"The way we live now: What people need and expect from their homes"

'A research report for the Royal Institute of British Architects'

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Poverty

As regular readers know I am always very interested to hear from people.  


But it is not just what people say that fascinates me but the lives that people have led; what  they have experienced and what has influenced them the most.  Then of course there is the link between their lifetime's experience and the views they hold and express.


Generally speaking, if we are talking with colleagues, friends, family or neighbours we may rely on our own experiences when we express our views on a wide range of subjects; I guess that my experience of life is probably quite limited - broader than some people's perhaps, but narrower than others.   Running a blog like this one, which is generally factually based, I realised that just relying on my own 'common sense' would not be adequate, so I try, hopefully with some success, to undertake  research.


A recent post on a local blog here made me want to undertake a little research on the subject of 'Poverty'.


'The Child Poverty Action Group' sets out here that:

Individuals, families and groups in the population can be said to be in poverty when they lack the resources to obtain the types of diet, participate in the activities, and have the living conditions and amenities which are customary, or are at least widely encouraged and approved, in the societies in which they belong. [source]

The CPAG web page then goes on to present some very easily digestible facts and stats


'The Joseph Rowntree Foundation' on their web page here outlines and links to a study which:


...finds that Britain is moving back towards levels of inequality in wealth and poverty last seen more than 40 years ago, and that rich and poor are living further apart.

 Amongst the key points of the above study is the statement that:

...Already-wealthy areas have tended to become disproportionately wealthier. There is evidence of increasing polarisation, where rich and poor now live further apart. In areas of some cities over half of all households are now breadline poor.  

On the '21st Century Challenges' web site (Royal Geographical Society with IBG) here and here some insight is provided into the root causes of poverty and what can be done to eradicate it.

For some reason the words, '...punished for being poor' popped into my head so I am just off to do some more research...

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http://hwldp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/inner-moray-firth-local-development_14.html