ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on a research paper written for the Commission for Local Democracy, and focuses on research on Local Strategies to Combat Poverty on Peripheral Estates funded by the Barrow and Geraldine S. Cadbury Trust. It outlines the growth of poverty and social exclusion in the UK. The chapter reviews the implications for the political participation of disadvantaged groups of a number of policy approaches to local concentrations of poverty and exclusion, from urban regeneration programmes to local anti-poverty projects and neighbourhood decentralisation initiatives by local government. It concludes that the more effective representation of excluded communities is a vital issue for local democracy. 'Partnership with the community' in local area-based regeneration and anti-poverty initiatives is becoming an important element of local governance as a preferred method of enabling local communities to voice their needs, become involved in decision-making, and to hold agencies accountable for their actions.
