The Hard Material Challenges of Extreme Poverty, Destitution and Housing to Wellbeing in the United Kingdom
This article1 explores the interaction between inequality, poverty and wellbeing in the UK, particularly in recent years – post-Covid and Brexit – noting that the decades-long decline in absolute poverty in the UK has levelled off since the global financial crisis (2007 to 2009). This is a major cha...
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| Vydáno v: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/osb, |
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| Hlavní autor: | |
| Médium: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Jazyk: | Anglais |
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Observatoire de la société britannique
2025
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| Témata: | |
| On-line přístup: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Shrnutí: | This article1 explores the interaction between inequality, poverty and wellbeing in the UK, particularly in recent years – post-Covid and Brexit – noting that the decades-long decline in absolute poverty in the UK has levelled off since the global financial crisis (2007 to 2009). This is a major change, reflecting the fact that British society today is no longer becoming better-off. Ironically, at the same time, income inequality and relative poverty levels have been fairly stable since the 1990s (following big rises during the Thatcher years of the 1980s), though the “Top 1%” of income owners have continued to pull away. The article points out that some significant policies – notably the efforts to tackle child policy by New Labour (1997 to 2010) and the widespread support for household incomes during the Covid pandemic – did temporarily alleviate some aspects of poverty. However, subsequent phases of public spending control and/or a shift to more conventional policies led to the return to pre-existing conditions: most worryingly, there has been a notable increase in “destitution” since the late 2010s. The article also examines trends in housing costs, which are uniquely taken into consideration in British income inequality and poverty statistics, pointing to some structural trends in housing that strongly undermine household wellbeing. |
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