02 September 2005
Sixty years of the welfare state have failed to ensure that those in most need of public services have adequate access to them, leading to 'wide and persisting inequality', research has found.
A major study by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, examining health, education, housing, employment and transport, found that poor communities consistently had the least access to essential resources and services.
Life in Britain, published on September 1, used data from the Census 2001 to analyse the relationship between poverty, affluence and key public services. It found that areas with the highest levels of ill-health had the fewest health professionals per head of population living and working there.
At the same time, localities with high rates of young people with no qualifications had the lowest numbers of teachers. Places doing best on that measure had up to four times the number of teachers as those doing the worst.
Study co-author Professor Danny Dorling, of Sheffield University, said it was 'acutely disappointing' to find that opportunities and access to resources were still determined to such a large extent by where people live.
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