Morning:
6°c
The Dispossessed: London’s worst poverty is moving out to leafy suburbs
Jonathan Prynn and Genevieve Roberts28 Jul 2010
Extreme poverty is on the march in outer London areas once regarded as affluent havens of suburban life.
Many key indicators of deprivation have spiked dramatically in the greener outer boroughs, creating a new “ring of poverty”, while falling in the traditionally poor areas of inner London, according to the latest research.
The unprecedented trend has seen the biggest changes to London's “poverty map” since the Victorian era and threatens to put huge strains on the resources of outer London councils.
It also underlines how the inequality highlighted by the Standard's Dispossessed campaign is a pan-London problem.
Indeed for probably the first time in the capital's history there are now more people living in poverty in outer than inner London.
According to the think-tank London Poverty Profile, 44 per cent of children in inner London, some 260,000 in total, live in low-income families — the highest proportion in the country.
However, this has fallen from 53 per cent in the late Nineties, while the proportion in outer London has risen faster than in any other region of Britain to a total of 370,000.
Similarly, inner London has seen a decrease of about five per cent in the proportion of working-age adults living in low-income households over the same period. Outer London has seen an increase of three percentage points.
Experts believe the trend has been driven by housing costs soaring over the past decade in traditionally poorer areas of the capital such as Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets, forcing many of the worst-off to relocate farther out.
At the same time the loss of major employers on London's fringes such as Ford Motors in Dagenham has left huge pockets of high unemployment.
Jobless figures show that while unemployment is still high in Newham and Tower Hamlets it has also passed the 10 per cent mark in four outer London boroughs — Barking & Dagenham, Enfield, Greenwich and Waltham Forest.
The Standard's Dispossessed campaign has illustrated how poverty is increasingly being “exported” from the centre to the suburbs.
Enfield MP David Burrowes said: “Areas such as Enfield have the worst indicators of poverty… Enfield is often characterised as being leafy and green but this hides pockets of serious poverty and deprivation.”
Last week we highlighted the plight of printer Terry Lane and his family, who were evicted from their home in Westminster and forced to live in hostel accommodation in Hackney before finding a cheaper home in Hendon. Although in work, he earns so little that he has to commute by foot and by bike to save the cost of a Travelcard.
We also uncovered the case of Sandra Sanchez, who lives in Hounslow and has to leave home at 4am to catch two buses into Whitehall, where she works as a cleaner at the Treasury. The single mother of three can often afford to put no more than a plate of lentils on the dinner table.
Tom MacInnes, senior analyst at Trust for London, said: “Historically people in Tower Hamlets and Hackney were always poor because as people got better off they moved out and enriched the neighbouring boroughs and in turn were replaced by more poor people. That doesn't seem to be happening any more. You get non-poor people moving in and the poor people moving out.
“The number of people receiving out of work benefits in places like Tower Hamlets and Southwark is lower than in 2003 or 2004. But in places like Barking and Dagenham it is higher.”
Experts believe the shift has been accelerated by the recession and will be exacerbated further by next year's housing benefit reforms.
According to Danny Dorling, professor of human geography at Sheffield University and author of Injustice: Why Social Inequality Persists, the trend is a very recent phenomenon.
He said this was partly due to a lack of affordable social housing in London and a rise in the number of poor people forced into the private rented sector. “The bottom end of the private rented sector will naturally be further out.”
Another factor has been the return of extremes of inequality in London with the rise of a large super-rich class that has converted homes that were divided into flats back into single dwellings, putting more pressure on the fewer homes left available to rent.
For people like Robert Allen, born and bred in Deptford, life is as tough as ever. Until May this year, a bench by St Paul's Church in Deptford High Street was his home for five years. He now lives in a shared house and continues to search for work. He said: “I've slept out in the winter time, every time. But I have never begged off anyone — I was brought up never to ask for things.”
Mr Allen lost his home when he lost his job as a forklift truck driver five years ago. His landlady would not accept Housing Benefit payments, so he was caught in a cruel loop.
While poverty may be rising fastest in outer London it cuts across all boundaries. For Mr Allen and the other members of the Dispossessed all that matters is the daily struggle to survive.
How music gave me purpose
After months on the dole with no job offers on the horizon, Damon Bawcombe was at risk of becoming one of London's many young long-term unemployed.
The 22-year-old from Shepherd's Bush said he felt “uninspired” and was questioning why he had bothered going to college.
“It wasn't very encouraging only being able to go for jobs in a field I wasn't aiming for. There wasn't anything to aspire to,” he said. But after six months he was put in touch with Music Education Loving Productions — a charity based in Acton which uses music to help young offenders, people with learning difficulties and the unemployed.
Damon, who plays guitar, sings and has music production skills, volunteered and became a studio engineer. While he is still unpaid, he now feels more confident and has a support network of other musicians.
He said: “It feels great to give something back. MEL feels like a hub for networking for musicians. I'd like to go into youth work because at MEL I work with young offenders and people with learning difficulties as well.
“It gives me a place where everyone is trying to go in the same direction as me and everyone's very passionate. It's got a lot of community spirit.”
Click here to make a donation to the Dispossessed Fund
Reader views (6)
Hardly surprising is it with central Londonistan crammed to the gunwhales ! Where next, Suffolk, Kent, Sussex, Essex, Berkshire, Hertfordshire ?
- Andy Woodhead, London, ENGLAND, 28/07/2010 11:45
Report abuse
The glaringly disparity in incomes between those who work in the City (IE the financial sector) and those who do the work that London actually needs (IE cleaners, bus drivers etc) is one of the main causes of ordinary workers not being able to afford to live in central London.
And BTW - the coments left on here earlier were so full of humanity that they restored my faith in the great UK public - not!!
- Denis Lenihan, London, 28/07/2010 11:39
Report abuse
Surely no one is equating Barking & Dagenham, Enfield, Greenwich and Waltham Forest as '..once being regarded as affluent havens of suburban life..'. Are they 'havin a laff or what '.
- pat, purley, 27/07/2010 21:30
Report abuse
These poverty figures must in some ways also relate to the 40% of children born to foreign mothers in the London area.
- James, London, 27/07/2010 19:22
Report abuse
Yes the dispossessed Eastern Europeans and Somalians are all moving out to my neighbourhood. I do not like it !
- Grim Reaper, Hell, 27/07/2010 17:22
Report abuse
If they are coming out of London can the Knives and Guns be left behind ?
- Davey_buoy, Chertsey, 27/07/2010 16:31
Report abuse
