Customer Outcome 3: Closing the Gap of Inequality

Within this Customer Outcome our key aims are:

• Improving household incomes through the take up of employment opportunities, and improving people's skills.
• Ensuring that people take up the full benefits to which they are entitled.
• Improving the physical fabric and living environment in particular through eliminating fuel poverty, reducing the gap in serious accidental injury, and the indoor living environment in so far as it affects respiratory health.
• Ensuring people are able to access services whatever their circumstances.
• Improving people's lifestyle choices, including diet, smoking and physical activity.
• Ensuring the value and contribution of the diverse communities in our Borough is recognised and celebrated.
• Improving the social capital and developing sustainable communities.
• Securing public and private investment in the above factors in order to help reduce the inequalities gap within the Borough.
• Ensuring a strong, prosperous and competitive local economy, that creates wealth in order to support the level of investment required to close the gap of inequality and contributes to the region’s economy.
• Promoting Social Cohesion and taking positive steps to reorganise and celebrate the value and contribution of the diverse communities in our Borough.

Within this Customer Outcome local people have identified one priority area:

1. To reduce inequalities in respect of health and education and improve access to work and leisure

We want to:

• Close the gap in inequality that exists not only between the north and south but also between other areas in the Borough where the inequalities issues are not as apparent.

An underpinning strategy is the Health Inequalities Strategy and Action Plan. A Health Impact Assessment is also being undertaken to support the North Solihull regeneration programme.

The Commissioning Strategies in support of this Customer Outcome and its Priorities are: the Health Inequalities Strategy and Action Plan, the Adult Learning Plan; the Community Strategy; the Economic Development Strategy, the Enabled not Disabled Joint Strategy; the Diversity Strategy 2006-2009; The Social Exclusion Strategy; the North Solihull Strategic framework; the Public Library Position Statements; the Transport Plan and 'The Future is Ours' Older People Strategy.

The following two major initiatives are key to the delivery of this Customer Outcome:

Regenerating North Solihull

Regenerating North Solihull is a fifteen year programme to transform the three wards of Chelmsley Wood, Smith's Wood and Kingshurst & Fordbridge by improving homes, shops, schools, health and community facilities, transport, the environment and creating jobs. This is one of the UK's biggest ever regeneration programmes aiming to change almost 40,000 people's lives for the better and involving:

£1.8 billion public and private investment over the next 15 years,

8,500 new modern homes,

New, state-of-the-art primary schools,

Vibrant village centres delivering key services.

The North Solihull Partnership is leading this work and consists of:

• Solihull Council - providing services and community leadership to the Borough
• Bellway homes - a leading UK house builder with more than 50 years' experience.
• Inpartnership Ltd - an investment-led regeneration company.
• Whitefriars Housing Group - a Coventry-based not-for-profit housing and regeneration organisation.
• The involvement of local people in helping shape the future of their own neighbourhoods is key to the success of the regeneration programme. Area and Neighbourhood Plans are being developed to facilitate this.

Successes to date include:

• The first primary school (Kingshurst Primary School) is due to be completed by the end of 2007, with pupils moving into their new school in January 2008. The construction of the second primary school will start before the end of 2007.
• Outline planning permission has been granted for the first village centre.
• The first housing development (Alcott Grove) is complete and all the homes have been sold, over half of them to local people.
• The second housing development (Chapel Walk) is under construction and a number of further developments are being planned.
• The Partnership is providing financial support to projects which aim to get local people into work and projects to involve your people in the regeneration process.

Leisure Options

Our objective was to achieve higher quality and improved leisure services through a private sector partner who could invest in leisure facilities in the Borough under a design, build and operate contract over approximately thirty years.

The Leisure Public Private Partnership is now established and is working well. The responsibility for managing the Council's Leisure Centres was transferred to Rivendell Leisure in May 2006.

The Partnership Agreement has commissioned the redesign and renewal of the Tudor Grange Sports Centre, Norman Green Sports Centre and North Solihull Sports Centre. Rivendell are also managing the centres. The first two years of the partnership sees the replacement of the Tudor Grange Sports Centre with a brand new facility and the refurbishment of North Solihull Sports Centre.

The work at Tudor Grange is progressing well with construction due to be completed by January 2008. North Solihull Sports Centre refurbishment has been completed.

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