Nottingham named in top 10 most deprived areas in the country

Deprivation levels in Nottingham have increased Nottingham has been named as the eighth most deprived area in the country in a report published by the Government. Figures released by the Office of National Statistics show deprivation in the city has risen by almost eight per cent in the last five years. The figures are from the Index of Deprivation, which is published by the ONS every five years, and it means more than a third of neighbourhoods in the city are in the top 10 per cent for most deprived areas. 

In 2010, Nottingham was 25th in the table, with 25.6 per cent of the neighbourhoods classed as deprived, meaning in the last five years, deprivation has risen by 7.9 per cent. Middlesborough tops the table, with almost 50 per cent of areas in the top 10 per cent, following by Knowsley and Kingston-upon-Hull. 

Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham follow, but despite being large cities like Nottingham, they have managed to turn their fortunes around. Liverpool has seen a decrease of almost six per cent, while Manchester's deprivation is down by almost five percent. 

Becky Ramsden, policy and campaigns officer at Advice Nottingham, said: "The new figures are shocking but not surprising for the advice sector in Nottingham. "Advice Nottingham has seen the complexity of our clients issues grow over the last five years. 

Changes to the welfare benefit system such as the use of sanctions and the introduction of the bedroom tax, compounded by the increase use of zero hours contracts means that many more of our clients are unable to pay for basic items such as food, gas and electricity.

"Policy changes disproportionately affect areas such as Nottingham as historically wage rates are lower than the national average and unemployment rates are higher. 

For many clients who walk through our doors the only option we have is to issue them with a food bank voucher so that they can access emergency food to feed them and their families."  

One of the people who has witnessed first hand the problems caused by deprivation is Nigel Epstow, manager of Bestwood and Bulwell Foodbank.

"We set up three years ago and since then we have seen a huge increase in the number of people coming to us," he said. "We now help around 3,000 people a year. That has plateaued in the last 12 months, but we are starting to see it increase again. "It can be welfare reform and austerity as to why people come to us. 

Recently we are seeing more people who are on zero-hour contracts or in low paid jobs that are coming to us. "We try not to just offer food, but are also beginning to offer things such as offering advice, a financial service, and we've recently opened a community kitchen in the centre of the Bestwood estate. "A lot of it comes down to employment or benefits. We're all for welfare reform but the system has to be sympathetic to people."

[Course,since the local Labour City Council, couldn't give a monkey's' all old Collins & his cronies will do is repeatedly state ''We blame central government for this.''  End of matter.]