Poverty in Numbers from the Church Urban Fund
This week I wonder why urban and city themes continue to predominate in terms of public policy. I have always thought having just an “urban” fund was at best creating a fund with a misnomer on the part of the established Church, particularly when its real strength lies in rural England! I also think before we go too far down the road the emerging “City Deals” which the 8 core cities are being allowed to negotiate around local government freedoms should be extended to counties and unitaries across the board. If not a real opportunity to tap into the creative potential of “Shire England” will be lost.
Having got all that off my chest I would commend this unusual church parish based tool to assessing poverty across England to you. It has some surprising results and it reminds us of the prevalence of poverty in some of the bucolic landscapes we take for granted. Log on, pop in your post code and see how deprived your religious landscape is – or not.