London’s poverty profile
Author(s)/Editor(s): MacInnes T, Kenway P
Publisher/Organizer: UK City Parochial Foundation
Publication date: 2009
Language: English
Overview
“When we think of the profile of a city, what usually springs to mind is a panorama of tall buildings outlined against the sky. For most Londoners, that might be the Houses of Parliament, the Post Office Tower, Canary Wharf perhaps. Important buildings which stand for authority, power, and wealth. This report is about a different kind of profile in a different kind of London. It describes the social and economic profile of the capital, by picking out for us where poverty, deprivation and social exclusion are at their most prominent.
Like any profile, it shows us high and low points. The report reveals that in some respects London is making progress: in educational achievement, for example, the findings are encouraging. But elsewhere, and even within the shadows of the same London buildings that represent privilege, the report finds evidence of unrelieved deprivation that should concern us all. And by comparison to other cities in England, and despite its size and status, London’s record in combating some aspects of poverty is dispiritingly poor.
Poverty is to be found everywhere in London, in differing forms, with varying symptoms and of greater or lesser intensity. The strength of this report is that it shows these differences, and allows comparisons to be drawn between communities, areas and boroughs. It provides information that will allow lessons to be drawn, policies and practices to be changed, resources to be reallocated, so that lives can be improved.” Nigel Pantling, Chairman, City Parochial Foundation