The New Deal for Communities (NDC) Programme was launched in 1998. The Programme is designed to close gaps between these 39 deprived localities and the rest of the country. This report explores how these areas are changing using a range of different indicators. It draws on two main sources: the 2002, 2004 and 2006 Ipsos MORI household surveys; and also administrative data collated and analysed by the Social Disadvantage Research Centre (SDRC) at Oxford University.