The quality of life in the UK's towns and cities is to be Labour's next major priority, ministers have said.

There was a time when we led the world in visionary planning for communities but then we lost our way

John Prescott

Setting out his vision of "sustainable" communities for the 21st Century, John Prescott promised an end to "concrete jungle" tower blocks and housing schemes.

Speaking at an Urban Summit in Birmingham, the deputy prime minister stressed the importance of creating "liveable" urban areas.

Meanwhile, Tony Blair said measures to tackle anti-social behaviour would be the government's top priority over the next year.

Mr Blair said vandalism, graffiti and other low-level crimes were "probably the biggest immediate issue for people in the country".

More legislation

Such problems would be the "biggest issue" in November's Queen's Speech which outlines the government's programme for the year ahead.

Prescott wants communities not housing estates

Speaking on a visit to an East London Royal British Legion, Mr Blair said: "There are lots of big crimes we need to tackle and lots of things to do with public services.

"But when people go out of their door or go down to their local British Legion club or whatever, the problems they face are these problems to do with fly-tipping, abandoned cars, graffiti, petty vandalism.

"We are looking at all the things we need to do in terms of legislation, in terms of police powers and in how we take the right course of action on a local level in order to deal with these things."

Earlier at the Birmingham summit, Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael unveiled plans to make it easier to prosecute litter louts as part of a wider crackdown on anti-social behaviour.

'Liveability'

At the same conference, Mr Prescott emphasised the importance of tackling crime and raising education standards in urban areas.

But he also stressed the need to get design and building right.

"We've also got to include what former US Vice President Al Gore described as 'liveability'," he said.

"People care about the communities - they want cleaner safe streets, good parks, open spaces and a good quality of life."

'Visionary planning'

Mr Prescott said city dwellers have been "failed" by decades of bad government housing policy.

"We forgot what makes people want to live in our cities, about the needs of people, about the community - it's no wonder our towns and cities declined.

"There was a time when we led the world in visionary planning for communities but then we lost our way.

"Our towns and cities were robbed of their wealth, their pride, and their powers."

'Destroying communities'

He said the UK was "building fewer new homes than at any time since the 1920s", which had to "change".

"But I don't just want more housing.

"We've been down that road before in the 1960s with concrete tower blocks - badly designed and badly built concrete jungles that destroyed communities," Mr Prescott told delegates.

He also urged planners to make "more use" of the country's industrial heritage.

He said: "The old assets - mills, the factories, the warehouses, the waterways, once the lifeblood of our cities - are often just left to rot.

"With a little imagination we can bring them back to life, putting the old and new together."

Better designs

Mr Prescott wants developers to build 200,000 new affordable homes in the south-east over the next five to 10 years.

He is hoping to encourage the construction industry to build faster and to use prefabricated methods that enable houses to be pre-built in factories.

But the proposals come amid claims by the Liberal Democrats that millions of pounds in government cash destined for the UK's poorest communities is not getting through.

Liberal Democrat local government spokesman Edward Davey said many regeneration schemes were failing to spend money allocated to them.

'Trust the people'

Using figures uncovered in parliamentary questions, Mr Davey said underspending totalled more than �500m last year and almost �375m the year before.

Mr Davey said: "Ministers make a song and dance of all this new money for regeneration projects.

"In reality, the money has stayed with the government, and is not being used to help people out of poverty.

"The government needs to go much further and start to trust local people and democratic local authorities with public money, rather than quangos."