Catalogue description Department of the Environment: City Action Teams and Action for Cities Co-ordination Unit; Registered Files (CY and ACU series)

The MISC 104 Cabinet Committee tasked a small sub-group of Ministers (chaired by Lord Young and comprising Kenneth Baker [DoE], Peter Morrison [Employment] and Norman Lamont [DTI]) to report on government inner cities work, which they did in February 1985. One of their chief conclusions was that there was a need for greater co-ordination between government departments.

As a result of this report the City Action Teams (CATs) were set up. The teams were under the leadership of the relevant Regional Directors of Department of the Environment (DoE), Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) and Department of Employment/Manpower Services Commission (MSC). There were five CATs corresponding to the seven Inner City Partnership areas (the three London areas being treated as one). In each CAT one Department was assigned the leadership role - DoE for London and Liverpool, DTI for Birmingham and Manchester and Department of Employment/MSC for Newcastle. The CATs reported both directly to their lead departments and also to Lord Young's sub-group of MISC 104. A small group within ICD 2 looked after DoE central oversight of the Department's regional involvement with the CATs and used the CY file series for this work until 1991 when the ACU prefix and ACCU assumed responsibility. DoE participation in 'Action for Cities', which was an inter-departmental programme focused on the Inner Cities, became a responsibility of ICD 5 in 1990 due to their prior involvement with DoE role in the 'Task Force' concept, an inter-departmental programme in similar areas led by the DTI started in 1988.

In 1991 the Action for Cities Co-ordination Unit emerged in its own right (files with dates of opening back to 1988 were registered into the prefix). One major reason for this was the recommendation of an National Audit Office report that responsibility for all the City Action Teams (CATs) should be concentrated in one department. In addition to responsibility for the CATs, the unit was responsible for co-ordination of action, funding and presentations on the inner cities across DoE, co-ordination of Ministerial visits to the inner cities with those of other government departments and liaison with the Churches on inner city issues. In 1994 the unit acquired responsibility for liaison with the voluntary sector in the inner cities and sponsorship of the Inner Cities Religious Council. In 1995 the unit took on responsibility for the Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) and for DoE sponsorship of English Partnerships.

In 1996 the unit was dispersed and its responsibilities were divided between the newly formed Cities Policy and Co-ordination Division, the Area Re-generation Programmes Division and the English Partnerships Sponsorship Branch. This was probably largely due to the large amount of work generated by the SRB.