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17 December 2009
Hidden poverty in Swindon’s countryside – expert report uncovers the facts

Significant numbers of people living across rural parts of Swindon Borough are facing real deprivation, even though there are few recognised ‘deprived areas’. This is the stark message to come from new research just launched.

Across Swindon there are 18 areas considered amongst the most deprived nationally, but none of these is in the countryside. Yet 24,120 people, nearly 13% of the total population of Swindon Borough live in rural areas, and there are significant and widespread levels of deprivation. Nearly 17% of all older people in the Borough receiving pension credit live in the rural area, a figure slightly higher than for the South West as a whole. 8% of all people claiming Department of Work and Pension (DWP) benefits in Swindon live rurally, and 4,388 children live in rural areas, 12% of all children across Swindon as a whole. And there is a similar picture across a range of disadvantage indicators particularly those related to access to services such as journey time by public transport to hospitals, job centres and secondary schools.

The research focussing on the rural share of deprivation across the South West was published in Swindon by Community First, undertaken by the Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI), and commissioned by SWAN – the South West ACRE Network.

Tom Smith, Director of OCSI, said ”If you simply look at the location of the most deprived areas, then rural Swindon does not appear particularly disadvantaged. However, if you consider the location of deprived people, then the scale of disadvantage in rural Swindon is substantially greater.”

Stephen Wright, Regional Co-ordinator for SWAN – the South West ACRE Network commented “The picture that clearly emerges from this research is that within Swindon’s rural communities there are many people living with deprivation. However, this fact is often masked in Government statistics, because in many rural communities people facing disadvantage live closely alongside others in relative affluence. Deprivation is about people not places”

Philippa Read, Community First’s Chief Executive said “People living in rural communities can face many kinds of deprivation which might not be the case in an urban area. For example, someone losing their job in a rural area will not only be unemployed, but our research shows that they are also likely to be remote from the services and facilities that could support them, and quite possibly without access to regular or reliable public or private transport. What makes this worse, any agency which targets their support based on perceived areas of greatest need is likely to overlook the needs of people in rural communities. This is what central government and most public agencies routinely do – because it’s easier”.

Other findings from the research include over 10% of people in Swindon with limiting long-term illness live in the countryside and 9% of households with no car are in the rural areas.

Community First will be sending copies of the Rural Share of Deprivation in Swindon Report to politicians, policy makers and decision takers across Swindon Borough, urging them to think again about the way in which they tackle poverty and disadvantage in rural areas.

Philippa Read, Community First’s Chief Executive, commented “We want to make sure that resources and support work for people in the countryside as well as towns and cities. If you look at these statistics it is clear that it is the rural areas of Swindon that fall below national averages, whilst the urban areas are in many cases better than these averages. Just because it is harder to solve these problems when they are so dispersed doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. ”

The research is based on new analysis of existing data from a range of Government agencies.

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17 December 2009
Hidden poverty in Wiltshire’s countryside – expert report uncovers the facts

Significant numbers of people living across rural Wiltshire are facing real deprivation, even though there are few recognised ‘deprived areas’. This is the stark message to come from new research just launched.

Across Wiltshire there are three areas considered amongst the most deprived nationally, but none of these is in the countryside. Yet almost half of Wiltshire’s population live in rural areas, and there are significant and widespread levels of deprivation. Nearly 38% of all people claiming Department of Work and Pension (DWP) benefits in Wiltshire live rurally, and 43,722 children live in rural areas, 49% of all children across Wiltshire’s as a whole. And there is a similar picture across a range of disadvantage indicators such as people living on low income, children living in income deprived households, older people receiving Pension Credit, and people claiming disability living allowance.

The research focussing on the rural share of deprivation across the South West was published in Wiltshire by Community First, undertaken by the Oxford Consultants for Social Inclusion (OCSI), and commissioned by SWAN – the South West ACRE Network.

Tom Smith, Director of OCSI, said ”If you simply look at the location of the most deprived areas, then rural Wiltshire does not appear particularly disadvantaged. However, if you consider the location of deprived people, then the scale of disadvantage in rural Wiltshire is substantially greater.”

Stephen Wright, Regional Co-ordinator for SWAN – the South West ACRE Network commented “The picture that clearly emerges from this research is that within Wiltshire’s rural communities there are many people living with deprivation. However, this fact is often masked in Government statistics, because in many rural communities people facing disadvantage live closely alongside others in relative affluence. Deprivation is about people not places”

Philippa Read, Community First’s Chief Executive said “People living in rural communities can face many kinds of deprivation which might not be the case in an urban area. For example, someone losing their job in a rural area will not only be unemployed, but our research shows that they are also likely to be remote from the services and facilities that could support them, and quite possibly without access to regular or reliable public or private transport. What makes this worse, any agency which targets their support based on perceived areas of greatest need is likely to overlook the needs of people in rural communities. This is what central government and most public agencies routinely do – because it’s easier”.

Other findings from the research include over half of all Wiltshire’s pensioners and nearly half of all children live in rural areas and, contrary to popular perception, so do almost half of all Wiltshire’s non-white residents.

Community First will be sending copies of the Rural Share of Deprivation in Wiltshire Report to politicians, policy makers and decision takers across the Wiltshire unitary area, urging them to think again about the way in which they tackle poverty and disadvantage in rural areas.

Philippa Read, Community First’s Chief Executive, commented “We want to make sure that resources and support work for people in the countryside as well as towns and cities. If you look at these statistics it is clear that it is the rural areas of Wiltshire that fall below national averages, whilst the urban areas are in many cases better than these averages. Just because it is harder to solve these problems when they are so dispersed doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try. ”

The research is based on new analysis of existing data from a range of Government agencies.