Centenary report throws new searchlight on Britain’s poor families and neighbourhoods

A report published to mark the Foundation’s 100th anniversary today argues that the new measurements should inform a comprehensive strategy for helping the poorest places as well as the poorest people – and for making sure that the life chances of children, young people and adults no longer depend so heavily on the places where they are born and live.

Launched today at the Foundation’s Centenary conference in York, Strategies against poverty welcomes the Government’s commitment to reducing poverty and points to growing consensus across the political spectrum that action to tackle disadvantage is in the interests of society as a whole. It argues that only a modest share of economic growth in the next 20 years would be redistributed to raise the ten million poorest people in Britain above the poverty threshold.

But it also highlights new figures that expose the intense concentrations of disadvantage that exist within neighbourhoods in some of Britain’s major cities. An analysis of family poverty prepared for the conference shows that:

• One in five children in England, Scotland and Wales are living in families receiving means-tested benefits where their parents or carers are not working.
• In 100 local authority wards with the worst concentrations of poverty, almost six out of ten children live in families relying on Income Support and other means-tested benefits.
• In 180 wards, more than half the children are in families receiving out-of-work, means-tested benefits. Glasgow has more of these wards than any other local authority area (28), followed by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets (15), Liverpool (12), Manchester and the London Borough of Hackney (10 each).
• Other local areas with high concentrations of child poverty exist in Knowsley and Newcastle (7 wards each), Hull, Middlesbrough and Nottingham (4 wards), Rhondda, Salford, Wirral and Wrexham (3 wards), Birmingham, Cardiff, Newport, Swansea, Edinburgh and Renfrewshire (2 wards); plus the London Boroughs of Haringey (6 wards), Islington (6 wards), Camden and Westminster (4 wards), Newham (3 wards), Greenwich, and Hammersmith and Fulham (2 wards) Another 28 local authority areas include one such ward.

The report argues that the figures should be used with existing measures of household poverty to track whether the number of neighbourhoods with concentrated child poverty is being reduced over time – and whether the levels of concentration in the worst-affected areas are becoming less intense.

Other data becoming available at neighbourhood level should soon make it possible to produce useful indicators of progress on the geographical concentration of other aspects of deprivation. These include the proportion of young people leaving school at the minimum age, the percentage living in overcrowded homes, local burglary rates and the proportion of working-age adults claiming Incapacity Benefit.

Donald Hirsch, Special Adviser to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and author of the report, said: “Policy thinkers from across the political spectrum now recognise the importance of tackling the disadvantage of ‘poverty’ and ‘place’. This reflects increasing awareness that without action to deal with the corrosive consequences of deprivation there is little hope of solving related problems such as drug cultures, crime and family breakdown that are fed by hopelessness.

“The indicators proposed in this report not only draw attention to the high concentrations of disadvantage that exist in certain neighbourhoods, but show how a more integrated strategy to reduce individual and geographical deprivation could be monitored over the next 20 years.”

The report sets out a ‘road map’ for a long-term anti-poverty strategy, drawing on consultations the Foundation has held during its centenary year with people living in disadvantaged neighbourhoods as well as policy makers, think-tanks, practitioners, researchers and voluntary groups. The road map is based on five core challenges for government and society:

• Sustain progress in tackling poverty: despite recent progress reducing child and pensioner poverty, nearly twice as many people have relatively low incomes as 25 years ago. Millions are unable to afford basic necessities such as proper clothing and nutrition.
• Make the welfare state more supportive: less reliance on means-testing would promote greater confidence among pensioners and others using the welfare system. Services such as the Social Fund and Jobcentre Plus could be adapted to help people make progress with their lives rather than simply giving short-term assistance.
• Reduce disadvantage based on where you live: people’s prospects of escape from disadvantage have become more heavily influenced by geography, not less. Action to replace the segregation of poorer households with socially mixed communities is more necessary than ever.
• Improve the supply, quality and sustainability of housing: a strategy to avert homelessness and poor housing while tackling the growing shortage of homes should be a priority. Planning reform is necessary to ensure an increased supply of housing, including homes that people on modest incomes can afford.
• Build public consensus for tackling disadvantage: the report says that the time has come to build stronger public support for a campaign to tackle poverty so that political action and consensus can be maintained. 

Lord Richard Best, Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “In this centenary year, we have been consulting widely on how a commitment to tackle disadvantage can be sustained over the next 20 years. This has led us to the positive conclusion that there are real opportunities to make significant and sustained progress, provided the political will exists.

“Basic agreement about the need to reduce the number of poor people and places now needs to be translated into a shared mission where politicians, practitioners and the wider public agree on the broad direction for future progress. A twenty-year strategy to raise those who are worst-off above the poverty threshold is a commitment our nation can demonstrably afford. But it should no longer be something that government does quietly while the taxpayer is not looking.”

He added: “The challenge for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, as it starts its second century, will be to continue to raise awareness of poor people and places in Britain and of the social and financial costs of poverty and disadvantage that fall on everyone. We remain committed to the task our founder set for us one hundred years ago of searching out the underlying causes of social ills and identifying workable solutions. On this special day in our history, we call on everyone who shares our concerns and priorities to work together towards common goals.”