“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?