Gulf growing between rich and poor Tories warn (From The Northern Echo)

Gulf growing between rich and poor Tories warn

12:10am Tuesday 29th July 2008

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By Rob Merrick »

THE gulf between rich and poor in the region's biggest urban centres is a Charles Dickens-style 'Tale Of Two Cities', the Conservatives will warn today.

There is a "subculture of poverty, deprivation and alienation from society" in parts of Middlesbrough and Newcastle - even though prosperity is just streets away, the Tories will say.

The claim - part of the Tories' attempt to reinvent themselves as "the party of the poor" - will draw on ward-by-ward statistics that grimly hark back to Victorian days of vast social divides.

In Middlesbrough, for example, a staggering 60.6 per cent of people in Middlehaven ward are "income deprived" closely followed by Clairville (54.4 per cent) and Beechwood (54.3 per cent).

Yet, across town, there are very low levels of poverty in Nunthorpe (2.2 per cent), Marton West (3.9 per cent) and Coulby Newham (4.9 per cent).

The picture is the same in Newcastle, the Tories will say, with Kenton (67.4 per cent) the poorest ward and Jesmond (2.1 per cent) the most well-heeled.

And there are similar ward-by-ward gulfs within all Britain's big cities when it comes to unemployment and the percentage of children living in poverty.

For example, in Middlesbrough's Thorntree ward, 70.8 per cent of children are poor - compared to just 2.7 per cent in Nunthorpe.

In a speech today, Chris Grayling, the Conservative work and pensions spokesman, will pledge that a crackdown to get young people into work and training will be introduced first in gang-crime areas.

Under-21s who have been jobless for three months will be forced to take part in "work-related activity" and - if jobless after a year - moved into full-time community work for 12 months.

A five-point programme will also pledge funding to voluntary groups tackling the problem, help for pre-school children falling behind, tougher action against crime and moves to foster "community cohesion".

Mr Grayling will say: "The financial gap between the richest and the poorest is at its widest for generations. In many respects it is as vast as it has been at any stage since Victorian times.

"What we are seeing is the growth of a sub-culture in our society that is utterly divided from and alienated from mainstream British life. In many respects, these communities might as well be on a different planet from the rest of us.

"This is one of Britain's great social challenges and the fact that it remains untouched a decade after Gordon Brown and Tony Blair won power will remain one of the great failures of this government."

Today's speech illustrates the growing Tory confidence that the 10p tax rate debacle - which hit millions of low-paid workers - has created space for the party to argue that Labour has failed on poverty.

But Labour ministers have ridiculed the claim - pointing out that poverty soared under the last Conservative government and that the Tories have hinted at cutting tax credits.

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