; the problems associated with Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) lived in by migrants; a perceived increase in anti-social behaviour; and pressures on public services. Recent migration has placed pressures on local public services in areas that have experienced rapid inward migration, including pressures on schools, translation services, social care, English language teaching, policing and the NHS. These pressures are currently left unfunded by Government, because resource allocations are being made on the basis of flawed population data, and this shortfall should be addressed immediately. The Committee calls for concerted action by Government, local authorities and community groups to address the concerns and problem areas and to encourage integration and involvement. The Government has to ensure that English language tuition is accessible to migrants, as demand far outstrips supply at present.

In this report the Communities and Local Government Committee says the Government must stick to its long term house building targets, despite the credit crunch, but a greater proportion of the homes built should be social housing. The Committee is concerned that the £975 million borrowed by the Government from its 2010-11 budgets to build social rented housing now is not new money, and that the Government has been unable to say how that borrowing will be replaced. The Committee urges the Department for Communities and Local Government to: put pressure on the Treasury to ensure measures to revive the mortgage markets are implemented immediately; increase construction of new social housing, both to provide for housing need and as a means of maintaining capacity in the homebuilding industry whilst the market recovers; accelerate refurbishment programmes for social housing; acquire further social housing through the purchase of unsold stock and street properties; consider the purchase of unsold family homes which have been on the market for more than a year; encourage public sector bodies to make land available for the development of new homes. The report also urges the Government to do more to help those at risk of repossession by considering sanctions against lenders who repossess too quickly and by doing more to protect tenants and homeowners from unscrupulous landlords. An Office of Fair Trading recommendation for sale-and-rent back schemes should be implemented as a matter of urgency to protect the growing number of households falling behind in mortgage payments. The Committee would like to see more done to support housing associations, including increasing social housing grant where necessary.

The Government's programme to replace 46 local fire and rescue service control rooms with nine purpose-built regional control centres has been inadequately planned, poorly executed, and badly managed. Given the investment of public funds already committed, and the benefits that will accrue, the MPs conclude that the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) should press ahead with the FireControl project so long as Ministers can agree urgently a viable project plan that will see the project go live by a target date of mid-2011 and in which the main stakeholders can have confidence. The excessive cost of abandoning the project - an extra £8 million more than it will cost to complete - indicates the Department should continue with the project so long as it also: examines alternatives and provides assurances that FiReControl represents the best viable option for the future of Fire and Rescue Services; resolves its contractual dispute with EADS and implements a viable project plan; addresses the shortcomings in its management of the project; consults fully with FRS staff and professionals to define end-user requirements; provides assurances that the safety and security of the Olympic Games will not be compromised by the roll-out of new Regional Control Centres. DCLG should urgently to draw up and consult on contingency plans for any further failures in the FiReControl programme to ensure ongoing safe and effective fire and rescue services cover across the whole country.

The Committee undertook this inquiry into traditional retail markets to determine whether local authorities and central government should be doing more to support them. The Committee has come to appreciate the complex and diverse nature of the traditional retail markets sector. A significant number of all types of markets continue to thrive, but the number in decline appears to be greater than the number that is not. There are a number of reasons for the decline, the most significant being increased competition from supermarkets, other alternative cheap retail outlets and the internet. Nevertheless, a growing number of markets are adapting successfully to change. Local authorities and central government should care about markets, because of the multi-faceted nature of the benefits that successful markets can bring to local towns and communities. The report identifies five key benefits: economic; social (eg in encouraging social cohesion); assisting the regeneration of town centres; promoting healthy eating; and reducing environmental impacts in the retail sector. On finance and management the report notes lessons from elsewhere in Europe; identifies best practice, and recommends that councils consider using prudential borrowing, market champions at a senior level within the council, and co-operation with the private sector. The report also addresses; the challenges facing medium and small town councils seeking to keep smaller, local markets alive; the need for better promotion and recruitment and training for existing traders and market managers; the strategic role of central government.

This is a study into how the public discourse on migrant integration in the UK changed from 2000-2010. The book shows that the discursive construction of integration in the British public sphere shifted from one of cultural pluralism to one of neo-assimilation, informed by a wider spread of neo-liberalism that necessitates self-sufficiency and discourages state assistance. Situated within the Critical Discourse Studies tradition, the book employs a Discourse Historical approach to the data and includes innovative analysis combining 'top-down' (policy documents and media texts) and 'bottom-up' (focus groups with migrants and new citizens) sites of discourse production. In doing so, it provides a broad and detailed perspective of public discourse on integration in the UK. The book shows that understandings of 'integration' are diachronically and synchronically fluid and as such, the term plays an important role as a 'consensus concept' that different actors can support whilst construing it in different ways. Analysis of the data further reveals that integration is interdiscursively linked to other social fields, such as the economy, terrorism and public spending. The book also argues that integration policy has become directed not just at new migrants, but also long-term British citizens and that this has the potential to have considerable impact on community cohesion.

This report from the Communities and Local Government Committee (HCP 65, session 2009-10, ISBN 9780215545466) looks at "Preventing violent extremism". For the Committee, as delivered so far the Prevent programme has stigmatised and alienated those it is most important to engage, and tainted many positive community cohesion projects. Moreover, the government's strategy to limit the development of violent extremism in the UK sits poorly within a counter-terrorism strategy. The Committee has set out a number of improvements for the Prevent programme and calls on the government to clarify urgently how information collected for the purposes of project monitoring and community mapping under Prevent does not constitute 'spying' or 'intelligence gathering' of the type undertaken by the police or security services.