Islington Council urged to give a lead by narrowing the chasm between top earners and low paid

Published: 29th April, 2011
by ANDREW JOHNSON

AFTER nearly a year of packed public meetings and hundreds of submissions, Islington’s pioneering Fairness Commission has finally re­ported.

Its findings – still in draft form – were presented to another public meeting last night (Thurs). They make for grim reading and expose an enormous gap between rich and poor.

The commission has come up with a raft of proposals but how far they can be practically achieved remains to be seen. The Lib Dem opposition has its doubts. “We were told this would inform the council’s budget decisions, but we have already seen cuts to services for some of the borough’s most vulnerable people,” Opposition leader Councillor Terry Stacy said.

The report calls for employers to pay the London living wage and to employ more people who live in the borough. The Town Hall should lead the way, by increasing the proportion of staff it employs who live locally from 23 per cent to 30 per cent. It should also reduce the earnings ratio between the lowest and highest paid workers from the current level of 1:11.

The authors spelled out the disadvantages that people from poor backgrounds face. In education, for example, a rich child with a low IQ will be winning better grades than a poor child with a high IQ.

To counter this, the commission calls for “a major review of all public sector activity in Islington to support parents and parents-to-be from the point of a child’s conception to its first birthday”. 

The commission would also like to see free early years learning places for all deprived families and the formation of a “childcare coalition” to increase affordable child care.

The report’s authors say that Islington needs more green space, and that many people are isolated, particularly the elderly and disabled. The huge number of people who volunteer in Islington – a quarter of the population – should be better co-ordinated to help tackle this.

Health is another key issue, with the wealthier not only living seven years longer than the poor but likely to develop disabilities up to 17 years later than the poor, so having a higher quality of extra life. The biggest killers in Islington are heart disease and pulmonary disease, both associated with poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking and drinking, which in turn are more likely to be the habits of the poor.

To tackle this a plan of action needs to be drawn up and poorer areas targeted.

However, the chairman of the commission, Professor Richard Wilkinson of Nottingham University, points  out that Islington can only take a lead in what is a national problem. 

In his foreword to the report, Prof Wilkinson, who co-wrote the best selling book on social inequality The Spirit Level, acknowledges that poverty is a national problem and any efforts to tackle it have to be done under the swingeing spending cuts imposed by the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government.

“What is at stake is nothing less than the emancipation of a very large part of the population from the slur of disrespect and inferiority. Islington is leading the way,” he writes.

 “If Britain is ever to halve its income differences to reach the level found in the more equal of the developed market democracies, what Isling­ton can do should be regarded only as the first steps in a campaign which will have to involve the whole country and be sustained for ten or 20 years.

“Achieving a fairer, more equal and more cohesive society will need a sustained campaign of public education and policy development, perhaps lasting for several decades.”

The commission was set up by the Labour administration shortly after it took control of the Town Hall last May. Its vice-chairman, Labour councillor Andy Hull, stressed that the report – to be amended after last night’s public meeting – must not be allowed to “gather dust on a shelf”.

“It’s a massive job,” he said. “Some of the problems we’re trying to tackle have been around for years and years. It would be naive to suggest they can be solved by the council alone. We need to exercise influence and use our role as civic leaders to persuade others to act. 

“Almost half our kids – 46 per cent – grow up in poverty. That’s going to take a hell of a lot to tackle. 

“But it’s a worthy aim and the idea is to come up with concrete actions that might make a difference. We are going to do what we can do to make it real. 

“There is a danger that this could all be a lot of hot air and talk, and just another report that gathers dust on the shelf. 

“But I and my colleagues don’t have the time to waste producing a report like this if we don’t mean it. Life is too short.”

The way forward

The Fairness Commission calls for:

• More green space.
• Free and affordable childcare.
• A London living wage.
• Befriending schemes for elderly and disabled.
• Better liaison between authorities to tackle anti-social behaviour.
• Increased support for those with depression and anxiety.