North West: Wigan Pier revisited

Jim Clarke
Politics Show North West

As the centenary of George Orwell's birth is celebrated, the Politics Show North West revisits Wigan Pier.

Powerful commentary on the English working class in the 1930s

Nearly 70 years ago George Orwell set off on a journey into the heart of the industrial North West.

The Road to Wigan Pier became a classic text, a powerful indictment of the condition of the English working class in the 1930s.

Orwell, the centenary of whose birth is celebrated this week, famously failed to find the famous pier, but discovered levels of poverty he never imagined existed.

This week the Politics Show looks back on Orwell's famous polemic and takes a look at present day poverty in Wigan.

It is a town that has changed a lot since Orwell's day. The mines and the mills have disappeared and Wigan Pier is now a successful tourist attraction.

But levels of deprivation are still high and the town contains some of the poorest wards in the country.

High unemployment, low paid part-time jobs, low levels of educational achievement and low aspirations remain.

Scar on the nation's soul Gordon Brown MP

The government's social exclusion strategy centres on the high levels child poverty, something that Gordon Brown described as a "scar on the nation's soul."

Ministers believe that if you can take a child out of poverty you can break the generational chain and remove families from the cycle of deprivation.

Surestart is a main plank of government policy

Surestart is based in communities and designed to close the gap between children living in poverty and children in the wider population.

Wigan Pier is now a successful tourist attraction

It also works with parents helping them to find ways out of the poverty trap. The Surestart programme in the Hindley area was one of the first in the country.

Workers there run everything from "Bookstart" mother and child reading programmes, breast feeding support groups, and home visits for young single mothers from experienced mothers in the community.

There is a danger that Surestart will be seen as a tokenistic programme Dr David Piachaud

Surestart is seen as a successful but limited programme.

"It is undeniably effective but you have to look at how many children it covers; "and its not nearly enough." said Dr David Piachaud from the London School of Economics and author of an annual report of the government's social inclusion policies.

"There's a danger that unless Surestart is expanded, and that will cost money, it could be seen as a tokenistic programme that will only have a limited impact."

Schemes such as Surestart can help in raising aspirations and expectations but without a significant change in the hard economics of poverty, raising the levels of incomes of those at the bottom of the heap, no real progress can be made.

Other government initiatives

The government has introduced tax breaks like the Working Families Tax Credit, introduced Welfare to Work programmes and the minimum wage.

All have helped make a significant dent in poverty levels but observers believe a real increase in public spending will be needed if the government is to fulfil its pledge to end child poverty within 20 years.

Wigan traditionally has had a problem attracting higher paid jobs and many are trapped below the poverty line not because they are unemployed but because they are working.

Great for the unemployment figures Neil Cooper, Church Action on Poverty

"They have promoted this low wage economy, flexible employment practices, part time working, the North West now has thousands of these low paid jobs in the service sector.

"Great for the unemployment figures but they don't do much for people, mainly woman, struggling on the lowest incomes.", said Neil Cooper from the Manchester-based Church Action on Poverty.

"We need to see an increase in the minimum wage, tighter regulation of part-time jobs and tax credits coming in to play for people working less than 16 hours a week. All these things could help."

The experts agree that the war against poverty will become tougher the longer it goes on.

"The problem is that the things that have to be done will not be popular. Look at what happened to Peter Hain when he opened his mouth about tax" said Mr Cooper.

"The fantasy that has been promoted is that you can tackle poverty without it costing anything - and that isn't true.

The government will, I think, have to ultimately look at raising income tax and raising benefit levels ... and that doesn't win votes."

The Politics Show

Stuart Flinders presents the Politics Show on Sunday and the programme will come live from Wigan Pier.

We will be discussing some of the issues with the Wigan MP Neil Turner and Patsy Calton, Lib Dem MP for Cheadle.

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Join presenter Jim Hancock every Sunday, BBC One at 12 noon for more focus on local issues.