The tragedy here is that children who have been brought up in poor families find that even

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Published: October 12, 2010

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The tragedy here is that children who have been brought up in poor families find that even in their thirties they have less chance of being in a job than other people and, if they are, more chance that it is a low-paid one.This is not, Rowntree notes, just a question of money. It is also a matter of other family difficulties, including anti-social behaviour and, for some, growing up in care. The foundation feels the Government has made a start, with its attack on child poverty, but needs to press on. It also needs to extend support in other directions, including helping families to get a better life-work balance.The number three problem is geographical differences, mostly but not entirely a North-South issue. Here Rowntree thinks that the Government could move more of its spending to poorer regions. But it also supports the idea of local projects, such as the staging of events like the Commonwealth Games, which build social capital by boosting pride and identity.Four is income support for vulnerable groups.

Rowntree points out that our unequal skills distribution is associated with our unequal earnings (see right-hand graph). We need to increase earnings from work as well as recognising those who do voluntary and other unpaid work.Five is housing, an area where Rowntree has long been active. We have uneven demand (thanks to faster growth in the South) but also problems of supply. So we have to increase supply, and that means new thinking about the use of urban land for housing and about high-density housing.And finally there is the need for long-term care. There will be a growing demand for this for demographic reasons alone. But we have made matters worse by shutting care homes and by cutting home-based services.

So we need to face that cost – but also contain the demand. The more we can limit the demand for residential care, the more likely we will be to finance care for those who really need it.Well, that is a pretty demanding set of tasks. Most require taxpayers’ money, and one could debate whether it is politically acceptable for the tax burden to rise. One could also debate whether Rowntree is putting too much emphasis on what governments can do. Many of us see government more as an enabling organisation than an effective problem-solving bureaucracy. My own instinct is that the most effective ways of tackling most of these problems will be bottom-up action, rather than top-down.

Maybe, too, the paper does not give sufficient credit to both this Government and its predecessors for supporting an economy that is very good, by European standards at least, at creating jobs.But that is just the point of this exercise: to get us thinking truly long-term about social problems. We do need to start and we can only start by having some informed heart-searching right now.. On Tuesday the FTSE 100 closed at 3,452 and oil was at $33.30. By Wednesday the stock market was down to 3,287 while oil spiked at over $38. By Friday oil had slithered to just over $30 and the FTSE was back up over 3,600. It is a mixture of a fear of the unknown and an inertia that has been caused by the constant beating of the drums of war. As these intensify, it is a brave investor who puts money into the market, not least because of the political uncertainty caused by the rift in the Cabinet.


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