Islington: a Local Needs Analysis Matt Ford
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Islington: A local needs analysis Matt Ford Justice Matters: A Community Plan for Holloway www.plan4holloway.org.uk About the author: Matt Ford is Research and Policy Assistant at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies. Acknowledgements: Many thanks to Claire Cain of Women in Prison who provided data for the section on women in the criminal justice system. We are grateful to the representatives from local organisations who attended a meeting in February 2017 to discuss an earlier draft of this report. These organisations were: Holloway Ward Labour Party; Islington Axe the Housing Act; Islington Faiths Forum; Islington Green Party; Islington Hands Off Our Public Services; Islington Liberal Democrats; Islington Trades Union Council; Islington Unite Housing; Reclaim Holloway; St Georges Church; St Georges Ward Labour Party; St Luke’s Church; Women in Prison. Any remaining errors in this document are our own. This report is published as part of Justice Matters: A Community Plan for Holloway, a project of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies and funded by Trust for London. Centre for Crime and Justice Studies 2 Langley Lane, Vauxhall London SW8 1GB [email protected] www.crimeandjustice.org.uk Registered charity No. 251588 A company limited by guarantee. Registered in England No. 496821 © Centre for Crime and Justice Studies April 2017 ISBN: 978-1-906003-55-5 Introduction Working in coalition with community groups and local people, between 2016 and 2018, Holloway women’s prison in Islington, the project will focus on four key activities: London, closed in 2016 as part of the government’s £1.3bn prison building and ● Understanding the needs of local reform programme. Receipts from prison residents: Publication of data on the needs land sales are to be used for the construction of the people in Islington to inform the of new prisons. HMP Holloway was the only development of a community plan. women’s prison in London and sits on a large area of public land in Islington, the ● Community engagement: Community-led most densely populated borough in London planning is a way of working together to with some of the highest housing costs. ensure the needs of the community are prioritised. We will be working with local This report is published as part of Justice partners to conduct online and face to Matters: A Community Plan for Holloway, a face engagement activities. Islington is a project of the Centre for Crime and Justice very diverse borough and it is important to Studies. We believe that the United Kingdom’s ensure that as many voices as possible are over reliance on policing, prosecution and heard in this process. We will also be punishment is socially harmful, economically consulting with women who have wasteful, and prevents us from tackling social experience of Holloway prison and the problems. We want to see a radical wider criminal justice system. downsizing of the criminal justice system and the growth and strengthening of alternatives ● Developing a vision: Based on the and solutions that respond to people’s needs. responses submitted from the community engagement activities and through A Community Plan for Holloway provides an ongoing dialogue, we will publish a vision important opportunity to create and promote a for the Holloway prison site. This will positive vision for the future of the prison site include a series of recommendations and to consider how to best tackle a range of social principles to guide future development. problems in a local context. By bringing people together to focus on addressing housing, ● Engaging decision makers: We will be health, environmental sustainability and other engaging key decision makers and elected community needs it should be possible to officials to highlight the views of the local create a practical yet transformative vision of community and build support for the what could exist instead of prisons. emerging vision. To find out more and get involved, visit: www.plan4holloway.org.uk 1 About this report borough compared to other areas or national averages. Islington: A local needs analysis provides headline figures on a range of issues facing ● Where possible, we have tried to use people who live in the borough. The purpose information which gives the best picture of is to give a helicopter view of the kinds of the extent of specific needs that exist in problems people experience, and to help the borough. The legal definitions used by inform conversations about how best the services don’t always adequately capture prison site could be developed for the the nature and extent of the underlying benefit of residents. problem. For example, statutory homelessness excludes people who are We have included needs covering a broad homeless but don’t fall under one of the range of issues that the Holloway site could specific ‘priority need’ groups. We draw conceivably be used to address. Topics attention to such instances in this briefing. include: housing and homelessness; income and inequality; vulnerable children; education; Inevitably, any publication that looks at the interpersonal violence; health; and the needs of people in the borough may seem to environment. Data on the needs of women paint a picture of what is going wrong. It who were formerly imprisoned in Holloway is should be noted that alongside the needs also included. These women were hastily the people of Islington may have, the moved from the site and dispersed to various borough is a vibrant and diverse place with other prisons outside London. many strengths in its people, households and community organisations. We are confident that these strengths will come to About the data the fore as the Community Plan for Holloway To write this report we used the most recent takes shape. information from a range of sources that mostly draw on official government data: Understanding Islington ● Islington Evidence Hub Despite its reputation as a wealthy borough, ● London Poverty Profile Islington has very high levels of poverty and ● London Mapper deprivation. Indeed, it is inequality, rather ● The Greater London Authority Datastore than wealth, that defines the area, with some of the richest people in the country living The section on women in prison draws on a side-by-side with some of the poorest. variety of government statistics and independent studies. There is a sense that certain issues in the borough are getting worse. This is In addition, it is important to note: particularly the case with housing. House prices have skyrocketed to levels ● This report does not cover every possible unaffordable to most people, leading to a need, but it is hoped the information can decline in home ownership. At the same provide a useful starting point for time, there has been a dramatic fall in local conversations about the problems facing authority owned housing stock, and a surge people in the borough and the possible in the number of people living in more solutions. expensive, often poorer quality, private rented accommodation. ● The criteria for inclusion was simply whether a problem existed, rather than People who experience deprivation in one whether it was getting worse or how the area of their lives tend to feel the effects in 2 other areas. For instance, people on low pay The following pages capture some of the main are unable to access good quality, secure needs experienced by people in Islington, housing, people in poor quality insecure keeping in mind the issues outlined above, housing have poor health, and so on. which are drawn out where appropriate. Key facts about Islington ● Islington was home to around 230,000 people living in ● English was not the main language of one in five 104,000 households in 2016. It is the most densely people in 2011. populated local authority area in England and Wales. ● In 2014 15% of households owned their ● The average age of residents in 2016 was about 35 accommodation outright, 21% owned with a mortgage, years old. 16% of the population were aged 0-15 years 37% rented from the local authority or a housing old. 75% were of working age. 9% were over 65. association, and 26% rented privately. ● In 2015 32% of the population were black or minority ● An estimated 31,000 people, or one in six, identified ethnic: 4% were mixed ethnicity; 7% were Asian; 9% themselves as having an impairment or disability in 2013. were black; and 12% were Chinese or of other ethnicities. ● About 16,000 people were carers in 2011, meaning they ● In 2011 people born in Ireland made up the largest provided some level of unpaid care for someone who migrant population (2.8%), followed by people born could not look after themselves without it. in Turkey (1.8%), then people born in the United States (1.5%). 3 At a glance... Poverty and inequality most deprived local of earners paid 24th authority in England. Top 5th three times more than bottom 5th. highest rate of child poverty 4th in the whole of the UK. At least people on the households in fuel poverty, 1 in 10 main out-of- 10,000 including 22% of all private work benefits, the third highest sector tenants. levels in London. Vulnerable children Interpersonal violence children in care. estimated incidents 555 7,119 of domestic violence, with 2,719 incidents recorded by children have had a parent in the police. 1,400 prison, or will do during their school years. estimated sexual of free school 1,873 offences, with 348 meal pupils do 45% recorded by the police. not achieve 5A* to C grades at GCSE, compared to only a third of non-free school meal pupils. Key facts about Islington Home to around230,000 people, including 43,000 children.