article: Dr Mark Lang spent six months studying the Lansbury Park Estate, near Caerphilly town centre. He said many policies aimed at reducing poverty in Wales had failed to work. Council officials have accepted Dr Lang's findings which include offering learning opportunities outside the classroom. Lansbury Park has already lived with the label "Wales' most deprived area" for the past two years. Now, the major economic research centred on the community suggests there needs to be fresh thinking about how we tackle the poorest places in Wales. Poverty is on the increase in Wales amongst children, working age adults and pensioners, despite attempts to reduce it over decades, according to the Bevan Foundation think-tank. It calculates that dealing with the consequences of poverty is now costing the Welsh public purse £1 out of every £5 it spends. Those findings are now swiftly followed by a report into Lansbury Park, which advocates a new approach but no magic wand. It is nearly 25 years since a range of social and economic problems were first highlighted by research on the estate, which lies just a mile from Caerphilly town centre. More recently, Lansbury succeeded part of Rhyl to a title no one wants - officially ranked as Wales' most deprived community. If you walk through the estate - home to 2,200 people - very little has changed on the surface from how it looked decades ago. Lansbury was named after a Labour leader of the Depression era when it was built in the 1960s and Attlee Court in the middle is among reminders of other figures from the party's past. Caerphilly council since 1996 has been under both Labour and Plaid Cymru control. This "deep place" study was commissioned by the local authority and its analysis does not apportion blame - only recognising the approaches of a generation or more have simply not worked. Despite money being spent, and a Communities First programme running, economic and social problems have become "embedded". Dr Mark Lang spent six months working on the Lansbury Park "deep place" study, with Prof Dave Adamson, who led the original research in 1993. Beyond the stark economic statistics, the research looks at less tangible but equally relevant factors. Indeed, the "feel" of the place is possibly as much of an obstacle to progress. The "sterile" urban landscape, the lack of trees on the little green space the estate has, are all features; horizons are limited, physically and emotionally. So as new councillors are soon elected across Wales, are there lessons for similar urban areas too? Especially at a time of austerity, council budget pressures, uncertainty over filling future gaps left by European funding and the forthcoming overhaul of Communities First. Dr Lang believes it is about understanding the specifics of a place - and spending what money there is, more wisely. "With some of the funded activities, I feel, they don't take the community out of itself; they don't encourage people to leave their communities and do something somewhere else, experience a broader world," he said. "It might well be you spend
summary: A new approach is needed to tackle poverty, a report into the most deprived community in Wales has suggested.