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Poverty, unemployment and repossessions on the rise years before the recession began

Monitoring poverty and social exclusion 2009

A report released today (3 December) by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation shows that levels of poverty, unemployment and repossessions in the UK started rising as early as 2004, long before the recession began. These findings mean that in order to reduce the number of people living in poverty by any serious margin, the UK needs to recover not just from the recession, but from deep-seated problems that were re-emerging before the downturn.

poverty is now back at the same level as 2000; having risen every year since 2004/05;

two million children are in low-income, working households - the highest figure since records began;

unemployment bottomed in 2005 and now nearly 1 in 8 people of working age want but lack a job; the highest since 1997;

repossessions are six times the level of 2004 and are now back at the level they were in 1994.

Cleanliness next to...affluence

Street cleanliness in deprived and better-off neighbourhoods

An exploration of why affluent neighbourhoods tend to have higher levels of street cleanliness than deprived neighbourhoods and what local authorities can do to narrow this gap.

Across the country, more affluent neighbourhoods tend to show a level of cleanliness above the standard expected in national performance monitoring, while less affluent neighbourhoods perform much worse. Some local authorities are achieving high average scores but failing to maintain more deprived neighbourhoods to the desired standard. Indeed, there is evidence of a trade-off for local authorities between achieving higher average grades and achieving equal outcomes across neighbourhoods.

Making the invisible visible

Raporteur on US housing crisis

Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing, who has just completed a seven-city tour of America, said it was shameful that a country as wealthy as the US was not spending more money on lifting its citizens out of homelessness and substandard, overcrowded housing. 

The housing crisis is invisible for many in the US," she said. "I learned through this visit that real affordable housing and poverty is something that hasn't been dealt with as an issue. Even if we talk about the financial crisis and government stepping in in order to promote economic recovery, there is no such help for the homeless."

Investigator meets homeless victims of American dream

From New York to LA: America's deepening housing crisis: gallery

How not to prevent violent extremism

Spooked: a report published  by the Institute of Race Relations finds that the government's Prevent programme for tackling extremism fosters division, mistrust and alienation.

"The atmosphere promoted by Prevent is one in which to make radical criticisms of the government is to risk losing funding and facing isolation as an 'extremist', while those organisations which support the government are rewarded. "

Landscape of neglect is fertile breeding ground for far right extremism

Fact and fiction blur as Heartland novelist Anthony Cartwright take Chris Arnot on a tour through estates of despair

'But the ground was shifting under the working class and sinking, like an old cricket pitch falling into the limestone workings that once fed the iron and steel-making process in the workshop of the world.'

Work does not guarantee a route out of poverty

 
Work and worklessness in deprived neighbourhoods

The study   challenges official policy that training or education can act as a spring board to get people into the job market or help career progression. While government has focused on the important objective of raising skills, aptitude and motivation, people's experience showed that there was often little opportunity to progress in their current job, even when they had acquired new skills or qualifications.

"There needs to be a stronger focus on the quality of work on offer. Government and employers should work together to improve terms and conditions so that work can break the cycle of poverty and support family life. Policy-makers also need to take into account the reality of how difficult it is to find work in areas that were struggling even before the recession hit."

Poorest communities remain forgotten

Communities in recession: the impact on deprived neighbourhoods

Joseph Rowntree Foundation reserach asks: What impact is the current recession having on disadvantaged communities and what can we learn from evidence from previous recessions?

"Talk is already focusing on the UK's emergence from the current recession, but this report illustrates how the poorest communities struggle to recover from economic downturns even in periods of wider prosperity.

"We face tough decisions over the next few months. It is essential that these decisions do not further disadvantage the very poorest communities which have already suffered the most. We need to emerge from this recession with an economy that is both just and sustainable."

Lynsey Hanley Equality, not education, is the key to individual transformation

Karen Day When economic depression is a constant

Government responds to forgotten Britain

Communities Secretary John Denham has outlined a £12m plan to reinvigorate and connect with those communities (many of which have seen strong BNP support) that are feeling the pressure from recession most acutely and ensure they are well placed to share fully in future prosperity and emerge stronger and more cohesive.

'The communities involved vary considerably and the challenges are different from place to place. But there are a number of key issues that cut to the core of local concerns. These include;

• a decline in traditional jobs in predominantly white areas and worries about young people's future;
• recent migration is perceived as having changed communities and created competition for jobs and resources like social housing; and
• anti-social behaviour - although fallen across the country - remains a real challenge and can create tensions between the majority of hard working families and the troublesome minority.

For some, the pace of change has led to a sense of resentment and a rise in insecurity and threatens to corrode the cohesion of these communities and create tensions. In some places support for the far right has risen. There could be a rise in migration and resentment at the perception that others are getting a better deal. Some people are left feeling that 'no one is speaking up for us'.

To support this programme CLG is publishing new guidance Building Cohesive Communities - what frontline staff and community activists need to know.

Right to the City conference papers published

Most of the papers from the 'Right to the City' conference (Berlin, 6-8 November 2008) have been published in a special double issue of the journal CITY: analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action .

This special issue of CITY (volume 13, issues 2-3) explores the theme ‘Cities for people, not profit’ through wide-ranging contributions by a diverse group of European and North American urban theorists, sociologists, planners and activists.

You can view the Editorial, Introduction and Tom Slater's paper on 'Missing Marcuse: On gentrification and displacement' for FREE online.

 

“Who Cares About Estates?”

The National Estate Churches Network National Conference 2009

How you can make a positive impact on the Estate you serve….
Effective estate projects – examples and stories…
The Struggles and Challenges (and the solutions we use…)

Speakers: Lynsey Hanley author of “Estates: An Intimate History” and
Sister Margaret Walsh

Where: Birmingham, Carrs Lane Conference Centre, B4 7SX
When: 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., Thursday 12th November 2009