suburbs

As a one time rural zealot and a recent convert (for the last 10 years or so) to the world of rural-urban connectivities I find this a spatially diverting article. Perhaps the suburbs have the worst of both worlds. Still I love Betjeman’s “Metroland”…

The image of suburbs as the most affluent parts of the country has been dismissed as a myth by an analysis showing poverty is growing faster on the fringes of cities than anywhere else.

It calculated that suburban neighbourhoods are home to some seven million people struggling on or below the breadline – nearly six in 10 of the individuals considered to be in poverty in England and Wales.

The wealth gap between the inner and outer parts of cities is narrowing, according to the Smith Institute, suggesting that deprivation is edging outwards as urban districts recover more strongly from the recession.

It warned: “Poverty is prevalent in many suburbs. In some city suburbs it is increasing and worryingly high.”

Calling for a drive to tackle “the suburbanisation of poverty”, the left-wing think tank argued that governments tended to focus on hardship in inner cities and rural districts to the exclusion of the suburban areas.