Economic and social deprivation in the MEDC inner city

Overview

Economic and social deprivation and spiral of decline in the inner city.

What you need to know

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Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   Where is the inner city, and what does it typically look like?

   Model answer

   It is the zone immediately surrounding the central business district, built up mostly in the nineteenth and early twentieth century as industry and workers' housing together. It is characterised by high-density terraced housing on a grid of narrow streets with small or no gardens, mixed in with old industrial premises, warehouses and yards, high-rise flats built in later clearance schemes, a shortage of open space, vacant and derelict sites, and a mixture of land uses in close proximity.

2. 2

   What is deprivation?

   Model answer

   A state in which people lack the resources, opportunities and conditions regarded as normal in the society they live in. It is multiple rather than single: it combines low income and unemployment with poor housing, poor health, low educational attainment, limited access to services, a poor living environment and higher exposure to crime. Because these reinforce one another, deprivation is measured across several domains at once rather than by income alone.

3. 3

   Distinguish between economic and social deprivation.

   Model answer

   Economic deprivation concerns money and work: unemployment and underemployment, low pay, insecure and part-time jobs, dependence on benefits, low household income, debt and fuel poverty. Social deprivation concerns the conditions of life and the opportunities available: poor and overcrowded housing, ill health and lower life expectancy, low educational attainment, limited access to services and transport, weak social networks, higher crime and fear of crime, and social exclusion. The two are closely linked, since low income restricts housing, health and education, and poor health and education in turn restrict earnings.

4. 4

   Why did economic deprivation become concentrated in the inner city?

   Model answer

   Because the inner city was built around industries that have since closed. Deindustrialisation removed manufacturing, dock and rail employment on a large scale, and the semi-skilled and unskilled jobs that supported inner-city households disappeared within a generation. Replacement work grew in the service sector, often located in the city centre or on the suburban fringe, frequently requiring qualifications inner-city residents did not have, and often part-time or insecure. Employers left for cheaper, larger fringe sites, so jobs moved away from the very population that needed them.

5. 5

   What is the spiral of decline in the inner city?

   Model answer

   Factory closures cause unemployment and falling incomes. Those who can move out do so, so the population falls and becomes poorer and less skilled. Lower spending power causes shops and services to close and the local tax base to shrink, so environmental maintenance and services decline. Housing and buildings fall into disrepair and derelict sites appear. The area's image worsens, so new investors and employers avoid it and property values fall further. That deters improvement, deepens unemployment, and the cycle repeats, with each turn making the area harder to revive.

6. 6

   What housing problems are found in the MEDC inner city?

   Model answer

   An ageing stock of nineteenth-century terraces that is often damp, poorly insulated, expensive to heat and lacking gardens and off-street parking; overcrowding where households cannot afford more space; a high proportion of private rented and social housing, with some private landlords maintaining property poorly; high-rise flats built in clearance schemes that have proved unpopular, with lift and maintenance failures and problems of isolation and antisocial behaviour; vacant and boarded properties; and, in areas of rising demand, an affordability problem as prices outrun local incomes.

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