{"id":7434,"date":"2016-01-26T14:56:23","date_gmt":"2016-01-26T14:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7434"},"modified":"2016-01-27T14:02:27","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T14:02:27","slug":"northern-poorhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7434","title":{"rendered":"Northern ‘poorhouse’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last summer, chancellor George Osborne pledged that his government would create a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhigher wage, lower tax, lower welfare\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 country; that the vaunted \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Northern Powerhouse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 would, over the next few years, finally become a reality.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut the Conservative government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s track record shows that, if anything, the very opposite of their pledges is being realised.<\/p>\n

 
\nA new report from the Centre for Cities <\/a>published yesterday (January 25) has found that more than half of UK cities are, in fact, classed as \u00e2\u20ac\u015blow-wage, high-welfare\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 economies. The vast majority of these cities are in the north or in the Midlands, while only four cities with below average wages and above average welfare spend are in the south.<\/p>\n

 
\nOver the last decade, 90 per cent of job growth came from cities in the south of England \u00e2\u20ac\u201c for every 12 new jobs created in the region between 2004 and 2013, only one job was created in the rest of the UK.
\nThe analysis of UK cities\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 economic health looked at welfare spending by taking together Jobseekers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Allowance, housing benefit, disability benefit, tax credits, child benefit, and council tax, among other government benefits.<\/p>\n

 
\nHousing benefit, tax credits and other forms of in-work income support represented the largest proportion of welfare spend across the board. This indicates that joblessness alone is not what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plaguing northern cities \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chronically low wages, as highly skilled jobs, such as in the steel industry, disappear and low-wage, insecure jobs come in to take their place.<\/p>\n

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Affordability crisis<\/strong><\/em>
\nWhile the outlook for northern cities was bleak, the south of England, too, is staring at its own crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c one of affordability \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which threatens to derail its success. The Centre for Cities found that relative economic health in cities such as London, where wages are high and welfare spend is relatively low, is at risk as housing costs continue to spiral out of control.<\/p>\n

 
\nFor example, in Oxford, which the report found to be the least affordable city, house prices were 16.2 times more than average salaries, compared to the most affordable city, Burnley, where house prices were 4.3 times average salaries.<\/p>\n

 
\nOne fact from the Cities Outlook report was clear \u00e2\u20ac\u201c across the UK, the creation of new jobs did not translate into wage growth. While a million new jobs were created in UK cities between 2010 and 2014, urban wages fell by 5 per cent over the same period \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a decrease in average annual salary of \u00c2\u01411,300 in real terms per person.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner placed the blame of northern cities\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 struggles and stagnant wage growth across the UK squarely on the shoulders of the present government and its coalition predecessors.<\/p>\n

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Years of suffering <\/strong><\/em>
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere is no escape from the basic fact that Cameron and Osborne- in this Parliament and the last \u00e2\u20ac\u201c are failing to implement policies that create decent jobs across the country,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople suffered seven years of real cuts, and wages have yet to recover to pre-crisis levels. Most of the new jobs being created are in the lower paid sectors of our economy. And at the same time they have overseen the loss of skilled jobs such as in our steel industry. They have no plan to drive wages higher.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBecause of this government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actions, economic growth has been skewed towards the South East and local authorities with higher levels of deprivation have been the hardest hit by the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s funding cuts, year after year,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner added.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

Northern cuts<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nIndeed, a study by Newcastle-upon-Tyne city council <\/a>from last year found that poorer northern and inner-city London councils bore the greatest brunt of cuts to local authorities.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe study showed that in the 2015-16 town hall funding settlement, councils in the north east, which are largely Labour-run, would see a drop in spending power of \u00c2\u014178 per household, while more affluent Tory-controlled councils in the south will actually experience an increase in spending power amount to \u00c2\u01419 per household.<\/p>\n

 
\nTurner highlighted government attacks on the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDisabled people and people who have lost their job have been subjected to punishing benefit cuts and a humiliating sanctions regime,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was only sustained opposition that stopped them taking over \u00c2\u01411,000 a year from low paid households with young families through Tax Credit cuts.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nTurner noted that lowering the welfare bill means tackling the housing crisis, which the government has so far done virtually nothing to address.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGovernment social spending is in reality is being driven by spiralling housing benefit costs as the housing crisis continues to worsen,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he argued. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bRather than take the necessary action to invest in building new social rent homes that would create thousands of decent jobs and provide decent homes across the UK, they watch from the side lines.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nHe explained that the government taking a stake in vital industries such as steel would substantially enhance struggling cities\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 economic prospects.<\/p>\n

 
\nSustained public investment in infrastructure projects such as public transport, communications, green energy and housing, would also collectively contribute to a massive boost to local economies.<\/p>\n

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Government investment on this scale would in turn ensure decent jobs were created across the country.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSimply improving transport links, for example, is a major boost to an area and encourages further private investment,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Turner noted.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last summer, chancellor George Osborne pledged that his government would create a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhigher wage, lower tax, lower welfare\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 country; that the vaunted \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Northern Powerhouse\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 would, over the next few years, finally become a reality.   But the Conservative government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s track record shows that, if anything, the very opposite of their pledges is being realised.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[105,449,178],"wps_subtitle":"Gov't failing northern cities","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7434"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7434"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7443,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7434\/revisions\/7443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}