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Sheffield: A city split for rich and poor
DIVISIONS between rich and poor in Sheffield are growing wider - with the situation today worse than it was 40 years ago, a shock new report today reveals.
The major new investigation was produced by experts at the University of Sheffield after being commissioned and funded by city MP David Blunkett.
People living in the city's worst-off suburbs are falling behind the best-off when it comes to health, education, jobs and housing, according to A Tale Of Two Cities: The Sheffield Project.
And the report predicts that with the recession biting, the future looks bleak - with huge cuts predicted in public sector jobs, the likely election of an unfriendly Conservative government and a LibDem council which has abandoned old policies of 'closing the gap'.
The university says its findings are impartial and independent - but today the report's publication sparked a furious political row.
READ MORE: SHEFFIELD would be a lot better off without its richest suburbs, clustered together in the parliamentary constituency of Hallam.
Widespread inequalities in health and wealth.
Money needed to help most deprived areas.
Mr Blunkett said he was calling for extra cash to be channelled into deprived areas to ease the problems - insisting he was not calling for a return to the politics of 'class war'.
But the Brightside MP warned that the council's current strategies on grants and funding were threatening to entrench inequality and disadvantage in the city - while admitting his own government had not done enough to tackle the problems.
"I think it is in the city's interest as a whole - I think it is in the interests of the better off - to actually improve the future and well being of those who are less well off," he said.
Council leader Paul Scriven attacked the university's report for 'factual inaccuracies' and said Mr Blunkett should be asking himself why the gap between the rich and poor in Sheffield had got wider under a Labour government and a Labour council.
"About the only thing that is accurate is the conclusion that Labour's policies to close the inequality gap, both nationally and locally, have failed," he said.
"Speaking as someone who is the son of a dustbin man and has come from a modest background, I know just how important it is to tackle inequalities," Coun Scriven added.
The university report contrasts life in the Hallam constituency with suburbs in north-east Sheffield, where life expectancy is lower, there is more chance of being a victim of burglary or road traffic accidents and increasing numbers of people are living in poverty.
Co-author Dr Bethan Thomas said the 110 page report showed in stark detail the inequalities that persisted across Sheffield's neighbourhoods.
And Dr Dan Vickers added: "This report reveals in detail how people's chances of health, wealth, education and dying vary greatly across the city depending on the neighbourhood in which they live.
"With the likely reduction in central government intervention in the coming years and Sheffield council's changed priorities, we fear what improvements there have been may be reversed in future years," he added.
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Weather for Sheffield
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: East
