Houghton and Braunstone Park are 'best and worst places to live'

[davieG]

Merc

The pretty Leicestershire village of Houghton on the Hill has been named one of the best places to live in the country.

Figures released today place Houghton as the 10th most affluent community in England, and number one in Leicestershire.

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  Braunstone Park and Houghton on the Hill
  

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However, just 10 miles away, the area around Braunstone Park, in Leicester, was ranked among the poorest in the country.

The table of 12,706 parishes was calculated by the Church Urban Fund, a Church of England charity, to identify the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, using a combination of poverty indicators such as life expectancy, single-parent families and social housing.

People in Houghton said they were not surprised to see it had come out as one of the best places to live.

Houghton Primary School head teacher Jan Knox said: "I'm not at all surprised, it's a lovely and very welcoming village.

"There's lots of things going on and people are very friendly."

Houghton county councillor Simon Galton said: "I'm very happy about it, it is an extremely nice and attractive place to live.

"It's not all rosy – there are people who do need support and help, and I don't want to give the impression it's a chocolate box community, but it is a lovely place to live.

"And the thing about Houghton is there's a very strong sense of community spirit."

In Houghton, male life expectancy was calculated at 81, with female life expectancy at 86 – compared with 71 and 77 respectively in Braunstone Park.

The number of children living in poverty was calculated at five per cent – compared to 47 per cent in the Braunstone parish.

Braunstone Park was ranked the lowest in Leicestershire – and 12,595 out of 12,706 parishes in England.

Reverend Chris Burch, of St Peter's Vicarage on the Leicester estate, said: "The recession of the last three or four years has hit Braunstone hard.

"Since the beginning of this year, we have started arranging free food distribution for residents who are hard up.

"These people are not scroungers or beggars – they are ordinary citizens who are finding it impossible to feed their families and pay their bills at the same time.

"Interestingly, the distributions have a great community feel to them and that gives me hope that Braunstone will be able to rise above this."

Braunstone councillor Anne Glover said while there were areas of deprivation, she remains unconvinced there are many people living in "real poverty".

"This is a council estate and most of the people are on low incomes or no income at all," she said.

"There's a high rate of unemployment and teenage pregnancy.

"But I sometimes ask myself how they measure poverty. I don't see any starving kids on my estate – go to Africa, that's real poverty.

"There needs to be better education for people on how to spend their benefits – someone to tell people they maybe can't afford broadband or Sky TV and they might have to stop smoking, but they've got a roof over their head. What's more important?"

The top 10 communities, in no particular order, are Camberley Heatherside, Surrey; Alderley Edge, Cheshire; Barkham, Berkshire; Brightwell, Suffolk; Comberton, Cambridgeshire; Ingatestone, Essex; Harpenden, Herts; Houghton on the Hill; Rowledge, Surrey; Wheldrake, York.

The bottom 10 are: Toxteth (East), Liverpool; Shaw Road, Oldham; Anfield, Liverpool; Collyhurst, Manchester; Kirkholt, Rochdale; Toxteth (West), Liverpool; Heyworth Street, Everton; Queens Road, Everton; South Shore, Blackpool; Cannon Park, Middlesbrough.

What the poverty indicator says about the two areas

Houghton on the Hill

Child poverty 5 per cent

Pensioner poverty 6 per cent

Adults receiving out of work benefits 6 per cent

Male life expectancy 81

Female life expectancy 86

Working age adults with no qualifications 19 per cent

Households living in social rented housing 3 per cent

Lone parent families 10 per cent

Braunstone Park area

Child poverty 47 per cent

Pensioner poverty 34 per cent

Adults receiving out of work benefits 31 per cent

Male life expectancy 71

Female life expectancy 77

Working age adults with no qualifications 55 per cent

Households living in social rented housing 62 per cent

Lone parent families 45 per cent

[Dan]

Child poverty 47% in Braunstone, surely bollocks.

[davieG]

Child poverty 47% in Braunstone, surely bollocks.

I can't believe 47% haven't got mobile phones

[bmt]

Not entirely relevant but just looking at the criteria they use, why because I'm from a lone parent family does that make the area I live in worse?

[Trav Le Bleu]

I can't believe 47% haven't got mobile phones

Exactly - but the problem is that these people all have the latest mobile phones, 40" Smart TVs, an iPad, etc whilst their kids run around in rags and live off junk food. We're creating a society where technology makes you poor, or rather, that you're perceived to be poor if you don't have it and therefore people would rather have techological gadgetry rather than the more mundane, but far more practical things of life.

