THE SMITH INSTITUTE
in association with
THE LSE CENTRE FOR ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL EXCLUSION

A More Equal Society? New Labour, Poverty, Inequality and Social Exclusion

What is given below is a very brief summary of the points made by the speakers at these events: in every case the speeches were much richer and more extensive than we have space for in this newsletter. There were also many significant points raised by members of the audience in the subsequent discussion, which we have not picked up here. For a full report of the seminars, please see the publication when it goes up on the website.

Seminar 1: Communities

After a brief introduction by Lord Best OBE (Director, Joseph Rowntree Foundation) Professor Anne Power (Deputy Director, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion) presented the latest evidence on progress in addressing social exclusion in deprived communities since 1997.  This research showed that although there had been significant progress in a number of areas – increased employment, the number of non-decent homes down, increasing literacy levels, falling teenage pregnancy rates – there are legitimate concerns about the sustainability of some of the Governments most significant anti-poverty measures.  Barbara Roche MP then followed by giving a brief history of Government regeneration policy before arguing that the Left had often failed to understand the importance of a business-led approach to regeneration policy.  Joe Montgomery (Head, Neighbourhood Renewal Unit, ODPM) highlighted the Government’s approach to deprived neighbourhoods and emphasised the importance of departmental floor targets and argued that the key to making further progress was to build both a better understanding of the links between the private and public sectors as well as a stronger leadership culture in deprived areas.

Seminar 2: Children and Families

Dr Kitty Stewart (LSE) opened this seminar by presenting research on the impact of the Governments policies on children and families since 1997.  This showed that poverty levels had fallen in many families but that lower income families may not be benefiting sufficiently in the provision of childcare with only one in three poor children having access to Sure Start services.  Carey Oppenheim (Senior Policy Adviser, 10 Downing Street) then followed by stressing the need for a multi-dimensional approach to tackling poverty in families and argued that the place of children in society is far more important than ever before.  John Denham MP agreed that although progress had been made, more needed to be done to fundamentally alter families aspirations and expectations and that the Government should continue its focus on childcare to ensure that the progress made becomes irreversible.  Margaret Hodge (Minister for Children and Young People, DfES) then closed the discussion by arguing that although programmes like Sure Start had made a big difference, policymakers should not underestimate the scale of the challenge still before them in tackling family poverty.  

Seminar 3: Economic Issues/ Core Services

John Healey MP (Economic Secretary, HM Treasury) opened this seminar with an outline of the Government’s existing policies to promote opportunity and security for all. He discussed the need for flexibility within some of the mainstream service programmes to help reduce poverty, inequality and exclusion in order to take forward the successes that schemes such as the New Deal and Tax Credits have achieved. Abigail McKnight (Research Fellow, CASE) discussed the Government’s employment and poverty policies in terms of their impacts upon three groups; young people, the long term unemployed and lone parents. Unemployment among economically active young people aged 16 and 17 has increased since 2000, despite a decrease in economic activity due to rising educational participation beyond age 16. Those who have been unemployed for more than 12 months have fallen, as a percentage of total unemployment, from around 40% in 1997 to 25% by 2002. However, targeted policies such as the New Deal for the Long Term Unemployed have had little effect and the rate of extended unemployment has stayed fairly flat since 2002. Lone parents are the group who have benefited most from the government’s targeted policies, with a drop of ten percentage points in the incidence of unemployment. Geoff Mulgan (Director, Institute for Community Studies) stressed the importance of a long term view in solving the more intractable problems of exclusion from the labour market. John McFall MP (Chair, Treasury Select Committee) then offered his response, highlighting the role of structural interventions in disadvantaged areas, where regeneration companies could coordinate the involvement of private companies, liaising with job centres and providing educational opportunities such as mentoring to facilitate the development of skills that are relevant to the employment prospects in the area.

Seminar 4: Does it all Add Up?

John Healey MP welcomed delegates to the seminar and outlined the government’s overarching commitment to reducing poverty and social exclusion across the population, prioritising pensioners and families with children. He highlighted the areas where progress is still much needed: ethnic inequalities really remain too high; social class differences are still strong within secondary education; and as yet there is little evidence that health inequalities are diminishing. John Hills (Director, CASE) then gave an overview of the Government’s progress in addressing poverty, inequality and social exclusion since 1997. He praised the depth of analysis and engagement with the multi-layered and interlinked nature of the problems that has been the driver of Government policy, stressing the importance of such analysis as the bedrock of successful policy. The remaining gaps are most obvious in terms of addressing poverty and unemployment among working-age people who do not have children. The lack of policy interventions for this group, especially in terms of health inequalities, has important effects on their future roles as working families with children. Tom Warsop (Vice President, EDS) discussed the importance of personalising the delivery of poverty policies in order that they are oriented towards a desired outcome, rather than defining the policy package that is to be applied regardless of the specifics of a particular case. Nick Timmins (Public Policy Editor, Financial Times) stressed the importance of engaging with teenagers and young people and making the Government’s welfare to work policies more effective in dealing with occurrences of social exclusion amongst this key group. Ed Balls (Senior Research Fellow, The Smith Institute) highlighted the value of the Government’s work in embedding their agenda on poverty and social inclusion in order that it outlasts any single parliament or government. To this end, the institutionalisation of a deeper level of analysis of these problems within Government departments creates an imperative for action that no future government can avoid responding to.