A study examined local government spending cuts and their impact on poorer communities. It said that spending overall was set to fall by nearly 30 per cent in real terms between 2008 and 2015 (24 per cent in Scotland), with new and increased demands deepening the effect of the funding cuts. It said that cuts had been greater in more deprived local authorities than in more affluent ones, higher in the North and Midlands than in the south of England, and, in Scotland, higher in the west than the east. It said that authorities had been trying to protect the most vulnerable social groups, but opportunities for efficiency savings were diminishing and local authorities were now repositioning themselves by withdrawing from some services and taking a greater role in prevention and local economic development.
Source: Annette Hastings, Nick Bailey, Kirsten Besemer, Glen Bramley, Maria Gannon, and David Watkins, Coping with the Cuts? Local government and poorer communities, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report | JRF press release
Date: 2013-Nov
A report explored how place-based mechanisms such as procurement and co-production could be used to address poverty.
Source: Jonathan Breeze, Clare Cummings, Matthew Jackson, Neil McInroy, and Adrian Nolan, Addressing Poverty Through Local Governance, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report | Summary | CLES press release
Date: 2013-Oct
An article examined the link between area-based socio-economic deprivation and the incidence of child pedestrian casualties in major cities over the period 2001-2007. There was a consistent strong deprivation effect, with child pedestrian casualties in the most deprived zones typically greater than 10 times that in the least deprived zones.
Source: Daniel Graham, Emma McCoy, and David Stephens, 'Quantifying the effect of area deprivation on child pedestrian casualties by using longitudinal mixed models to adjust for confounding, interference and spatial dependence', Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, Volume 76 Issue 4
Links: Article
Date: 2013-Oct
An article examined the evaluation of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme in England. The evaluation was based on a mixed methods research design involving both 'top-down' quantitative data and 'bottom-up' qualitative case study findings examining how regeneration played out at the local level. There were marked inconsistencies between the two sets of evidence, due largely to local observers being overly optimistic about change associated with the programme's three key design principles: establishing NDC partnerships; working with agencies; and placing the community at the heart of the initiative.
Source: Paul Lawless, 'Reconciling bottom-up perspectives with top-down change data in evaluating area regeneration schemes', European Planning Studies, Volume 21 Issue 10
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Oct
A think-tank report said that poverty was deepening and inequality was widening in Islington (in north London). It reported that the gap between the wealthiest and the rest was growing as house prices and wage polarization squeezed middle-income families. It predicted that, by 2020, Islington would be a starkly polarized and unequal borough.
Source: Joe Penny, Faiza Shaheen, and Sarah Lyall, Distant Neighbours: Poverty and inequality in Islington, New Economics Foundation
Links: Report | Fabian Society comment
Date: 2013-Oct
An article examined the effect of neighbourhood composition on teenagers' educational and behavioural outcomes in England. Changes in neighbourhood composition were found to have no effects on test scores but some effects on behavioural outcomes, which were heterogeneous for boys and girls.
Source: Stephen Gibbons, Olmo Silv, and Felix Weinhardt, 'Everybody needs good neighbours? Evidence from students' outcomes in England', Economic Journal, Volume 123 Number 571
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Sep
A think-tank report said that almost £2 billion per year was being spent on benefit payments to people of working age who lived in seaside towns. Of the 20 neighbourhoods with the highest levels of working-age people on out-of-work benefits, 7 were in coastal towns. Some of the resorts were suffering severe social breakdown. Far greater efforts were needed if they were to recapture their former prosperity.
Source: Alex Burghart, Harriet Crawford, Joseph Henson, Paul Langlois, Annette Pereira, Ross Reid, Ben Walker, and Tom Wardle (with Toby Ovenden and Gabriel May), Turning the Tide: Social justice in five seaside towns, Centre for Social Justice
Links: Report | CSJ press release | BBC report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report | Telegraph report
Date: 2013-Aug
A study examined the cumulative impact of all major reforms to benefits announced since the coalition government took office in May 2010. For each welfare reform, it apportioned to local authority level in England the government's most recent or final estimate of the fiscal impact of that measure. It was found that the income of households claiming benefit would be on average lower by £1,615 per year – or £31 per week – in 2015-16 as a result of welfare reforms (excluding universal credit). A lack of jobs and affordable homes to offset the drop in income meant most households were likely to turn to local councils for assistance.
