Austerity has ‘eroded resilience’ in the North of England

The North has been disproportionately affected by austerity, according to new analysis by a leading think tank.

The analysis by IPPR North found that local government and public services in the North have been disproportionately impacted over the last 10 years.

In particular, the think tank claims the region saw a £347 per person fall in spending on services by councils, compared to a £279 fall across England.

It also found that public sector employment fell by 19% in the North—a larger fall than the English average, and austerity came hand in hand with centralisation as the share of public sector jobs rose in central government.

And the analysis adds that the number of children in poverty across the whole of England has grown by 400,000 in the last decade, with half of them in the North.

The number of households in temporary accommodation has risen dramatically, especially in the North West where the number has risen from around 2,000 in 2010 to around 3,875 in 2019, according to the analysis.

All three northern regions have seen increases and there were 5,165 households in temporary accommodation in the North in 2019. Over half of these households include children.

The number of children in temporary accommodation in the North has also risen from 1,840 to 5,635.

Pressure on social care has also increased, according to the think tank.

The average number of delayed transfers of care per 100,000 people rose by 29% in the North between 2010/11 and 2018/19, compared to a fall of 20% across England.

Researchers at IPPR North have renewed their calls on the government to ‘learn the lessons of austerity’.

‘A decade of austerity has been a hard and persistent blow to the North. It has undermined efforts to improve quality of life and eroded our resilience to events like Covid-19 or the looming climate crisis,’ said researcher, Marcus Johns.

‘We must the learn lessons of centrally imposed austerity. It has been a failure. We need real power and resources for the North and England’s regions, so that we can protect our public services and our people from being undermined by Westminster in future.

‘More than the rhetoric of levelling up, we need a sustained programme of empowerment and investment in the towns, villages, cities, and people of our region to put right a decade of harm and lost opportunity for northern people, especially our most vulnerable,’ he added.

The full analysis is available to read here.

Photo Credit – Littlerich (Pixabay)