The Hard Material Challenges of Extreme Poverty, Destitution and Housing to Wellbeing in the United Kingdom

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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Pubblicato in:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/osb,
Autore principale: Sowels, Nicholas
Natura: Article ou chapitre numérique
Lingua:Anglais
Pubblicazione: Observatoire de la société britannique 2025
Soggetti:
housing
inequality
poverty
neoliberalism
United Kingdom
wellbeing
low income
Margaret Thatcher
Accesso online:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
id openedition-oai:revues.org:osb_6607
record_format openedition
spelling openedition-oai:revues.org:osb_6607 https://doi.org/10.4000/13byz urn:doi:10.4000/13byz en https://journals.openedition.org/osb/6607 2025-02-17T01:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/13byz All rights reserved The Hard Material Challenges of Extreme Poverty, Destitution and Housing to Wellbeing in the United Kingdom Observatoire de la société britannique Université de Toulon info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1775-4135 info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1957-3383 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/osb Sowels, Nicholas housing inequality poverty neoliberalism United Kingdom wellbeing low income Margaret Thatcher 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.
collection OpenEdition Journal
language Anglais
format Article ou chapitre numérique
building 0/Bibliothèque numérique/
1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/
topic housing
inequality
poverty
neoliberalism
United Kingdom
wellbeing
low income
Margaret Thatcher
spellingShingle housing
inequality
poverty
neoliberalism
United Kingdom
wellbeing
low income
Margaret Thatcher
Sowels, Nicholas
The Hard Material Challenges of Extreme Poverty, Destitution and Housing to Wellbeing in the United Kingdom
description 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.
author Sowels, Nicholas
author_facet Sowels, Nicholas
author_sort Sowels, Nicholas
title The Hard Material Challenges of Extreme Poverty, Destitution and Housing to Wellbeing in the United Kingdom
title_short The Hard Material Challenges of Extreme Poverty, Destitution and Housing to Wellbeing in the United Kingdom
title_full The Hard Material Challenges of Extreme Poverty, Destitution and Housing to Wellbeing in the United Kingdom
title_fullStr The Hard Material Challenges of Extreme Poverty, Destitution and Housing to Wellbeing in the United Kingdom
title_full_unstemmed The Hard Material Challenges of Extreme Poverty, Destitution and Housing to Wellbeing in the United Kingdom
title_sort hard material challenges of extreme poverty, destitution and housing to wellbeing in the united kingdom
publisher Observatoire de la société britannique
publishDate 2025
container_title URI:https://journals.openedition.org/osb
url https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/13byz
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/osb/6607
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