[Daggers]

Exactly - but the problem is that these people all have the latest mobile phones, 40" Smart TVs, an iPad, etc whilst their kids run around in rags and live off junk food. We're creating a society where technology makes you poor, or rather, that you're perceived to be poor if you don't have it and therefore people would rather have techological gadgetry rather than the more mundane, but far more practical things of life.

It's why there are so many cooking programs on. There's nothing we enjoy more than watching one together as a family as we eat the packaging from our 96" flat screen.

[Guest]

Whilst I disagree with some of the things the councillor said I agree with this:

"There needs to be better education for people on how to spend their benefits"

There is an argument for vouchers to be given instead of cash (yes deprivation of choice for those on benefits - I know) that cannot be used for cigarettes, alcohol and other items deemed "incorrect".

I await the retribution!

[Rincewind]

I will wait to see if I get the job I was offered before I comment. I may side with the 'Let them eat cake' lobby but then again I may not.

[stourbridgefox]

As a committed Loony Lefty I have to surprisingly agree with vouchers instead of cash for part of benefit payments.

Let's not forget that many benefits payments to families are intended to prevent children being brought up in poverty. Well...if much of the money goes on ciggies and alcohol then the children are not being lifted out of poverty, and they are being set a very poor example of how to spend money by their parents too.

Although I am by no means suggesting poor people should not be able to drink and smoke, I am saying that any payments from the state should be more specific about what the money can be spent on. I also think that people who work should be better off than people on benefits.

Before I apply online for membership of the Tory Party, I would like to make another point.

In the 1970s, we did not have generations of families seeing benefits or pregnancy as an aspiration. It came about when Thatcher's economic policies destroyed manufacturing in this country and threw people onto the dole with little hope of getting out of it.

Let's also remember that the Labour Party is a party of workers....not those on benefits.

[Bellend Sebastian]

I think we've established on previous occasions that the only way to make people drag themselves out of poverty is to make them watch The One Show on a curved television screen instead of a flat one, although I think concerns that this would be so degrading as to make people suicidal shouldn't be discounted.

My theory - based on f-all, obviously - is that the powers that be, be they labour/tory or whatever are quite relaxed about dishing out cash to the needy because unlike the upper echelons of society (in which I live) where we sit on our money in trust funds and cash ISAs doing bugger all, the more socially minded poor piss it all away on big screen televisions and Sky subscriptions, paying about four times more for them than the rest of us do because they have to buy them from Brighthouse and places like that, providing a timely boost to the consumer electronics and making money out of poor people industries

[Daggers]

Vouchers would simply create a black market so that those with them can obtain cash.

[Guest MattP]

As a committed Loony Lefty I have to surprisingly agree with vouchers instead of cash for part of benefit payments.

Let's not forget that many benefits payments to families are intended to prevent children being brought up in poverty. Well...if much of the money goes on ciggies and alcohol then the children are not being lifted out of poverty, and they are being set a very poor example of how to spend money by their parents too.

Although I am by no means suggesting poor people should not be able to drink and smoke, I am saying that any payments from the state should be more specific about what the money can be spent on. I also think that people who work should be better off than people on benefits.

Before I apply online for membership of the Tory Party, I would like to make another point.

In the 1970s, we did not have generations of families seeing benefits or pregnancy as an aspiration. It came about when Thatcher's economic policies destroyed manufacturing in this country and threw people onto the dole with little hope of getting out of it.

Let's also remember that the Labour Party is a party of workers....not those on benefits.

Was a party of workers, those days appear to be long gone now.

[Webbo]

I've done quite a lot of decorating in Houghton, hardly any in Braunstone. Coincidence?

[Rincewind]

They do their own decorating in Braunstone. Normally on the days they don't have to sign on.

[Guest MattP]

I've done quite a lot of decorating in Houghton, hardly any in Braunstone. Coincidence?

My mates a window cleaner in Braunstone, he uses a sander.

Boom boom.

[AdamN]

Expensive, rural village in low unemployment rate shocker!

[Saxondale]

The old part of Houghton is nice, the bit on the A47 is rank. There are other places I'd rather live in Leicestershire.

As for the economic figures, it really seems a case of stating the obvious - given that Braunstone is effectively a massive council estate and Houghton is a reasonably attractive village with big houses in easy commuting distance of the city.

[Free Falling Foxes]

When Satellite TV first came out, that estate was like Jodrell Bank! We certainly couldn't afford it but they managed it somehow!