Fight against poverty

A light is shone on life in some of Scotland's poorest and most disadvantaged neighbourhoods today with publication of the first GoWell survey on health and wellbeing in these areas. The purpose is to follow the lives of some 6000 randomly-selected adults in 14 areas of Glasgow, which has the lion's share of deprivation in Scotland, over the next decade to find out how regeneration affects their feelings and their health.

Some figures give a flavour of the task ahead. In the large-scale housing schemes on the city's boundaries and mass housing estates earmarked for major investment, only 15% of the working-age population is in employment, while only one household in five has someone who is working. About two-thirds of households depend to one degree or another on state benefits or pensions for income. Among the respondents, 84% were of working age but only one-third said they had access to a car (compared with the Scottish average of 68%). In some areas, more than one-third of residents lacked sources of financial and emotional support. Perhaps the most shocking finding concerns how respondents rate psychological wellbeing. In three of the areas, more than 30% of respondents had spoken to a doctor about anxiety, depression or a mental, emotional or nervous problem, including stress. This compares with an average across the sample of 22%. Even one adult in five exhibiting signs of mental ill health is high and a cause for concern.

Poverty and its consequences are about much more than low income. Dr Harry Burns, Scotland's chief medical officer, has spoken often, and passionately, about the link between poverty and illness, mental as well as physical. Environment is also part of the baleful equation, as the GoWell survey confirms. Fewer than half of the respondents thought that living in their neighbourhood made them feel they were doing well in life, dropping to 28% in mass housing estates with high-rise flats.

A low sense of worth about the local environment fed into other areas in a negative way. Involvement in groups, clubs and local organisations was extremely low, as was participation in volunteering. Few people felt able to influence decisions that affected their areas. Yet, if regeneration is to be effective and finally break the vicious circle of poverty that entraps consecutive generations, it can happen only by fully engaging those whose lives are to be turned around.

There is a plethora of initiatives, backed by funding, that aim to do just that, not just in Glasgow but in other urban areas with similar problems, if on a smaller scale. These initiatives will not succeed if they are imposed in a top-down way. An early lesson of the GoWell project is that a sense of disengagement can lead to a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, both of which can lead to psychological problems. It is important not to be too negative and bleak, or to be high-handed and remote in our response to the problem of poverty. Yes, it is deep-rooted and, in some areas, endemic. It is being born into different circumstances that contributes to marking people out and, all too often, being written off. If circumstances can change for the better, so can opportunities and lives. The poor need not, should not, always be with us. Poverty shackles and destroys. It holds countries as well as individuals back.

The GoWell survey shows how great are the challenges. If the project is successful, it will demonstrate the extent to which anti-poverty measures are working, identify which are failing (and should be scrapped) and highlight the successful (which should be extended). None can happen on its own. Each must involve and engage to work.