The U.K. in 2019 -

The inability of councils to use the money they made from council house sales curtailed the number being built. There is no longer a movement to abolish unsafe and slum housing. Link this with the rise of the private landlord, looking for the biggest return on his investment and you have high rents, high levels of eviction and families in B&B accommodation. I wonder as well if anyone has ever looked at the figures for the amount councils made from renting out houses? It seems to me that this along with the cuts to council funding is the reason for the poor infrastructure now found in many places. It may, as well, be a long and drawn out scheme from the Tory party to make sure that councils (who quite frequently are not Tory) steadily lose powers.

People were asked what they thought was necessary to have a reasonable living standard. It was interesting to read. They were certainly not setting the bar too high. Top of the list with over 90% considering the following are necessities
Heating to warm living areas.
Damp free homes
2 meals a day
For children
Warm winter coat
Daily fresh fruit and vegetables
New, properly fitted shoes

Beyond this social activities were also considered important

Visiting relatives/ friends in hospital
Celebrating special occasions
A hobby or leisure activity.
For children
A garden to outdoor safe space to play in
Children’s clubs/activities
Ability to afford school trips

Not a lot to ask is it?

baggs they are

Adequate food
Adequate clothing
Adequate warm and damp free housing.

There are of course other indicators and these include
Financial security
Inadequate household goods
Poorer health
Higher mortality

I should have said to make it clear that immigration has never been linked to overall poverty. There is plenty of reports to link immigrant poverty.

Another report by Bristol University which looked at three activities or items deemed necessary for life in the U.K. in 2014 showed that the proportion of households lacking these necessities had risen to 33%.

What are the three "activities or items" mentioned here, please?

OK I will have a look at reports relating to immigration and housing shortage, although this thread is simply about poverty and bad housing.

Now the Victorians understood it as did governments in the 30s and post war, that bad housing is the responsibility of government, by various measures such as legislation, investment and social housing. Immigration has never been linked to poverty, and the impact poverty has on the individual such as bad housing.

Grandad1943
The increase in GDP has been in 'soft' industries such as banking and IT skills and not in manufacturing and heavy industry which was in decline during the Thatcher years and her drive to turn UK into a service provider. Much of the manual work in UK contributes little to GDP this being assembly work, warehousing. We do little heavy manfacturing as this is outsourced.
We are fed the idea of needing immigration which for some sectors maybe we do, but since 2004 when free movement really took off employers have drastically cut training budgets, apprenticeships and succession training has all but gone because they can import someone already trained at a lower salary, pushing our less academic youngsters into unskilled and possibly gig economy jobs. Why are employers panicking now? Because their trained, cheap employee stream may dry and they will have to start training and apprenticeship schemes again incurring a cut in profits.
I am all for inviting people to work here for jobs where the need is immediate and cannot be filled internally.
For every person who comes here we have to find accommdation, school places, room on the roads, doctors appointments,additional water, sewage and waste capacity, electricity, gas etc. etc.

WW2
Of course housing shartages have to be linked to immigration especially when the 'indigenous' population is declining as is the case in UK, yet the need for housing and infrastructure is rising. Actual immigration and increasing birthrate by immgrants is bound to impact. Maybe this is a good thing as their labour is needed, but surely on a small group of island there becomes a saturation point. Its interesting to look at the population levels in the much larger countries of Europe, in many cases their economies are doing okay with fewer people per sq.mtr. France has a similar size population to UK and is much, much bigger.

Joelsnan Quote [Grandad1943, What did we do pre Maastricht enabling free movement?] End Quote.

Joelsnan, pre-Maastricht Britain Britain had a much smaller economy and immigration was prior to that time filled by people migrating to the UK from mainly Asian countries.

However the Benefits of EU membership and other factors has meant the British economy has expanded over the years since Maastricht and immigration from EU countries has very much filled the need since that treaty signing for people to run or health service, harvest our crops, drive our buses and trucks and much else in our service industries.

I for one am thankful that those migrants are here.

