Our purpose

One of 39 New Deal for Communities schemes in the country, EC1 New Deal for Communities (NDC), is tackling multiple-deprivation in an area of 4,500 households (approximately 10,000 residents) in south Islington, London (see map).

EC1 NDC has £52.9 million from the Department of Local Government & Communities to invest in the community over ten years. Since it began in 2001, EC1 NDC has run hundreds of projects to improve access to employment, reduce levels of crime, increase educational attainment, enhance community health and enrich the quality of the local environment.

Our aims are that, by 2011:

• The EC1 area will be a cleaner, greener, safer and more attractive place to live, work, study, play, visit and do business; 
• The people who live in the EC1 area will be healthier and wealthier, with improved skills, qualifications and life opportunities; 
• The EC1 community will be stronger and more sustainable, with an improved sense of civic pride and social responsibility and be more involved in shaping its own destiny; 
• These improvements will be sustainable beyond the end of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme. 

In order to achieve this, our work is focussed on:

• Improving people’s employment prospects and the prosperity of the area
• Improving educational attainment and learning
• Tackling health inequalities
• Improving safety and people’s perception of safety
• Improving the quality of the environment 
• Building a stronger, sustainable community in EC1 

It is clear, then that the purpose of the NDC partnership is not simply to improve the quality of life for deprived people. It is to achieve, by 2011, significant improvements to the place, people and community within EC1, and to generate sufficient momentum - supported by appropriate structures and mechanisms - so that by the year 2021 this is no longer perceived to be a deprived neighbourhood.