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| Social mobility - on the spot | Social mobility - on the spot |
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| All the current debate on social mobility is missing a crucial point. It seems to define it as the ability and opportunity to climb out of poverty and to enter a 'higher' stratum of society. In other words we are back to the idea of the meritocracy by which, in a telling phrase used by Peter Hain in his Liberal days: | All the current debate on social mobility is missing a crucial point. It seems to define it as the ability and opportunity to climb out of poverty and to enter a 'higher' stratum of society. In other words we are back to the idea of the meritocracy by which, in a telling phrase used by Peter Hain in his Liberal days: |
| We perforate society so that a few can crawl through the holes, and we proclaim this as success. | We perforate society so that a few can crawl through the holes, and we proclaim this as success. |
| Such a narrow definition of social mobility is dangerous. By concentrating on the 'top' 20%, as is so often currently the case, we encourage still further the feelings of disillusion and frustration amongst the 80%, with potentially disastrous anti-social effects. The unintended consequence of much postwar progressive policies has been to enable young people with skills or with initiative to leave the country's 'rough' downtown areas. Whether it has been the 1944 Act with its eleven-plus exam, housing redevelopment or the sale of council houses, the policies have facilitated a growing chasm in our cities. | Such a narrow definition of social mobility is dangerous. By concentrating on the 'top' 20%, as is so often currently the case, we encourage still further the feelings of disillusion and frustration amongst the 80%, with potentially disastrous anti-social effects. The unintended consequence of much postwar progressive policies has been to enable young people with skills or with initiative to leave the country's 'rough' downtown areas. Whether it has been the 1944 Act with its eleven-plus exam, housing redevelopment or the sale of council houses, the policies have facilitated a growing chasm in our cities. |
| This is fine for those few individuals but it leaves their home areas leaderless and increasingly without hope of improvement - both of which are potent catalysts of anti-social behaviour. | This is fine for those few individuals but it leaves their home areas leaderless and increasingly without hope of improvement - both of which are potent catalysts of anti-social behaviour. |
| We have whole areas of our cities in which many of those looked-up to in society commute to the places in which they do their valuable work. We have few teachers who live near to their downtown schools, no lawyers who live near to their poor clients, precious few doctors who live near to their surgeries, hardly any police who live in the difficult areas they patrol, and even church and chapel ministers are now tending to live away from their church communities. | We have whole areas of our cities in which many of those looked-up to in society commute to the places in which they do their valuable work. We have few teachers who live near to their downtown schools, no lawyers who live near to their poor clients, precious few doctors who live near to their surgeries, hardly any police who live in the difficult areas they patrol, and even church and chapel ministers are now tending to live away from their church communities. |
| Councillors are adding to this trend. A quick check on the eleven poorest electoral wards in Leeds shows that more than half of their elected Labour councillors live in leafy suburbs away from the areas they represent (and five of them do not give a home address on the city council's website). To show that I am not making a partisan point, two of the three Liberal Democrat councillors who until recently represented the Burmantofts and Richmond Hill ward also lived in the leafy suburbs. | Councillors are adding to this trend. A quick check on the eleven poorest electoral wards in Leeds shows that more than half of their elected Labour councillors live in leafy suburbs away from the areas they represent (and five of them do not give a home address on the city council's website). To show that I am not making a partisan point, two of the three Liberal Democrat councillors who until recently represented the Burmantofts and Richmond Hill ward also lived in the leafy suburbs. |
| At the time of the 1981 riots in Brixton, Bristol and elsewhere, the most incisive analysis of the reasons appeared in The Economist. Written by Nick Harmon, who lived in Brixton, it pointed out that the areas that had rioted had had the greatest amount of local public investment in infrastructure among comparable parts of the UK. What they lacked was local leadership. The conditions in these communities meant that those who could escape did so. He wrote: | At the time of the 1981 riots in Brixton, Bristol and elsewhere, the most incisive analysis of the reasons appeared in The Economist. Written by Nick Harmon, who lived in Brixton, it pointed out that the areas that had rioted had had the greatest amount of local public investment in infrastructure among comparable parts of the UK. What they lacked was local leadership. The conditions in these communities meant that those who could escape did so. He wrote: |
| One common aspect of the riot areas is that all have suffered for decades because politicians and their planning advisers have removed from them their natural community leaders. Local councils have used central government funds to buy up, often compulsorily, anyone with a financial stake in the community - home-owners, shop-keepers, landlords, small businessmen - to add their property to the council's land bank pending comprehensive redevelopment. Such individuals are the first to be offered the money and favourable housing nominations to move out of the area, if only because they are the most independent and mobile citizens. The effect has been to break the economic and social ties which bind the community together, ties which also help to police it. | One common aspect of the riot areas is that all have suffered for decades because politicians and their planning advisers have removed from them their natural community leaders. Local councils have used central government funds to buy up, often compulsorily, anyone with a financial stake in the community - home-owners, shop-keepers, landlords, small businessmen - to add their property to the council's land bank pending comprehensive redevelopment. Such individuals are the first to be offered the money and favourable housing nominations to move out of the area, if only because they are the most independent and mobile citizens. The effect has been to break the economic and social ties which bind the community together, ties which also help to police it. |
| Current policies perpetuate this trend. The image they promote is that success means getting out, rather than staying to achieve change. Unless and until our policies are designed to aid and assist the evolution of strong, diverse and inclusive neighbourhoods, social mobility will be counter-productive. | Current policies perpetuate this trend. The image they promote is that success means getting out, rather than staying to achieve change. Unless and until our policies are designed to aid and assist the evolution of strong, diverse and inclusive neighbourhoods, social mobility will be counter-productive. |
| This can be done, with economic, housing, education and planning policies that encourage leaders to stay. Our society needs social conscience as well as social mobility. | This can be done, with economic, housing, education and planning policies that encourage leaders to stay. Our society needs social conscience as well as social mobility. |
| Michael Meadowcroft was a Leeds city councillor for 15 years, a West Yorkshire metropolitan county councillor for six years and the Liberal MP for Leeds West from 1981 to 1987. |