Series: CASE Studies on Poverty, Place and Policy
Poverty is still a real issue within Britain today and this essential series provides evidence-based insights into how communities and families are dealing with it.
Published in conjunction with the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at the London School of Economics, this series draws together fresh research and sheds important light on the impact of anti-poverty policy, focusing on the individual and social factors that promote regeneration, recovery and renewal.
CASE Studies on Poverty, Place and Policy
This chapter investigates the new policies of the New Labour government, including wider urban, regional, and housing policies. There have been two distinct phases of policy development in England: the introduction of a new range of area-based policies, and the introduction of the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal. The New Labour government’s area programmes, which became commonly known as area-based initiatives (ABIs), included both comprehensive area-regeneration schemes and specific programmes on health, education, employment, and early-years development. The Action Plan for the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal had five key elements. Building on this approach, it included over 100 specific elements, some of them new, some already being done. The New Labour government’s policy agenda for neighbourhood renewal was certainly broader than that of any of its predecessors, and seemed to have learnt some of the lessons of the past.
This chapter provides a discussion on the solutions for the problems of housing and labour. The major advantage of stock transfer was that it offered an unprecedented opportunity to improve housing conditions. Apart from the improvement of the existing stock, the other major development since the first acquaintance with the areas was the open discussion of the social and economic value of mixed-income and mixed-tenure neighbourhoods and the development of specific plans to break up poverty clusters. In the absence of stock transfer, funding housing improvements at neighbourhood level was difficult. Local authorities were also looking to reduce poverty concentrations by changing the tenure mix of neighbourhoods. The overall picture in 2001 was more optimistic than in 1999, and there were prospects of tackling housing-demand and -supply problems in the longer term.
Poverty street addresses one of the UK’s major social policy concerns: the gap between the poorest neighbourhoods and the rest of the country. It is an account of neighbourhood decline, a portrait of conditions in the most disadvantaged areas and an up-to-date analysis of the impact of the government’s neighbourhood renewal policies.
The book:
· explores twelve of the most disadvantaged areas in England and Wales, from Newcastle in the north to Thanet in the south, providing the reader with a unique journey around the country’s poverty map;
· combines evidence from neighbourhood statistics, photographs and the accounts of local people with analysis of broader social and economic trends;
· assesses the effect of government policies since 1997 and considers future prospects for reducing inequalities.
CASE Studies on Poverty, Place and Policy series
Series Editor: John Hills, Director of CASE at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Drawing on the findings of the ESRC Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion’s extensive research programme into communities, poverty and family life in Britain, this fascinating series:
Provides a rich and detailed analysis of anti-poverty policy in action.
Focuses on the individual and social factors that promote regeneration, recovery and renewal.
For other titles in this series, please follow the series link from the main catalogue page.
This chapter provides a discussion on social interaction and neighbourhood reputation. One of the most striking features of the interviews with residents, who were mainly active within their neighbourhoods, was their allusion to the strength of community ties. Despite the evidence of strong community, it would be a mistake to portray the areas as single communities, socially cohesive and integrated. As communities shrank, residents found it increasingly difficult to exercise informal social control over neighbours’ behaviour and neighbourhood conditions. Community was also made up of myriad social networks and meant different things to different people. Defensiveness caused social networks to shrink and to be less effective in maintaining social norms and standards. Meanwhile, the extent of overlap with networks outside the neighbourhood was limited by poverty, local employment, or worklessness, and by the traditional strength of local social networks.
This chapter aims to show how much the families care about their community, and how much they are linked to doing things in their neighbourhood. It illustrates how the families felt their neighbourhoods were changing, the key improvements that were identified by families in West-City and the East-Docks, and how the physical and emotional conditions were improved along with the worsening social problems.
What impact do poor neighbourhood conditions have on family life? Why does ‘neighbourhood’ matter to low-income families? How important is community spirit to people living in deprived areas? Does major regeneration funding improve social conditions? Using an up-to-date account of life in East London, this book illustrates how cities faced with neighbourhoods in decline are changing. It gives a bird's-eye view of neighbourhood problems and assets; provides policy recommendations based on real life experiences; and tackles topical issues such as race relations, mothers and work, urban revival, and social disorder through the eyes of families.
This chapter looks at the community spirit of these two neighbourhoods. It identifies why the people living in these areas think community spirit matters, what signs they see of it, and whether they feel a part of it. It shows that more than half of the families saw themselves as a part of their community, and 62 of them saw signs of it existing even if they were not directly involved. This suggests that local community organisations contribute to local well-being and to local attempts at improving conditions in ways that are not normally acknowledged from outside.
This concluding chapter looks at the findings of the study. It presents a detailed summary of the key points presented, including families, the community, and neighbourhoods. Social conditions, housing, social breakdown, and change are also covered.
This chapter looks at disorder in the neighbourhoods, which include the experiences of the families with crime, gangs, and other forms of neighbourhood problems. Some of these experiences were extremely violent, while others were more trivial. The anxieties and fears of the parents are shown, and the ‘broken windows theory’ is also introduced.
This moving book about the lives of families in London’s East End gives important new insights into neighbourhood relations (including race relations), through the eyes of the local community. What hope is there of change?
Using an up-to-date account of life in East London, the authors illustrate how cities faced with neighbourhoods in decline are changing.
East Enders:
· gives a bird’s eye view of neighbourhood problems and assets;
· provides policy recommendations based on real life experiences;
· tackles topical issues such as race relations, mothers and work, urban revival and social disorder through the eyes of families;
· is authored by leading experts in community studies.
Undergraduate and postgraduate students in social policy, sociology, anthropology, urban studies, child development, geography, housing and public administration should all read this book. Policy makers in national and local government, practitioners and community workers in towns and cities and general readers interested in the life and history of urban neighbourhoods will also find this book an invaluable source of information.
