THE Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, will present a report on Monday that is severely critical of Britain’s “culture of consumerism and false celebrity”.

The Church of England study will caution about an economic divide building up in Britain’s poverty-stricken streets and estates. It will criticise the way that new developments in town and city centres, far from raising the poor into the middle classes, are actually widening the economic divide to cata-strophic effect.

Authors of the Faithful Cities report uncovered “disturbing evidence of the antipathy and intolerance rife among young people”.

The report, to be presented in North London by Dr Williams and the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, will call on the Government to work with churches, congregations and faith-based communities to reduce the gap between rich and poor, to combat racism and to fight intolerance In the foreword, Dr Williams calls for a “radical and long- lasting response” to the study, published 21 years after the controversial Faith in the City report, a critique of Margaret Thatcher’s Government that led to a rift between the Tories and the Church.

The report, by the Archbishops’ Commission on Urban Life and Faith, will argue the case for “faithful capital”, social capital with religion thrown in, to be built up in inner cities.

In a curtain-raiser speech for the report in the House of Lords, Dr Williams yesterday condemned local authorities that have an “endemic suspicion” of social projects carried out by faith groups. He called on government at local and national level to mobilise the immense capacity that religious groups have to improve the life of those living in poverty in Britain’s urban areas.

Dr Williams said that churches were in a pivotal position to help to bridge the gap. They could bring long-term stability amid “desperate scrambling to create leadership and management structures”, he said.

The Archbishop added that cash was often handed to communities that had not yet come up with a clear strategy of what to do with it. He cited the example of the Braunstone Community Association in Leicester, in what was deemed the most deprived ward in the East Midlands, which was given a grant of £50 million in 1998 as one of the first Pathfinder Partnerships, a government scheme that offers local people the chance to decide on funding priorities for their own areas.

Dr Williams said that one commentator reported that, within five years, the project was “like staring at a road crash”. He said: “Spending authority had been withdrawn, leadership was in chaos and the entire grant was under threat.”

The Anglican Diocese of Leicester became involved in 2003 and, two years later, the project was a finalist for the Deputy Prime Minister’s Award for Sustainable Com-munities. Faith communities offer a long-term presence “that is not likely to be withdrawn when things get difficult”, Dr Williams said.

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