Multiple problems. How to solve them?

Mollygo I can't wait to hear of the outcome from the Liverpool council since the "outing" of its Lord Mayor. I hope it opens up a hornets nest involving all councils in this country because when you look around-----nothing appears to have been done within any departments.

Croydon Council is in a mess also, the pictures of the state of its housing stock is appalling.

There has also been an unacceptable divide between the North and the South and to my knowledge only Frank Field could ever see this but sadly what he used to say always fell on deaf ears in Parliament. It's sickening the way politicians have always turned a blind eye.

Things can only get worse since we're no longer in line for help from the EU which, after Wales, ploughed millions into Liverpool One shopping area.
I don't envisage any assistance forthcoming from the Government to the " down at heel " people in the NW !

GrannyGravy13

Croydon Council is in a mess also, the pictures of the state of its housing stock is appalling.

I saw a news item about Croydon housing. I was shocked about the conditions some people are living in. What is Croydon spending its money on I wonder?

Totally disgusting GrannyGravy13.
When councils do decide to build, the places are literally thrown together thus making them stand out like a sore thumb and so close together like boxes.

Why should it be a case of " anything will do ?" No imagination ! Or, you have dangerous high-rises which are magnets for crime and end up like ghetto's. Horrible. There's no incentive in the people who are forced to live in such places. Ugly, foreboding buildings.

Tendring Council in Essex (includes Clacton on Sea, Harwich etc) has the highest death rate due to deprivation and the age profile of the population. Its not just the North. I spent some of my growing up there having moved there from the East End of London.

One innovation that would go a long way towards fairness is basic living wage for all regardless of age and qualifications.

Then stop tax havens for the very rich. Then stop land ownership by persons with no interest in the land's value to society.

BigBertha1

Tendring Council in Essex (includes Clacton on Sea, Harwich etc) has the highest death rate due to deprivation and the age profile of the population. Its not just the North. I spent some of my growing up there having moved there from the East End of London.

I think Jaywick regularly appears as No.1 for the most deprived town in the Country (near Clacton). When you consider how wealthy other parts of Essex are it’s a conundrum.

People from the South don't have to travel far to seek employment though those in the North have no option but to travel to find employment----that's the difference.

Surely a lot of this is down to the reduction in payments to local authorities from central govt. There was a sharp reduction in the govt grant in 2010 (38%). Since then there have been many changes to local authority funding, such as changes in the way in which business rates are allocated, freezes to rate increases etc etc. Local authorities in the UK are not allowed to borrow. And if you remember, when the right to buy came into force under Thatcher, the LAs were not allowed to invest the proceeds in building new homes.

The LA housing stocks, in many cases, were hived of to housing associations, some of which were formed by the housing department staff. Now, many of the original associations have been subsumed by larger organisations which, to my mind, no longer have the original ethos of providing secure social housing.

London is a big city full of opportunities. What has the North got ? Mines shut down. Shipping all but fizzled. Car industries teetering on the brink. Steelworks gone.
All you see advertised are care home workers wanted----for buttons.

Poverty = poor health outcomes.

Poverty has risen existentially in the past 10 years.

The average unemployed benefit in western world is 50% of income in the U.K. it is 13%

But we also have the working poor. Our unskilled and low paid skilled workers are in a poor condition.

We never learn do we?

BigBertha1

Tendring Council in Essex (includes Clacton on Sea, Harwich etc) has the highest death rate due to deprivation and the age profile of the population. Its not just the North. I spent some of my growing up there having moved there from the East End of London.

Correct. A couple of the Essex coastal districts are the most deprived in the country. And don't forget that London itself has huge pockets of deprivation. As the pandemic has continued, it's so obvious that there's a high correlation between high infection rates and rates of multiple deprivation. There's almost a perfect match.

The real test for this government will be if it really does keeps its word about levelling up the north when the pandemic has settled. It's going to take money - replacing all that EU money for a start.

Growstuff I'm being very cheeky here I know but please look at my thread "the govt talks the talk...." It's about the govt keeping its word.

EllanVannin

London is a big city full of opportunities. What has the North got ? Mines shut down. Shipping all but fizzled. Car industries teetering on the brink. Steelworks gone.
All you see advertised are care home workers wanted----for buttons.

As you know, I was born and raised in Birkenhead. I know only too well about the lack of opportunities on Merseyside, which started to become worse in the late 1960s. That's why I moved to the South East and have never gone back. There's nothing to stop people from moving.

I also know of the poverty in London because I lived in the middle of it before moving out to Essex, which has its own problems.

I love the big northern cities and am planning to move back within the next few years. I wish people would stop seeing themselves as downtrodden and creating false divisions. The main divisions are between metropolitan areas, the small towns and the shires. I dare say the people in North Yorks villages aren't very different in their outlook from the people in the villages round here.

Dinahmo

Growstuff I'm being very cheeky here I know but please look at my thread "the govt talks the talk...." It's about the govt keeping its word.

OK! But I need coffee fix Part 2 first!

PS. The first thing people need to do if they want the government to listen is to stop voting Tory, even if it means voting for a party with little chance of electoral success. With a majority of 80 there is no need to listen. It will just claim that people voted for it and everything it's doing.

Dinahmo You're right. Councils have had their funding cut dramatically. Sneakily, it was done so that local government has been blamed for cuts in central government funding.

An area such as mine, which has few social needs and loads of high value property, has benefitted from the formula. Less of our money has been put in the central "pot" and we have also received bigger grants from central government. Of course, it's not much fun if you happen to one of the poor minority. Incidentally, that partly explains the Clacton conundrum. Essex County Council spends very little on its more deprived communities.

There is a great deal of poverty in the south east and other areas in the south. As has been said Jaywick in Essex gets the poorest in the country prize.
Not everyone can be a city whizz kid and it’s certainly harder being poor in the south because of the high costs especially for property, be that owned or rented.
This constant comparison between poor north and rich south is false as well as unnecessarily divisive.

This constant comparison between poor north and rich south is false as well as unnecessarily divisive.

I moved to 'the North' 50 years ago, from Essex. The divide was very much in evidence even then, when the mines and the steel works etc. were still fully operational. Northerners were very aware of it. Southerners didn't even think about it. I think most of us barely knew where 'the North' was...

And here we are in the Midlands, in the bit that has remained obstinately dark purple on the infection map, and which has gone from national lockdown to local lockdown and back to national. Even in the Summer our infection rates were very high.

All of those problems are ours too.

Following

Things can only get worse since we're no longer in line for help from the EU which, after Wales, ploughed millions into Liverpool One shopping area.

I thought it was the Duke of Westminster who gave millions to Liverpool and was it not down to him we got Liverpool 1?

We earned our living on the Wirral we noticed a distinct slump in businesses over ten years ago. Businesses closing down boarded up and rents were too high. Councils will not invest in improvements unless it’s in their interest. Councils cry poverty lack of funding I would like to know what they actually do with all the revenue they get from Joe public’s council tax. We have reduced services more than ever but never a reduction in council tax,
There is deprivation in every city and problems in rural areas especially with transport. However central London gets what it wants every time. New network railway no problem it’s getting it.

Actually Redhead London doesn't get what it wants all the time - some districts most certainly don't.

The Wirral has high needs, although lower than some parts of Liverpool, especially around Speke. Most of your council tax goes on social care. It is paid to a central "pot" and you are allocated what the government thinks you need. Poorer areas which can't raise much receive more from the central pot than wealthier areas, but the differential has been narrowed over the last ten years. That's why you have noticed cuts to services, but wealthier areas haven't suffered such vicious cuts.