New figures highlight the great divide
Jan 26 2008 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal
POVERTY, deprivation and inequality figures have once again highlighted the economic and lifestyle gap between the North and South.
Opposition politicians have accused the region’s Labour majority of failing the North after maps and league tables revealed the real living standards faced by families from Teesside to Northumberland.
The Government’s Index of Multiple Deprivation has been used to produce a map of the region, detailing its best and worst places to live.
Number-crunching researchers at development agency One NorthEast have used the figures to show just how far the North-East has to go to catch up with the prosperous South.
Parts of Middlesbrough were rated the second worst in the UK for finding and keeping a job.
And the North-East, along with neighbourhoods in the North-West, dominate the nationwide list of health deprivation and low income. The figures were not all bad news, and do show some improvements. Parts of Northumberland were among the best in the UK for their “living environment”.
But Northumberland had less success on the table charting barriers to housing, which show the county facing incredible difficulty on simple steps such as finding an affordable home near to a doctor or post office.
Newcastle Council leader John Shipley last night added his voice to those calling for the Government to show a real commitment to ending North-East poverty.
His Newcastle patch contains some of the best and worst places to live in the region – something the council boss insists is set to change for the better.
Mr Shipley said: “In Newcastle, the council and all our partners in Job Centre Plus or the health service or the police are working together on these inequalities and the gap is actually narrowing. It takes time for Indices of Deprivation to show results, but we are heading in the right direction. And continuing to narrow this gap is without doubt the main aim of everyone in Newcastle.
“That said, I genuinely believe that we have been short-changed when it comes to investment in our region, in particular with strategic transport investment.
“Another area we lose out in is public sector research spending.
“No money for this finds its way to the North-East. We’re talking about research grants that are in effect decided on by the Government that help generate the sort of highly-skilled jobs needed to turn around these levels of inequality.
“But the Government would rather most of these go to Greater London.
“We have to have a much greater level of public investment in the region. We need a united kingdom and not this disunited kingdom we unfortunately have.”
