2.1.4 Economic Change and Social Inequalities in Deindustrialised Urban Places Flashcards
Where is the Lee Valley?
- East London
- Follows the River Lee
- Adjacent to the London Docklands
Why did the Lee Valley deindustrialise?
- Largest manufacturing centre in Europe until the 1980 dock closures
- It was no longer a good place for import and export
- Factories moved away
What is the cycle of urban decline following deindustrialisation?
- Industries and business reduce workforce and relocate
- People are unemployed so have less money to spent and move away for new jobs
- Derelict waste land and residential properties become abandoned
- Local shops and services get less income so have to close
- Some turn to crime to supplement income
- People become depressed so have lower aspirations and wage demands
- Environmental and building quality decline as less money into area
- Low investor confidence in the area
How did the employment data change in the Lee Valley?
- Decreased between 1981 and 2001
- Largest number of people (65,000) employed in 1981
- Lowest in 2001 with 23,000 employed
- Decreased by 42,000 (66%)
- 2/3 of jobs were lost
What is the Lee Valley spiral of decline?
- As soon as individuals improve their status, they tend to move away
- Only to be replaced by unemployed migrants
- The area is therefore in a constant spiral of decline with stagnant growth
- Few businesses are attracted due to poor human resource
- 70% of unemployed people had a poor attitude to work, 66% poor numeracy and 65% poor literacy in a 2008 MORI report
- Total crime is 40% higher than the London average
Where is the London Olympic site?
- East of London
- North of the River Thames
- Surrounded by Newham, Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest (some of the poorest boroughs in London)
What is urban decline?
The deterioration of the inner city often caused by a lack of investment and maintenance (often accompanied by a decline in population and decreasing economic performance and unemployment)
What is a brownfield site?
Land that has previously been built on
What is sports-led regeneration?
Using a major sporting event/stadium as a catalyst to speed up rebranding/regeneration
Why did Stratford need economic regeneration?
Social:
- Highest proportion of one parent families
- 1 in 4 houses are overcrowded
- Least amount of qualifications in London as 50% leave school with no GCSEs
- Life expectancy is 7 years shorter in Stratford than in Westminster (reduces by a year for every stop on the Jubilee line)
Economic:
- Between 1950 and 1975, 40,000 jobs moved to lower wage economies
- When Docks closed, 100,000 jobs in manufacturing went in East London
- Tower Hamlets has the highest unemployment but an average salary of >£100,000 (inequality)
- Newham/Stratford is the second poorest borough in London with an average salary of £20,000
Environmental:
- Land around Stratford is contaminated with heavy metals, toxins and oil
- Brownfield, derelict sites
- Canals and rivers used as a dumping ground
What was the organisation which led the regeneration?
The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA)
What was done to boost/regenerate Stratford?
- 500 acre Olympic Park with stadium, aquatic centre, velodrome, Olympic Village and Eurostar station
- 35% of Olympic Village became social housing
- Government reduced the size of the park to decrease numbers of people having to relocate
- Media centre built to then become Here East (1 million sq feet) which is a high tech, well connected building
- 50,000 new jobs in the park after the games
- Construction college built
- Streets of Growth provided a ‘Transition into Construction’ programme to provide training
- Green Way in Lee Valley Regional Park (parkland from Stratford to Hertfordshire) was built and cleaned of pollution from sewage and dumped waste
- Pylons buried underground to improve visual appearance
- 90% of material came from demolished buildings/derelict land
- Newts were moved before re-imaging started
- Washed soil to remove toxins and heavy metals
What were the issues caused by the regeneration surrounding the Olympics?
- 250 businesses demolished and had to relocate, which was difficult due to increasing property prices (e.g. Forman and Son salmon smokers)
- Demolished housing estate in Clays Lane, which was a low cost, social housing estate that was home to 450 residents
- Residents were provided £8,500 in compensation but housing costs in new East London were double their previous rent
- Not engaging residents and communities
What were the pros of the redevelopment of East London?
- 40,000 new homes
- 50,000 new jobs
- Projects to involve communities like Streets of Growth redoing the Devons Estate football pitch with £50,000 from Olympic fund
Where is Canning Town?
3km east of Canary Wharf (outside EZ)
What are the economic issues in Canning Town?
- Expensive housing
- Low income
- Average household income is £23,000 and average income per person is £10,000
- Only 37.6% of people are in full time work
- Council tax receipts are low so there is less money to spend on public services
What are the social issues in Canning Town?
- Poor health (9.1% limited by long term illness/disability and 20.7% by general poor health)
- Most housing is social housing so contact hypothesis is not happening
- Low educational achievement as over 43% of working-age adults have no qualifications
- 21% of people are concerned about crime
What are the environmental issues in Canning Town?
- Poor visual appearance as mostly terraced housing
- Front gardens are covered in rubbish
What is territorial/social stigmatisation?
People/employers assume that people from deprived places may have poor education, poor work ethic, poor health and connections to crime
What does deprivation mean?
Lack of access to certain key services (e.g. health, education, employment, income)
