Five projects have been praised for innovative partnership approaches to improving the quality of life in deprived areas. The projects, in Birmingham, Manchester, Cumbria, East Anglia and Wiltshire have all been nominated as finalists in this year’s Secretary of State Award for Partnerships in Regeneration. Among their key characteristics is that the projects have successfully involved the local communities – helping to ensure they meet local need and generate a sense of local ownership.Among the schemes are Cumbria Credits, an SRB partnership which has set up community development centres throughout rural and urban Cumbria, which offer education and training to give local people usually excluded from more conventional methods the skills and confidence not only to get jobs but also to continue the local regeneration process.

In Tidworth in Wiltshire there has been a unique partnership between the civilian and military sectors to create job opportunities, enterprise growth and social development through increasing the number of training courses available, improving the local environment and encouraging the growth of leisure and retail services in the area.

The Secretary of State’s Award for Partnerships in Regeneration is now in its fifth year. It is administered on behalf of the DETR by the British Urban Regeneration Association (BURA), 33 Great Sutton Street, Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX. The winner will be announced in October