Public health minister Yvette Cooper has launched a consultation document on improving access to shops for people living in deprived neighbourhoods. Ideas include a scheme to guarantee loans (making it easier to establish new businesses), shops owned by the community, better marketing of goods in local stores and tackling crime. The document follows work by one of the government's 18 policy action teams, set up in the wake of the Social Exclusion Unit's report, Bringing Britain Together .

PAT 13 discussion paper. www.doh.gov.uk.