It’s not all black and white

The government seems to be replacing its mantra of “education, education, education” with a very different “ation”. “Integration, integration, integration” is the message it is sending out loudly as it becomes increasingly concerned about the terrorist threat.

In the process, everything from the wearing of the veil by Muslim women to the monotheistic intake of faith schools is under question. And it raises the question of whether the housing and regeneration sector should be doing more. Some seem to think so. The DCLG established the Commission on Integration and Cohesion in June to further debate and come up with practical measures. In September the Commission for Racial Equality announced that it was launching a formal investigation into regeneration that promises to be wide-ranging in scope, taking in both processes such as community consultation and the end results, whether that is large-scale developments or public sector housing refurbishments.

Sarah Webb, director of policy at the Chartered Institute of Housing, says she personally finds recent government messages confusing: “I don’t think the government knows [what it wants], but it is an almost impossible question to answer.” Ted Cantle, community cohesion expert, adds: “I don’t think anyone is clear about what the government wants. That is why the government has set up the Commission on Integration and Cohesion. They recognise that we need more mixed communities and schools, but they are not sure how to achieve it and don’t want to suggest anything that smacks of telling people how to live.”

This is hardly the first time that cohesion has become an issue for housing and regeneration. Following outbreaks of violence on the streets of Bradford, Burnley and Oldham five years ago, Cantle chaired an independent review team for the government that came up with a number of recommendations. Some measures were introduced, but others, notably Cantle’s recommendation that “ambitious and creative strategies are developed to provide more mixed housing areas”, remain largely unfulfilled. He says: “The anecdotal evidence is that the problem has become more acute. Not enough is being done to ensure that new development areas like Thames Gateway and existing areas not only promote, but sustain mixed communities.”

Ask housing professionals what makes a cohesive community and the answers make no mention of race or religion. Anil Singh, chief executive of Bradford-based Manningham Housing Association, says: “Having three generations together helps – with grandparents mixing with children. There needs to be stability. There needs to be an understanding of social capital – which we achieve through our good neighbour agreements.” Matthew Harrison, deputy chief executive of Great Places Housing Group, says: “It is one where there is low turnover, high demand and stability. Social cohesion has nothing to do with race.”

The ongoing debate about race issues, fuelled by the national media, is not considered particularly helpful. Great Places found itself under attack by a newspaper simply because it had developed 18 large homes suitable for Muslim families. Harrison says: “It is important that we do have a debate, but the worry is that the government goes about it in a knee-jerk way.” Zenna Atkins, group chairman of Places for People, says the ongoing focus on the veil is a distraction: “It is a pointless debate. Clothes and religion don’t make a cohesive community. It is about living in a space where you are comfortable and have access to schools and health and jobs.”

Atkins interprets the government’s recent pronouncements as part of a growing awareness that to make communities work you need to look at community cohesion. It is an area where landlords, both private and social, have not done enough up to now, she argues: “All landlords have a duty to look at how they can provide empathetic customer-based services. We need to be more creative.” The kinds of thing that could be done, she says, are making Islamic-compliant mortgages broadly available, and creating large family homes alongside smaller ones, so that families can down-size without moving out of their community.

There are plenty of initiatives aimed at bringing communities together, but they do not necessarily make a big deal about race or religion. For example, Southern Housing Group has run a project in which kids living on the Timber Wharf Estate, east London, made a film about what it was like to live there. Annabel Palmer, director of Southern Housing Foundation, the RSL’s social investment arm, which runs the project says: “We look at focusing on people, often younger people, around a project rather than around ethnicity, so that you get a range of people and backgrounds. Any project that links a community helps cohesion.”

In the locations where violence broke out six years ago, stronger measures are being implemented. To foster cohesion across the communities, housing market renewal pathfinder Elevate East Lancashire has brought in societal mediators Mediation Northern Ireland. The group has led a programme of workshops for civic leaders, political parties, muslim and non-muslim groups, initially in the Burnley area. Elevate chief executive Max Steinberg says: “It was about bringing together groups who often didn’t come into contact with each other to deal with the issues and produce a common understanding.”

Some in the sector caution against pushing the integration agenda too hard. Southern Housing Group chief executive Tom Dacey says: “Most of the communities have had a long history of the establishment being unhelpful. Huge investments in the community could disappear overnight if issues are handled insensitively.” Manningham’s Singh agrees: “It is a high-risk strategy to discuss cohesion openly.” Singh applauds London mayor Ken Livingstone’s low-key strategy of achieving integration through music festivals and sporting events, and says Manningham has taken a similar approach, sponsoring mixed cricket clubs, a golf society and a dance talent show.

Bradford, once a scene of violent disorder, is described by Singh as “quite a sociable, peaceful and neighbourly place”. He says problems in making cohesive communities in places like Bradford do not stem from the fact that people do not want to live in mixed communities. He explains: “The issue is that the affluent people, often white, but also Asian, Muslim and so on, are flying from urban communities. The idea of intentional separation is a misunderstanding.”

But Cantle cautions that the problem is becoming more complex than that. “It’s not only about Muslims and Christians or black and white. The issues with housing and regeneration are much wider and to do with segregation and isolation. Many local authority chief executives are telling me that their biggest issue now is managing the diverse minority communities in their area. Global changes are having an impact.”

So does Cantle think that the housing and regeneration sector is doing enough to create cohesive communities? He responds with a blunt no, then adds: “But the housing sector has shown more appreciation than any other sector. There is a lot to build on.”