Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts

This story is jointly written by Will Straw and Tom Phillips

George Osborne is fond of saying that, “We’re all in this together”. But after this week’s regressive Emergency Budget, Left Foot Forward can reveal that local spending cuts announced last month will hit the poorest areas in the UK the hardest.

According to George Osborne, Tuesday’s Emergency Budget was “progressive”. But analysis by the Financial Times, Next Left, and Tim Horton and Howard Reed for this blog has dissolved this myth.

New research by Left Foot Forward shows that contributions to last month’s £6.2 billion in spending cuts from local government are similarly regressive, exposing the Lib-Con coalition as willing to leave the least well off in society behind on their road to recovery.

David Cameron’s constituency, which lies in Oxfordshire, will only receive half the level of cuts that the considerably more deprived South Tyneside – home to David Miliband’s South Shields constituency – will suffer.

The graphs below, which plot cuts to local authority budgets against levels of deprivation, show that the poorest Metropolitan districts and London Boroughs stand out as the real losers.

The Indices of Deprivation from the Department of Community and Local Government scores the level of deprivation in each local authoritative district. The most deprived areas in the country – such as Knowsley, Liverpool, and Manchester in the North-West – are being affected with some of the highest percentage cuts. The trendline for Metropolitan areas is particularly robust. The result shows that percentage revenue reduction increases progressively with the level of deprivation.

Graph 2, below, shows that the news is not much better for the deprived in the Capital.

Because of the recent conversion of some county councils to become unitary authorities it was not possible to make similar robust comparisons for these two other types of local authorities. But the county council of Oxfordshire, home of David Cameron’s Witney constituency has a deprivation index of 10.85 and cuts of 0.7%. By contrast, Nick Clegg’s Sheffield has 27.84 and 1.0%, Ed Miliband’s Doncaster has 30.84 and 1.2%, while David Miliband’s South Tyneside is worse hit with 31.16 and 1.4%.

These stats confirm age-old fears that a Tory government hits the worst off hardest. Though the Lib-Con coalition offered some respite to poorer families in Tuesday’s budget, the overall picture in post-Budget Britain is ominous for Britain’s most deprived communities.

The raw data we used is available here.

http://twitter.com/leftfootfwd/status/17001594691 Left Foot Forward

Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/houseoftwitslab/status/17117467374 HouseOfTwitsLab

RT @leftfootfwd Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/houseoftwits/status/17117468211 House Of Twits

RT @leftfootfwd Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/beaubilly10/status/17117490054 fljf

RT @leftfootfwd: Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/paulstpancras/status/17117503932 paulstpancras

RT @leftfootfwd: Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/ayse_veli/status/17119155717 Ayse

We may be deprived, but we're fighters & just get on with it RT @leftfootfwd: Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/naushabahkhan/status/17119253328 Naushabah Khan

RT @lucianaberger: RT @leftfootfwd Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/redrector/status/17119544184 Fr Paul Butler

"We're not all in this together!" Osborne's deceit. Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts. http://bit.ly/bx32Si
http://twitter.com/duncanwiles/status/17119549818 Duncan Wiles

RT @leftfootfwd: Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/wyndavies_56/status/17119664718 Wyn Davies
http://twitter.com/jameseasylol/status/17119894789 James Easy

RT @lucianaberger: RT @leftfootfwd Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/uponnothing/status/17120131271 Kevin Arscott

RT @leftfootfwd: Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/cllrjsb/status/17120432466 John Blackmore

RT @leftfootfwd: Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/romarcelinhorne/status/17120523798 Roland M-Horne

RT @leftfootfwd: Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/dontmindwaiting/status/17121498452 jennifer roberts

RT @leftfootfwd: Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/andy_coates/status/17125144632 Andy Coates

RT @lucianaberger RT @leftfootfwd Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/debi77/status/17129590053 debbie caine

RT @lucianaberger: RT @leftfootfwd Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://bestblogs.labourhome.org/2010/06/26/deprived-areas-to-be-hit-hardest-by-cuts/ Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts « The best Labour blogs

[...] More… [...]
Mark Stephenson

No comment on those R^2 numbers?
http://twitter.com/threadworm/status/17147165080 Claire

We're all in this together,but some of us are togetherer than others.RT @leftfootfwd Deprived areas hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/threadworm/status/17147959261 Claire

We're all in this together,but some are in it togetherer than others.RT @leftfootfwd Deprived areas hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://www.flickr.com/photos/billy_blofeld/ Billy Blofeld

When are the left going to progress from moaning about cuts like a pressure group, towards a acting like an aspirational party of government and tell us where they think the cuts should fall?
http://twitter.com/2me2you2me/status/17152155352 2me2you

RT @lucianaberger: RT @leftfootfwd Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://bit.ly/d7kPKz
http://twitter.com/snookcocker/status/17152216589 Dave Edwards

Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts http://goo.gl/wRVA #WeAreAllinThisTogetherExceptUsPoshBoys
Mr. Sensible

We are most certainly not all in this together.
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/06/27/budget-hits-poor-even-more-than-thought-earlier/ Budget hits poor even more than thought | Liberal Conspiracy

[...] Left Foot Forward analysis shows that deprived areas will be hit hardest by cuts too. ————————- Share this [...]
http://twitter.com/wdjstraw/status/17268064878 Will Straw

@stellacreasy Absolutely. And the deepest cuts will hit the most deprived areas http://bit.ly/brhVSe
http://twitter.com/beaubilly10/status/17526845429 LCW

RT @RedRector: "We're not all in this together!" Osborne's deceit. Deprived areas to be hit hardest by cuts. http://bit.ly/bx32Si
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/07/look-left-the-week-in-fast-forward-02-07-10/ Look Left – The Week in Fast Forward | Left Foot Forward

[...] analyis last weekend of the impact of the Coalition’s spending cuts, which revealed deprived areas [...]
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/08/osborne-let-off-the-hook-on-spending-cuts/ Osborne let off the hook on spending cuts | Left Foot Forward

[...] but the poorest households are hit the hardest.” Analysis by Left Foot Forward showed that deprived inner-City areas will be hit the hardest by cuts to the budgets of local government. Share | Permalink | Leave a comment [...]
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/08/ifs-osbornes-budget-is-regressive-will-hit-the-poorest-households-more/ IFS: Osborne’s Budget is regressive & will hit the poorest households more | Left Foot Forward

[...] On June 26th, Will Straw and Tom Phillips published data showing that deprived areas would be hit hardest by [...]
http://twitter.com/wdjstraw/status/27852361341 Will Straw

@FullFact Not so fast! Take a look at our piece from June on the impact of local cuts http://bit.ly/brhVSe