White wave 2 - what’s your solution?

Grandad1943
Yes, and as we have all learned in the last three years we very much need those immigrants to run or health service, harvest our crops, drive our buses and trucks and much else in our service industries

What did we do pre Maastricht enabling free movement?

As you wish annie

They cannot be separated

annie perhaps the alleged link between immigration and housing shortage is for another thread?

Poverty and immigration are not linked , housing shortages can be linked

Really grandad1943, the welfare of 116 children was of no interest to a labour government. Surely you will be supportive if ‘lessons will be learned ‘ following the Grenfell tower ‘event’.

I haven’t addressed the likely affects of Brexit on poverty, but an article in the BMJ is interesting.

www.dannydorling.org/?p=5568

quizqueen you’d advocate euthanasia for disabled people then who couldn’t ‘make their own way’. You know which last populist extreme racist leader did that? I believe he used gas

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

There is little optimism that this situation is likely to improve, indeed things are set to get worse. Please note I have not looked at the effect of a no deal brexit will have on the poorly paid.

1 in 5 working people in the UK are (5.4 million) are low paid.
1 in 4 individuals get less than the living wage.
The U.K. sits at the wrong end of the low pay table. Examples of better paid are Belgium where poor are paid 7 times as high, and Switzerland, twice as high.
There is some optimism in that it is calculated that as a result of the National minimum wage. It is estimated that by 2020 there should be 1 million less on low wages.
However, positive though the NMW appears it is likely to sharpen the challenge of pay progression for low paid workers. The effect will be to group the lowest paid workers on the pay floor.
Analysis shows that the number of low paid workers on the pay floor will rise from 6% in 2015, to an unprecedented 15% in 2020.

Resolution Foundation.

The welfare of this nations children would appear to be of little interest to this Tory government.

It is reported in the media today that only 15% of schools opened in recent years have sprinkler systems fitted. Once again, austerity is more important than the safety of this nations children

The lessons of Grenfell Tower are being deliberately ignored.

Link to the above report can be found here:-
www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-47923843

Please don’t confuse poverty with immigration. They are two entirely different issues.

How does this poverty affect the most vulnerable in our society?

Children and education. Survey by NEU with 8600 educational staff taking part.

Teachers are reporting worsening signs of child poverty in our classrooms.
Children are arriving at school, tired, hungry, angry and confused.
Many arrive wearing ill fitting and dirty uniforms with behavioural issues and anxiety that affects their learning.
Many of the school staff provided food for the students and personal products from their own pocket. Many also washed and paid for school uniforms.
Most teaching staff saw the food banks as an every day necessity for these children.

The affects of poverty on the learning process for these vulnerable children.
78% suffer from fatigue
76% had poor concentration
75% poor behaviour
57% experience hunger
50% suffer Ill health.
35% are bullied.

Some students arrive without dinner money and say that they haven’t eaten for 2 days.
Many children are brought to school when they are too unwell to attend, because their parents are on zero hours contracts and too frightened to take time off.
Overcrowding at home in slum style housing means there is not enough space to do homework and poor sleeping patterns are endured.

Nadhim Zaharia, responded by the usual mantra.
Tackling disadvantage and poverty is a priority for the government. Employment is at the highest and wages outstripping growth.

As usual they miss the point.

“

Anniebach Quote [ We fear mentioning immigration because of accusations of racism] End Quote.

Yes, and as we have all learned in the last three years we very much need those immigrants to run or health service, harvest our crops, drive our buses and trucks and much else in our service industries.

The simple solution to bringing an end to the housing crisis would be to build far more social housing, preferably under local Council control.

However, this Tory government would rather pander to the private rented sector, placing private profit before the welfare of working people once again.

quizqueen

Migrants from the EU contribute £2,300 more to the exchequer each year in net terms than the average adult, the analysis for the government has found.

And, over their lifetimes, they pay in £78,000 more than they take out in public services and benefits - while the average UK citizen’s net lifetime contribution is zero.

From The Independent