The Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government has set out a new Integrated Communities Action Plan to create socially and economically stronger, more confident and integrated communities. The document is a response to the Government’s March 2018 Integrated Communities Strategy Green Paper, which the Government published for consultation. The Green Paper set out the Government’s vision for building integrated communities where people of all backgrounds live, work, learn and socialise together, based on shared rights, responsibilities and opportunities.

The Green Paper complements the wider work that the Government is doing to address barriers that limit opportunity and undermine integration. This includes, for example, action taken as a result of the Race Disparity Audit and the renewed Hate Crime Action Plan. It also complements the Civil Society Strategy that sets out the Government’s vision for how it will work with and support civil society to create thriving communities and realise social value.

The Integrated Communities Action Plan sets out a different way of working, with new partnerships between all levels of government and civil society. This includes the early-stage work done with the five Integration Areas (Bradford, Blackburn with Darwen, Peterborough, Waltham Forest and Walsall), which aims to demonstrate that a place-based approach supports partners in a local community to work together in identifying their priorities and the best ways to address them. The Action Plan, which applies only to England, includes a number of actions in the following areas:

• Strengthening leadership
• Supporting new migrants and local residents
• Education and young people
• Boosting English Language
• Places and communities
• Increasing economic opportunity
• Rights and freedoms
• Measuring success