Benwell Community Development Project (CDP)

We are the only supplier of original copies of the reports produced by Benwell CDP and other CDPs in the 1970s. Read on.

 During the 1970s Benwell was chosen by the government as a site for an experimental anti-poverty programme.

The so-called National Community Development Project was Britain’s answer to the American “War on Poverty”. It consisted of 12 local community-based projects across Britain, each with a five-year life. The local teams were tasked with researching the causes of poverty in their areas and working with local residents to bring about change.

 Benwell CDP ran from 1972 until 1978 and was based in former shop premises at 85/7 Adelaide Terrace.

It had an action team who were employed by Newcastle City Council and a research team initially linked with Newcastle University but later transferred to Durham University. All the workers chose to share the base in Benwell in the heart of the community. While different workers had their particular areas of expertise, everyone worked directly with local residents helping to set up tenants associations, campaigning for housing improvements, providing welfare rights advice, and supporting local community action in other ways.

 The National CDP was a response to the realisation that poverty still existed in parts of Britain.

CDP was an experiment designed to find new ways of tackling what were seen as “pockets of deprivation”. The government believed that the causes of poverty were to be found within the poor communities themselves and could be tackled at a local level. Benwell CDP, in common with several of the other CDPs across the country, concluded that the causes of poverty, unemployment and many social problems lay with external factors such as industrial decline and insensitive housing policies.

 Benwell CDP documented the findings of their work in a series of reports about the area and also contributed to a number of joint reports together with other local CDPs.

Original copies of the following reports are still available. For more information or to order, contact stjamesbenwell@gmail.com We are unable to offer online ordering and payment.

 

BENWELL CDP REPORTS

  Permanent Unemployment

  The Making of a Ruling Class

 Slums on the Drawing Board

  Storing up Trouble

  Private Housing and the Working Class

 

JOINT REPORTS WITH OTHER CDPs

  The Costs of Industrial Change

 Gilding the Ghetto

  The State and the Local Economy

Other reports also available on subjects including housing and industry.

 

REPORTS BY OTHER LOCAL CDPs

 We also stock reports produced by several of the other local CDPs including North Tyneside, Canning Town and Birmingham.

 

Contact stjamesbenwell@gmail.com for more information