“flawed consumers”: policy responses jenni venn – assistant director policy coventry city...
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“Flawed Consumers”: policy responses
Jenni Venn – Assistant Director PolicyCoventry City Council
“It’s not quite as simple as that…”
• Government policy is largely delivered and experienced and at the local level
• Places are different – the local matters!!!• Policy response changes but some things
remain the same • Are we all flawed consumers? • How can your future research help me?
Coventry is…• In the centre of England – on
north/south economic divide • Now growing fast – 329,800• 66% of population is White
British • High levels of diverse
international migration• Natural population growth more
than 1/3 births to women born overseas
• Two universities - 18-24 largest age cohort
Pride and Prejudice• Regarded as a blue collar city – image problem• “City of peace and reconciliation”• Compact and reasonably well mixed –
residential areas and schools• Affluent BME communities • Low level of disturbances – but not
complacent we take this seriously • Not a high level of far right activity• Political change and local engagement
Three strands of policy thinking • Key influences on national approach (or lack of
it) since the 80s – Importance and role of the individual – Focus on difference and latterly… – The new collective
• No city is an island - inevitably this has influenced and will continue to influence local thinking
Customer or Citizen? • “No such thing as society…” • Basis of the relationship with the state is the individual
- nationally and locally• Import of management culture and customer focus –
individual outcomes and counting• Paternalistic service delivery with passive recipients “I
pay my council tax…”• “We are all middle class now” – aspiring home owners
- except for the non-working underclass • Image of Coventry voter and service user as white and
working class
Neighbourhood Working • Priority Neighbourhoods
– long way of working• Understanding & working
with local communities• Provides analysis that is
proxy for class and race• Key areas of activity
include predominantly white working class
• Health inequalities End Child Poverty Campaign, mid-2012
Child poverty
Further comparisons online at: http://smarturl.it/covchildpoverty
Coventry children live in poverty
1 4in
Housing and Planning• BME housing strategy…• More sophisticated analysis and approach• Affordable housing – allocation need based• Mixed tenure • Growth – green belt • Aspirational housing – executive not a dirty
word
Equality of Opportunity & Discrimination
• Need to remove barriers stopping individuals achieving their potential - child poverty
• Seen through the prism of discrimination against minorities - particularly race
• Early policy responses focused on treating people the same – became more sophisticated
• More latterly recognition of importance of real outcomes; including to white communities
• Jury still out on how useful this is for policy intervention – neighbourhood level/poverty?
Current approach
• Equality includes “disadvantage”
• White British boys • Health inequalities• Engagement
Supporting most vulnerable
20 43 54 69 86 166Richmond Blackpool
Coventry
87WM Region
72England
60
Looked after children (rate per 10,000)
Early years development
City Average
55.4%
Chinese
43.5%
Looked After
36.8%
White British
59.1%
Boys
48.5%Girls
62.8%
Gypsy/Roma
5%
Asian Indian
61.5%
Asian Pakistani
46.7%
Black African
56.1%
Black Caribbean
40.6%
Cohesion and Identity• Focus on discrimination and difference – minority
rather than multicultural; grants and centres• View that problems faced by minority communities
and could be solved by them • Disturbances led to the recognition that white working
class were “part of the problem” • Suddenly became very fashionable – research; myth
busting – changing goalposts • Coventry continued to take neighbourhood approach ;
“we are all Coventrian”; Canley • PREVENT – difficult agenda locally – pro-active• Whiteness/class/nationality
Policy Responses• “Our city – our people” • Myth-busting• Cohesion awards• Cross- party support• Asylum seekers and
refugees• Research • Prevent - Coventry• Funding and
communities
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name of project name of organisation
This certificate certifies that the above project is a Cohesion Award
winner / runner-up / participant in the
youth / voluntary/community (large/small) / public / private sector category
WinnerCoventry Community Cohesion Award 2014
You’re just getting it wrong…• White working class peripheral communities -
doing the wrong things - voting the wrong way• Insular and intolerant • Not aspirational – lack of regard for education• Teenage pregnancies; children in care• Living off benefits – Shameless rather than
Boys from the Blackstuff• Looking backwards (Left Behinds) Coventry –
myth of the car factories
But now we’re listening..?• Fewer intermediate jobs; reduced public sector• Cost of living; social mobility myth • Where are the houses my children can afford?• Jobs for graduates – kids moving to London • Cost of social care for my parents • Injustice – bankers and establishment• EU and migration rather than race..? • UKIP
Fairness and Inequality• Fairness most overused word in 2010 elections –
different definitions • Failure of the market – Picketty et al – almost
everyone is being left behind• Squeezed middle – in work poverty • Inequality here and now and in the future• Class – dominance of the establishment • Local emphasis on growth with benefits shared• What does it mean for politics ?
Arts and culture
454,814visitors
228,181visitors
163,123audience
Globally connectedPromoting the growth of a sustainable Coventry economy
www.coventry.gov.uk/equality/
Employment rates
76.5%5.2% from 2012
56.9%1.5% from 2012
74.9% West Midlands76.5% England
63.5% West Midlands66.4% England
Coventry
3.1%EnglandWest Midlands
2.8%3.0%
Wainbody
0.7%0.2% from Jul ‘13
5.1%difference in July 2014 down from 6.6% in July 2013
Foleshill
5.8%1.7% from Jul ‘13
JSA claimants
Reducing impact of poverty
Food shopping
6.1%
Costs of running a home
10.4%
Transport costs
2.4%
Coventry
1.3%England
3.5%West Midlands
4.2%
£££
The cost of living has gone up by 5.3%…
Wages are also up, but not by as much…
Working people are worse off than before.
£7.65 per hour ♔£5 £250p10p
5p
514 female 144 male
Living wage
Housing & homelessness
properties adapted for disabled occupiers over the last five years1,840
£14 millionallocated for disabled facilities grant in the Housing & Homelessness Strategy 2013-2018
261of 900new homes completed in 2013/14 have four or more bedroomsthe first time this has increased in the past nine years
1,340affordable housing units made available between 2010/11 and 2013/14
£
zzz
Housing
Arts & Culture
Class and/or ethnicity and/or age?
• Local growth aspirations to address inequality• So what do we do to tackle inequality locally?• What is most relevant for policy makers?• Fears of a lost generation – 18-24 year olds • Experience and social attitudes: generation Y • How relevant/helpful is whiteness and class to
this?
Austerity • 40% of budget cut – further £60m by 16/17• Impact of welfare reform• Support for the most vulnerable only• Savings: customer journey; city centre first; workforce
strategy• No money for neighbourhood based work? • Co-operative principles – self reliance and social
responsibility • Asset based working is new response - recognises that
communities have strengths to draw on rather than a deficit model – needs partners
Choices and Power • Questions of national and local identity –
alienation from establishment and politics• Devolution: England; Midlands; Coventry?• How do we ensure benefits of growth can be
enjoyed by everyone in the city?• What do we cut to continue to provide
services to those who need them the most?• What do we need to do so that the people of
Coventry live in harmony together?