Arbourthorne estate Sheffield: Councillor in deprived city community stands up for struggling families

The most deprived areas of Sheffield are revealed in the latest 2021 census results, with Arbourthorne, Darnall, Tinsley and Carbrook, Firth Park and then Southey Green East, the most deprived parts of the city.

In Arbourthorne – 72.6 per cent of households were deprived at the time of the 2021 census, down from 78 per cent in 2011. In Darnall 72.5 per cent of households were deprived.

The figure for Tinsley and Carbrook shows that 72.3 per cent of households were deprived and in Firth Park, 71.5 per cent were deprived. In Southey Green East 69.8 per cent were deprived.

As part of the 2021 census, households in England and Wales were classified in terms of four different ‘dimensions of deprivation’ which are based on certain characteristics.

The first is where any member of a household, who is not a full-time student, is either unemployed or long-term sick, and the second covers households where no person has at least five or more GCSE passes or equivalent qualifications, and no 16 to 18-year-olds at the home are full-time students.

The third dimension is where any person in the household has general health that is bad or very bad or has a long-term health problem, and the fourth where the household’s accommodation is either overcrowded or is in a shared dwelling, or has no central heating.

Office for National Statistics data show 54.6 per cent of households in Sheffield were deprived in at least one of these ‘dimensions’ when the most recent census was carried out.

It meant the area stood above the average across England and Wales, of 51.7 per cent. However, it represented a drop from 60 per cent at the time of the last census in 2011.

By contrast, the neighbourhood with the lowest level of deprivation was Ecclesall and Greystones, at 35.2 per cent of households.

Councillor Ben Miskell, who represents Arbourthorne, said: “It is no surprise to me that data confirms that Arbourthorne is the most deprived community in the city. Poverty is a fact of life for an unacceptable large number of families in Arbourthorne.

“At my surgeries people tell me their heartbreaking stories about not being able to afford even some of the basics in life, like heating your home or feeding your kids. These aren’t feckless parents, as Boris Johnson once claimed, but mums and dads who are often working multiple low paid jobs.”

He was referring to a column, the former Prime Minister wrote about working class communities in The Spectator magazine in 1995.

Coun Miskell added: “Thousands of families in our area struggle daily with the cost-of-living crisis. All the while, the three Tory MPs in our region sit on their hands and do nothing. I’m a teacher by trade, so what drives me is the need to eradicate child poverty. The way that we do that is simple, by putting more money into people’s pockets.

“Arbourthorne is such a proud community. It’s a place where people are so resilient and have a deep sense of community. The Tories really are doing their best to chip away at it, each and every year. We need urgent action from government to genuinely level up areas like Arbourthorne and deprived communities across South Yorkshire.”