Source: Tony Wilson, Gareth Morgan, Afzal Rahman, and Lovedeep Vaid, The Local Impacts of Welfare Reform: An assessment of cumulative impacts and mitigations, Local Government Association
Links: Report | LGA press release | CESI press release | CESI blog post | TUC press release | Community Care report | Guardian report | Inside Housing report | Public Finance report | Telegraph report
Date: 2013-Aug
A think-tank report examined how people in two of the most economically deprived parts of England (Birmingham, and Haringey in north London) were experiencing cuts in benefits and public services imposed by the coalition government. The burden of the austerity programme was falling predominantly on those who received vital support from public services and social security: people who were unemployed, on low wages, very elderly, young, and/or disabled. These groups all shared the experiences of everyday insecurity, an unravelling safety net, precarious employment, and growing demands for unpaid labour. The 'Big Society' project had gradually disappeared from public and political discussion: the new austerity had meant that those who were poor and powerless had less time and fewer resources at their disposal, making it much harder to get involved in local activities, take over local assets at risk of closure, bid to run services, or develop neighbourhood plans.
Source: Julia Slay and Joe Penny, Surviving Austerity: Local voices and local action in England s poorest neighbourhoods, New Economics Foundation
Links: Report | NEF blog post | Charity Times report
Date: 2013-Aug
A report identified the largest seaside destinations in England and analyzed them using the official indices of deprivation. Larger destinations generally had greater levels of deprivation than the rest of England in 2007 and 2010. Mid-sized destinations tended to have lower levels of deprivation than larger ones, and had a wider range of deprivation levels. There were large differences in the levels of deprivation faced by destinations that were adjacent to each other. The patterns of deprivation faced by destinations in 2010 were similar to those observed in 2007.
Source: Phil Humby, A Profile of Deprivation in Larger English Seaside Destinations, 2007 and 2010, Office for National Statistics
Links: Report | Daily Mail report | Guardian report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-Aug
A paper examined the problem of unpopular neighbourhoods and/or neighbourhoods with large amounts of vacant housing. There was evidence of a reduction since 2001 in vacancies in very unpopular social housing areas, through the reduction of housing supply (demolition).
Source: Alex Fenton and Ruth Lupton, Low-Demand Housing and Unpopular Neighbourhoods under Labour, Social Policy in a Cold Climate Research Note RN006, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (London School of Economics)
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-Jun
A paper identified evidence to support the hypothesis that individuals in England on low incomes were more likely to be geographically constrained in areas of higher material deprivation.
Source: Brian Kelly, The Process of Socio-Economic Constraint on Geographical Mobility: England 1991 to 2008, Working Paper 2013-08, Centre for Census and Survey Research (University of Manchester)
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-Jun
An article examined the approaches taken under the New Deal for Communities (NDC) Programme in England (1998–2010) to improving educational outcomes. Education had seen the least change of all six outcomes adopted by the NDC Programme. Uniquely, extra spending on education had been associated with less change. Spending might have been better directed at supporting younger children and their parents, combined with targeted out-of -school programmes of support for specific NDC cohorts.
Source: Elaine Batty, 'Addressing educational disadvantage in deprived communities: evidence from the New Deal for Communities Programme in England', Urban Studies, Volume 50 Number 8
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-May
A think-tank report said that the 'worklessness crisis' was not primarily a product of the global economic recession, but had preceded it. The number of people claiming out-of-work benefits had hovered above 4 million for more than 15 years. Some neighbourhoods had more working-age people claiming benefits than in work. The report said that the barriers to work included: a growing skills gap that was leaving many employers unable to fill their vacancies; some Jobcentres failing to provide even the most basic support to those who needed it most; social housing 'trapping' people in areas of the country where too few people were in work; and the changing nature of employment, making work less secure. Some of the reforms initiated by the coalition government – notably universal credit – would begin the process of helping more people into work: but there was a great deal more to do.
