Hanson: Loyalist communities targeted for improvements

The British government will launch a strategy this spring to ensure every pound spent on a loyalist area of the North is as effective as every pound spent on the nationalist community, it emerged today.

Northern Ireland Office Minister David Hanson confirmed the plan in March will focus on how the British government could empower working class Protestant communities to tackle deprivation in their neighbourhoods.

The multi-agency approach has been drawn up following concerns that British government policies are not having the impact they should in loyalist districts.

Mr Hanson said today he believed loyalist leaders wanted to help raise educational and housing standards in their communities but he reminded them paramilitary groups needed to do their bit by ending all criminal activity.

“We are very clear, as we have been with the IRA, that criminality and paramilitary activity are not compatible with a democratically governed, modern business society in the 21st century,” he said.

“As a (British) government we have got to be very hard nosed about this and we will, through the Police Service of Northern Ireland, take strong action against criminality – drug dealing, extortion and other activities of that nature.

“At the same time we need to recognise that (British) government has to help the process of paramilitaries moving away from all of that by encouraging moves from a war footing to a peaceful footing so individuals can play a positive role in society.

“I sense a debate going on within the loyalist groups about how they can move away from criminality.

“What we now have to do is encourage confidence in the political process and show that that type of activity is actually holding back the community.

“We have to ensure the transformation takes place in loyalism as I believe it is doing slowly but surely within the IRA.”

In 2004, the then Social Development Minister John Spellar appointed a taskforce to address social and economic problems within the loyalist community.

Since taking over from Mr Spellar last year, Mr Hanson has had 25 meetings with community workers, business leaders, unionist and loyalist politicians, with at least 16 more planned in the coming weeks.

He has visited some of Belfast’s most deprived loyalist neighbourhoods, including Upper Ardoyne, Ballysillan and Mount Vernon, to witness the work being done by communities to address social and economic problems.

During a visit to the Shankill in October he announced a delivery team headed by Northern Ireland Civil Service chief Nigel Hamilton would take forward the findings of the taskforce’s report.

The team will report directly to him on how public services can be coordinated to the maximum benefit of loyalist communities.

Mr Hanson said that while deprivation was more prevalent in nationalist areas, loyalist communities often found it harder to tackle problems because they weren’t as well equipped to deal with them.

“A pound of (British) government money on Belfast’s Shankill Road will not buy the same output as a pound spent in nationalist areas like the Falls Road,” he said.

“I am currently developing, in parallel with all of this, the Neighbourhood Renewal Scheme, which is looking at the most deprived wards in Northern Ireland.

“The majority of those, about 60%, are in nationalist areas. The deprivation in individual places on the Falls Road is no different from the deprivation in some places on the Shankill Road.

“But the difference is that there is a better infrastructure in terms of how nationalist communities focus on these issues and there are better outputs for the investment we put into those areas.

“There is a more focussed approach as to what the challenges are and how we get out of them.

“There are certainly pits of depression in nationalist areas but the challenge to get out of them is much higher in loyalist areas.”

The Minister said during his fact finding visits he had detected a desire among people in loyalist communities to move on and tackle social and economic problems.

“I have seen great examples of this such as in Mount Vernon where there is community involvement in schemes on the estate,” he said.

“Now I don’t think it is for me or civil servants living in Holywood or Bangor to go into Mount Vernon and tell them how to improve their community.

“What we can do is look at what the community’s needs are and see how (British) government can help them attain that transformation.

“I believe there are key people in lots of these areas who are recognising that the political peace process brings benefits, that the stability of that process brings benefits, and that there is a commitment to help them achieve better results in education, housing and employability.”

But Mr Hanson urged loyalists not to expect a dramatic transformation come March.

“There are long term issues we need to address and none of them are going to be solved overnight,” he said.

“When we reach our conclusions in March, certainly there are things we will be doing in the short term, but some of the things we are going to have to do will take three, five or even seven years.

“You cannot turn round poor educational achievement overnight.

“However, I believe there are people out there who recognise the potential of using the stability of the political peace process to tackle some of the social and economic challenges that face them.”