Local Report: Glasgow, United Kingdom
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Work Package 6 – the local arena for combating poverty Local report: Glasgow, United Kingdom Hayley Bennett Daniel Clegg University of Edinburgh, School of Social and Political Science FP7 project ‘Combating Poverty in Europe: Re-organising Active Inclusion through Participatory and Integrated Modes of Multilevel Governance’ Grant Agreement no. 290488 Coordinating Organisation: Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg (CETRO) 1 Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................................ 3 List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... 3 List of abbreviations...................................................................................................................... 4 1. Introduction.......................................................................................................................... 5 2. Local socio-economic factors ................................................................................................. 6 2.1 Population and growth..................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Local labour market ......................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Employment, jobs and inequality .................................................................................... 15 3. The local political context and the local poverty debate......................................................... 18 3.1 Left-wing politics and socialist history ............................................................................. 18 3.2 Political control in GCC ................................................................................................... 19 3.3 Financial Situation: Austerity and reform......................................................................... 19 3.4 Politics of poverty .......................................................................................................... 24 3.5 Local political convergence ............................................................................................. 31 4. Actors involved in fighting poverty at local level .................................................................... 34 4.1 Public actors .................................................................................................................. 34 4.2 Scottish Government ..................................................................................................... 34 4.3 Health board-NHS .......................................................................................................... 37 4.4 Local Government (GCC) ................................................................................................ 38 4.5 Commercial private actors.............................................................................................. 41 4.6 Third Sector Organisations ............................................................................................. 44 4.7 Housing associations ...................................................................................................... 50 4.8 Research and policy organisations .................................................................................. 50 5. Local governance structure of MIS........................................................................................ 51 5.1 The Community Planning Partnership ............................................................................. 51 6. Local minimum income provision ......................................................................................... 56 6.1 Income maximisation ..................................................................................................... 56 6.2 Welfare reform .............................................................................................................. 59 7. Minimum income systems and active inclusion policies ......................................................... 62 7.1 Financial advice and sign-posting .................................................................................... 62 7.2 Scottish Government policies ......................................................................................... 63 7.3 Local and national relationship: Activation programmes .................................................. 64 8. Europe and the fight against poverty .................................................................................... 71 8.1 Participatory approach ................................................................................................... 71 8.2 European Funding .................................................................................................... 72 2 8.3 Innovative project: The Bridging Service .................................................................... 74 8.4 Limitations to EU funding.......................................................................................... 75 9. Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 78 References ................................................................................................................................. 80 Appendix 1 ................................................................................................................................. 86 List of Tables Table 1: GCC 2012 election result ................................................................................................. 19 Table 2: GCC monies received from pool ...................................................................................... 22 Table 3: Free school meal and clothing grant eligibility ................................................................. 39 Table 4: Glasgow City Council ESF funding .................................................................................... 73 Table 5: JBG ESF Funding............................................................................................................. 74 List of Figures Figure 1: Population estimates 2001-2011 ..................................................................................... 7 Figure 2: Economic profile of the working age population (WAP) in Glasgow.................................... 8 Figure 3: Unemployment rate........................................................................................................ 9 Figure 4: Economic activity by age-group ..................................................................................... 10 Figure 5: Economic inactivity by age group ................................................................................... 10 Figure 6: Total JSA claimants ....................................................................................................... 11 Figure 7 JSA claimants based on claim duration ............................................................................ 12 Figure 8: Income support claimants 2001-2012 ............................................................................ 13 Figure 9: Lone parent claimant rate ............................................................................................. 13 Figure 10: Percentage of WAP by benefit group- Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester ........................ 15 Figure 11: Public sector jobs 2000-2013 ....................................................................................... 16 Figure 12: Local and national activation services .......................................................................... 66 3 List of abbreviations ESA:Employment Support Allowance CHP: Community Health Care Partnership CJS: Community Jobs Scotland CPP: Community Planning Partnership DWP: Department for Work and Pensions GCC: Glasgow City Council HMRC: Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs JBG: Jobs and Business Glasgow JCP: Jobcentre Plus JSA: Jobseekers Allowance NHS: National Health Service TSO: Third Sector Organisation 4 1. Introduction This is a story of a City council (GCC) in a traditionally strongly left-wing city where - notwithstanding some tensions around how far anti-poverty goals are mainstreamed in economic policy - there is a strong anti-poverty consensus among all local political parties and the representatives of (a ve ry active) local civil society, as well as huge socio-economic problems to combat. However, given the UK’s extremely centralised minimum income protection system, this City council has extremely limited powers and ‘levers’ in the field of anti-poverty policy compared to a UK government that is currently strongly right-wing. The City council is also reliant for its funding and support on a Scottish government (SG) that is currently nationalist and - in the context of a fast approaching referendum on Scottish independence – is rather ambivalent about anti-poverty policy, given on the one hand its desire to improve living conditions in Scotland, but on the other its simultaneous aversion to facilitating the successful local implementation of the Westminster government’s anti-poverty measures. The result is that while there are a plethora of public and private, central and local, actors involved in the fight against poverty locally, the governance of local anti-poverty policy remains difficult and conflicting, despite some