ALL ABOUT TOWNS Harnessing hope in Britain’s communities HARD TIMES IN OLDHAM JENNIFER WILLIAMS TRICKLE-UP ECONOMICS TED HOWARD COMMUNITY BEFORE PARTY LISA NANDY AND BEN BRADLEY AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2019 IN ASSOCIATION WITH JRF.indd 1 05/07/2019 11:32 JRF.indd 2 05/07/2019 11:33 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | PROSPECT ALL ABOUT TOWNS 1 CONTENTS A TOWN CALLED HOPE 2 HARD TIMES AND NEW Many communities are missing out in material terms. But they still BEGINNINGS IN OLDHAM have a strong spirit. Renewal begins when it’s tapped Between silent factories and struggling shops, there’s poverty TOM CLARK, EDITOR, PROSPECT and even hunger. But there’s also a community spirit which holds the key to turning this town around generation ago the term “inner Anand Menon and Matthew Bevington JENNIFER WILLIAMS cities” was code for life on the report on JRF-funded research on p18 wrong side of the tracks. Since that shows while Brexit dominates 12 A TOWN IN NUMBERS A then, happily, the metropolis has the headlines, people are deeply The divide between Oldham and fought back. It’s not just inner London, concerned about the things that build nearby cities and suburbs but also the hearts of Manchester, Bristol, cohesive communities: good jos, low Leeds and other great English cities crime and quality housing; while Mike IAN WARREN that have enjoyed a renaissance. Hawking from the Joseph Rowntree 14 TRICKLE-UP ECONOMICS Inequality and hardship are stubborn, to Foundation distils the lessons for public How Preston and Cleveland, Ohio, be sure, but the expanding universities policy (p19). Ted Howard looks at the and canal-side developments cannot practical ways in which places like are bringing it all back home be missed, and bear testimony to an Cleveland, Ohio and Preston, Lancashire, TED HOWARD extraordinary energy. have been creating a new local-first But if the 21st century has been kind economics, and pulling themselves up by 15 THE REGIONAL DIMENSION to many cities, it has been much less the bootstraps in the process. A gulf between the southeast and the so to many towns. While infrastructure Bill Clinton made great play of the town rest affects towns and cities alike projects have been concentrated in of his birth when he said “I still believe in BOB KERSLAKE the conurbations, there are aging and a place called Hope.” If downbeat officials sometimes shrinking populations in many and analysts only take the time to listen— 16 A CROSS-PARTY MISSION smaller communities. The high streets really listen—to the people in even the Successive governments have that gave many of them a vibrancy are most deprived of English towns, they neglected proud communities in hollowing out, and indicators of health and might just find they can remember how to Wigan and Mansfield education point to overlapping problems. hope as well. LISA NANDY MP & BEN BRADLEY MP Prospect could not be prouder to partner with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation for 17 TIME FOR A GREAT REBALANCING this special report to take stock of where My own trip to Oldham showed me our towns stand—and how to turn them what’s needed—serious investment round. and devolution of power Coastal communities, such as BEN CHU Blackpool—whose problems were poignantly documented by Sarah 18 THE REAL MEANING OF BREXIT O’Connor in a Financial Times piece that We’ve been listening to hard-pressed won the JRF/Orwell prize—have rightly towns. Their biggest frustration is been under the spotlight. Less attention that the people in power didn’t has been given to those more numerous ANAND MENON & MATT BEVINGTON towns that live within the embrace (or, as they may see it, under the shadow) of a 19 HOW TO BRIDGE THE DIVIDE neighbouring giant. Here we address that Look beyond Brexit and grapple with gap, with the award-winning journalist voters’ day-to-day-concerns Jennifer Williams’s passionate and MIKE HAWKING in-depth dispatch from Oldham (p2) taking centre stage, powerfully supported 20 COMMUNITY PROBLEMS CALL by Joel Goodman’s photography. FOR COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS Williams goes to foodbanks and night Treat local citizens as equal partners shelters and finds all the hardship that MAJID HUSSAIN you would expect from Oldham’s grim statistics (which Ian Warren displays on p12). But with open eyes and ears, she also finds a remarkable spirit of solidarity and enterprise. One inspiring local voice Follow Prospect she speaks to, Majid Hussain, writes for us twitter.com/prospect_uk on p20, and describes how he marshals armies of volunteers to do extraordinarily www.facebook.com/Prospect.Mag COVER IMAGE© JOEL GOODMAN ambitious things. JRF.indd 1 05/07/2019 11:36 HOPE AMID HARD TIMES IN OLDHAM Between silent factories and struggling shops, there’s poverty and even