Source: Signed On, Written Off: An inquiry into welfare dependency in Britain, Centre for Social Justice
Links: Report | Summary | CSJ press release | TAP press release | Daily Mail report | Public Finance report
Date: 2013-May
An article examined social interaction in public spaces such as local shops, pubs, caf s, and community centres in deprived neighbourhoods. Local 'third places' were an important medium for social interaction, although their importance appeared to vary by population group. Shops appeared to be a particularly important social space.
Source: Paul Hickman, ''Third places' and social interaction in deprived neighbourhoods in Great Britain', Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, Volume 28 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-May
A paper examined techniques for measuring the prevalence of income poverty within small areas or neighbourhoods, with a view to highlighting trends over time. Two broad methods, poverty proxies and modelled income estimates, were identified. The former was found to be better suited to evaluating the effects of policy and economic events on the distribution of poverty.
Source: Alex Fenton, Small-Area Measures of Income Poverty, CASEpaper 173, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (London School of Economics)
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-May
A paper said that there was no evidence that very deprived neighbourhoods, characterized by a high density of social housing, had an effect on the educational attainment of school children (aged 14) in England.
Source: Felix Weinhardt, Neighborhood Quality and Student Performance, Discussion Paper 7139, Institute for the Study of Labor (Bonn)
Links: Paper | Daily Mail report
Date: 2013-Apr
A study examined whether the way in which deprived and affluent areas were distributed across the city of Glasgow (Scotland), compared with English cities, might adversely affect the health of Glasgow's population. It was concluded that although spatial patterning might have a small influence on neighbourhood mortality rates, it did not explain differences between Glasgow and other cities. The most significant explanatory variable was deprivation, although the relationship between deprivation and mortality rates was different in the three cities.
Source: Mark Livingston, David Walsh, Bruce Whyte, and Nick Bailey, Investigating the Impact of the Spatial Distribution of Deprivation on Health Outcomes, Glasgow Centre for Population Health
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Apr
A study examined the local and regional impact of coalition government reforms to benefits and tax credits. The geographical impact varied greatly, with the worst-hit local authority areas losing around four times as much, per adult of working age, as the least affected ones. Older industrial areas, a number of seaside towns, and some London boroughs would be hit hardest. In general, the more deprived the local authority, the greater the financial loss. The biggest losses arose from reforms to incapacity benefits (£4.3 billion per year), changes to tax credits (£3.6 billion) and the 1 per cent up-rating limit for most working-age benefits (£3.4 billion).
Source: Christina Beatty and Steve Fothergill , Hitting the Poorest Places Hardest: The local and regional impact of welfare reform, Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research (Sheffield Hallam University)
Links: Report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2013-Apr
An article examined issues in the interconnected research domains of ethnic relations, disadvantage, and housing neighbourhoods. It looked at regulatory developments, diversities within and between settled minority-ethnic groups, changed patterns of in-migration, disadvantage among low-income white households, and convergence between ethnic groups in internal socio-economic differentiation.
Source: Sanna Markkanen and Malcolm Harrison, '"Race", deprivation and the research agenda: revisiting housing, ethnicity and neighbourhoods', Housing Studies, Volume 28 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Apr
An article examined whether the labour market was a driver of mobility for residents of deprived neighbourhoods. It said that the labour market was not an important driver of either past or anticipated mobility: for those residents who had 'got on their bikes' and moved relatively long distances to reside in their existing neighbourhood, it did not appear to be a significant contributory factor behind their decision to do so.
Source: Paul Hickman, 'Getting on their bikes? The labour market as a driver of the residential mobility decisions of residents in deprived neighbourhoods', Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal, Volume 6 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Mar
An article examined whether differing understandings of local inequality and in the ways in which it was measured affected the relationships between inequality and crime.
Source: Adam Whitworth, 'Local inequality and crime: exploring how variation in the scale of inequality measures affects relationships between inequality and crime', Urban Studies, Volume 50 Number 4
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Feb
A study examined how the recession was affecting disadvantaged communities in Scotland. It highlighted the degeneration of the physical environment and facilities, with a direct toll on the confidence and behaviour of residents and investors; a lack of mobility and the stifling of social and economic opportunities; the erosion of community networks, access, and capacity, and therefore the overall health and well-being of individuals and their communities; and a cumulative sense of economic and political 'abandonment'.
Source: Andy Milne and Derek Rankine, Reality, Resources, Resilience: Regeneration in a recession, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Jan