Employment minister Andrew Smith today praised Blackbird Leys, Oxford, and said other housing estates in the UK could learn from its experience.

Mr Smith, who lives at Blackbird Leys, spoke as Prime Minister Tony Blair launched an official report on the country's worst housing estates.

The report, by the Government's Social Exclusion Unit, highlights successful strategies which could be used to turn round rundown estates.

The Government named 17 'pathfinder areas' to pilot the first stage of an £800m New Deal For Communities to regenerate deprived areas in England. People in these areas will be invited to bid this year for a £12m share of the £800m.

Mr Smith said: "The report is drawn from research which looks at different estates up and down the country.

"There is a lot that is positive from the experience of Blackbird Leys and other estates in Oxford. "One of the things we are stressing with this report is the importance of involving local people and, of course, Blackbird Leys has a resident's association, community development programme and tenants' forum. These are all bodies which have been making a very positive difference in Blackbird Leys.

"Some inner city areas face an enormous challenge and there are lessons to be learned from Blackbird Leys, Barton and Rose Hill."

He singled out the Credit Union, recently set up on Blackbird Leys, and local playgroups for praise.

Mr Smith also mentioned the PEEPS (Peers Early Education Partnership) Project, a scheme at Peers School, Littlemore, which gives children a taste of education at an early age. He said: "This is very much the kind of thing we are encouraging in the report."

He added: "Decent people in these communities need to know all the authorities are on their side and will help in the front line war against criminals and drug dealers who make their lives a misery. "I am using Blackbird Leys as an example which has its problems but which has dealt with many of them. For example, demolishing Pegasus Court and replacing it with quality housing.

"It would have been a hotbed of problems and that has been tackled. I live there and I'm proud of it."

Mr Smith also mentioned the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford as a good example of a cross-over between departmental boundaries. It has a programme with schools to cut the accident rate in children.

The Social Exclusion Unit's report, Bringing Britain Together: a National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal, concluded that some inner city areas are in such poor repair that demolition could be the only answer.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said yesterday: "The report makes it clear that while standards of living across much of Britain have risen over recent years, there are exceptions."

On the same day the report was published, the New Deal for Communities announced that 17 areas would pilot a scheme where residents were invited to bid for cash to regenerate their communities.

These are: Liverpool; Manchester; London boroughs of Newham, Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Southwark; Newcastle upon Tyne; Middlesborough; Nottingham; Leicester; Birmingham; Sandwell; Kingston upon Hull; Bradford; Norwich; Brighton and Hove; Bristol.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.