hunger. But there’s also a steadfast community spirit which holds the key to turning this town around WORDS BY JENNIFER WILLIAMS PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOEL GOODMAN JRF.indd 2 05/07/2019 11:37 JRF.indd 3 05/07/2019 11:37 4 ALL ABOUT TOWNS PROSPECT | AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 here’s a particular image of Oldham that goes some way towards encapsulating decades of its history, successes and struggles. TIn the background stand the long- silent mills, testament to a bountiful, industrious identity reaching back more than 200 years. Terraced houses, built for the thousands of people originally working in those mills and, later, for the engineering giants that flourished here during and after the Second World War, curve into the COMMONS © MATT/WIKIMEDIA middle distance. Yet what’s missing from the picture is But this is not a story about the “left There were more looms and Spinning just as significant. Gone from the frame behind,” a phrase that causes eyes to roll Jennies in Oldham than anywhere else is the pocket of Oldham’s library, police when it is uttered here. Those words subtly in the empire. The bottom slowly fell out station, youth centre and social services lay blame with the town itself, suggesting its of the old textile industry, but in parallel department, including a day centre for the people were too slow, too short-sighted to another employment base had developed in elderly. All of these have shut since the keep up with the big boys, be it London or engineering. And the manufacturing plants introduction of austerity, within a few years resurgent Manchester next door. that came into their own during the war and a few yards of each other. Yorkshire There is much to admire in the Oldham became the social as well as the economic Bank closed its local branch in 2017; the of 2019, and—if you look for it—a great heart of their communities. post office went late last year. deal of hope. While admitting that times feel “Post-World War Two,” says Jim Not far out of shot, the engineering tough and power out of reach, people stress McMahon, the Labour (Co-op) MP for giant, Avro, once anchored the surrounding in the same breath that their tale is also one Oldham West and Royton and former community of Chadderton. Home of the of pride and generosity, of hope, resilience, council leader, who grew up just over the Lancaster Bomber and employer to more imagination and solutions. It’s just that, at border in north Manchester, “engineering than 11,000 people, it was eventually times, it can feel like an uphill struggle. firms had innovated along the way and subsumed into BAE Systems, before closing those skills had been retained. Salaries in 2012. were good and it was a strongly unionised The story of Oldham will resonate in THE ORIGINAL POWERHOUSE workforce. Avro had a social club, a many former industrial towns, especially tennis court. across the north and midlands, that live n the 19th century, Oldham was one “All of that was part of people’s in the shadow of a neighbouring city. It is of the Industrial Revolution’s engines, identity—they were proud of the thing the tale of somewhere, and there are many Ithe original “northern powerhouse.” they’d created, they had a decent pension, such places, that feels as if it is considered That legacy can still be seen today in they could see themselves moving up in rarely, if at all, by ministers and officials mills, facades and parks scattered across life. There was immigration, but it wasn’t a in faraway London. It is a place where the borough, from the recently-renovated time of economic strain in the same way, a strong identity fights to flourish under old town hall, dating back to 1841, to because people had moved from the mills layer upon layer of economic bad fortune. the landscaped gardens of Werneth Park, to engineering.” Consequently, Oldham’s experience can tell built by three local merchant families As Britain’s manufacturing base began us an awful lot about the ferocious currents seeking resplendent views down towards to decline in the 1970s and especially swirling through our national politics. Manchester’s Cottonopolis. the early 1980s, however, Oldham was JRF.indd 4 05/07/2019 11:41 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2019 | PROSPECT ALL ABOUT TOWNS 5 hit again. The engineering plants withered here than any other place in the world. If just as remorselessly as the mills had, until you look now, we have no industries that cotton-spinning stopped altogether here employ large numbers of people.” in 1998. But this time the cut-backs and Perhaps not industries. But retail giants closures of the old factories came with the like JD Sports have moved in, bringing bitter twist that there was no new industry zero-hours warehousing contracts with to ride to the rescue.