David Blunkett: Realities of an unequal and unfair society

Contrary to the present propaganda flowing out in the General Election, the poor have not got poorer and the gap between the very poor and the rest of us on middle incomes has actually narrowed. Don't take my word for it – take that of the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies, which has said that "Labour's tax and benefit reforms have probably muted the growth in income inequality".

This is important – not only because we have seen an upsurge in aspiration and hope in areas where it was sadly lacking, but because we need to aspire for the future rather than see austerity as the inevitable outcome of the global meltdown.

The research done by the highly respected team at the University of Sheffield under Danny Dorling, Professor of Human Geography, who carried out some work with me last year, has profound implications for Britain as a whole – not merely for Sheffield. A Tale of Two Cities:

The Sheffield Project demonstrated that Sheffield is a microcosm of England; divided economically, geographically and socially, with all the concomitant disadvantages which go with lack of wealth, historical lack of access to high-quality education and, of course, to the physical environment.

The findings of the report demonstrate both the changes that have been wrought and the challenges we face. In Ecclesall, only two per cent of households are properties in council tax band A. In Shiregreen, it's 99 per cent. Unemployment rates – and therefore household income – vary widely between the better – and worse-off parts of the city.

Conversely, GCSE pass rates have been improving across the board and gaps in life expectancy across the city have narrowed.

We should be able to take some comfort from improvements already made. But we must renew our determination to provide greater opportunity and access to the means to get that foothold on the ladder of self-improvement – and to encourage outcomes which remove historic barriers to social mobility and, therefore, to progress, from one generation to another.

It is a simple fact that social mobility and such progress up that ladder stalled in the 1980s and early 1990s. Not surprisingly – with mass unemployment; with disinvestment in key areas of education (including a complete dearth of provision for early years and nursery); with housing and other conditions that oppress rather than uplift the morale, self-belief and confidence of those whose historic family situation has not been one of privilege.

Gradually, the situation has changed, as demonstrated in A Tale of Two Cities. The number of youngsters going on to higher education over the last five years in my own constituency has jumped by 15 per cent – a modest but critical improvement on what can only be described as a disaster in the past. That, as the Higher Education Funding Council has demonstrated, is at least in part due to the introduction of Education Maintenance Allowances – of which I am proud and which will hopefully be considerably reinforced by another project close to my heart, namely, Sure Start. It gives both children and their parents, at the earliest time of life, an opportunity to learn about and practise an entirely different approach to nurturing children and to aspiration.

But, of course, staying on at school and having a hope of going on to higher education depends on two factors. Firstly, the sixth form provision that makes it possible for easy access for youngsters who will not be able to travel far from the security of their own patch. Secondly, the expansion of higher education, so that we do not have the "competition" from those whose families know how to operate the system – and whose children go to schools with historic links to universities (still a factor in diminishing social mobility and in atrophying the social divide which bedevils our country).

That's why it is necessary not only to maintain public investment in order to avoid those already disadvantaged being the victims of the global meltdown (as has been the case historically when public expenditure has been slashed), but also an approach which recognises that distribution has implications for ensuring that those without, benefit most from those who have.

That's why I've taken issue – based on the facts laid out in Professor Dorling's report – with the Liberal Democrat-led council about the flat-rate funding for the Community Assemblies they have set up across the city.

Flat-rate funding for highways and traffic management is flat-rate funding for avoiding accidents to children. In the last decade, 171 youngsters were seriously injured or killed in the south-west of the city – but 738 in the north (my area).

These are the stark realities of an unequal and unfair society – and why, in this General Election, it's vital that we debate the wider issues and understand just who would be the winners and losers from changes the political parties are laying out over the coming weeks.

n You can download the full A Tale of Two Cities report at http://sasi.group. shef.ac.uk/research/sheffield

David Blunkett is the Labour candidate for Sheffield Brightside & Hillsborough and a former Home Secretary.