Review aims to foster community cohesion

Former Nottingham Council chief executive Ted Cantle has been
appointed head of the Home Office’s community cohesion review team,
which has been set up to consider the issues surrounding recent
disturbances in Oldham, Bradford and Burnley.

The team’s remit is to obtain the views of young people, local
authorities, voluntary and faith organisations in a number of
representative, multi-ethnic communities.

It aims to find out which issues need to be addressed in order
to develop confident, active communities and social cohesion.

Cantle will chair the 10-member team which includes Labour peer
Baroness Uddin, an adviser and management consultant to local
authorities and social services departments on regeneration, and
Harris Beider, who is executive director of the Federation of Black
Housing Organisations.

The team’s findings will feed into the work of the ministerial
group on public order and community cohesion, set up by home
secretary David Blunkett in July to look at ways of minimising the
risk of further disorder or disturbance.

The group is chaired by John Denham, minister for crime
reduction, policing and community safety.