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 The BBC's Reeta Chakrabarti"Pockets of deprivation exist all over the country"  real 28k  |
Blair questions 'north-south divide'
Poverty can be found across the UK, according to Mr Blair |
Prime Minister Tony Blair is to visit north-west England to rebuff reports that those outside London and the Home Counties are deprived, and lag behind their prosperous counterparts.
Mr Blair, who is visiting Chester, Manchester and Liverpool, believes that prosperity gaps within regions are as pronounced as those between them.
He will use his visit to publicise a new government report which suggests the concept of a north-south divide - a clear-cut line separating poor and prosperous halves of the nation - is an over-simplification.
Blair: "Target needy individuals wherever they live" |
The tour is intended to counteract the publicity created by a report released last week by Townsend Centre for International Poverty Research at Bristol University.
It said the divide in standards of health and wealth is at its widest since records began, with Scotland worst-hit.
Mr Blair believes the Cabinet Office-compiled report will underline the importance of targeting resources on specific needs rather than by crude, geography-based formulae.
However he will acknowledge that substantial pockets of poverty exist across the country.
'Divided nation'
But shadow chancellor Francis Maude GMTV's The Sunday Programme that the government's policies were deepening divisions.
He said the national minimum wage and high petrol and diesel taxes had stripped parts of Britain furthest away from markets in the south-east and Europe of competitive advantage.
Prosperous image of the south "only partly true" |
His views were echoed by Don Foster, the Liberal Democrats' spokesman on social justice, who said: "Of course there are rich and poor areas throughout the country, but there is no doubt we have a north-south divide which is not getting better under Labour.
"The public are getting fed up with glossy, gimmicky statistics from the government which try to disprove something which is staring you in the face."
Regional variations
The report, Sharing the Nation's Prosperity, draws on data from various official sources and covers the whole of the UK.
It reveals that some of the worst unemployment blackspots in England are on the south coast, in places such as Plymouth, Dover and Southend.
While the south-east is the most prosperous region, London has some of the worst deprivation, with five of the local authorities with the highest levels of unemployment in the country.
Half of the London boroughs are among the top 50 most deprived local authorities.
And while Leeds is prospering, with gross domestic product per head rising to 109% of the EU average, just 30 miles away the south Yorkshire area has seen GDP plummet to barely 75% of the EU average.
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See also: |
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05 Dec 99 | UK Politics |
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Blair: North-South divide 'a myth' |
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02 Dec 99 | Health |
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North-south health divide 'widening' |
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29 Nov 99 | UK Politics |
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Blair orders north-south audit |
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30 Sep 99 | UK |
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Survey emphasises north-south divide |
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15 Jul 99 | The Economy |
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UK unemployment: the North-South divide |
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10 Apr 99 | UK Politics |
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Union march for 'living wage' |
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29 Mar 99 | UK Politics |
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Tackle causes of poverty - Brown |
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