Ground Control by Anna Minton

Author:Anna Minton [Minton, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241957806
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2011-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

WHY POVERTY IS HIDDEN

In Truro in Cornwall the shortage of housing is forcing people to live in trailers, in caravan parks leased by landlords, where conditions can be even worse. ‘We have a much higher proportion of people than you would believe living in mobile homes and they have even fewer rights. These are potentially the new enclaves of deprivation,’ CAB’s Jim McKenzie said.

The trailer parks in Truro and the ‘buggy babies’ in Edinburgh are the worst examples of the housing conditions that I came across, but more and more British towns and cities have areas of third-world conditions, particularly in the north west and north east, London and parts of Glasgow. Edinburgh boasts a more well-heeled and affluent image than Glasgow, but as Gilly Hainsworth drove me from Pilton to the centre of the city, we passed an area which she said was known as ‘Bosnia’. ‘It’s strange where the boundaries are,’ she said. ‘Edinburgh is a good place to live and there’s a good quality of life, but it’s complete apartheid. It’s the same for every city in Britain – there’s 20 per cent of the population who have a completely different life and that percentage is growing all the time.’ According to figures from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, 13 million people – 22 per cent of the population – live below what is defined as the ‘low income threshold’,13 while the number of people on very low incomes reached an all-time high of 5.5 million in 2006/7. 14

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