Scheme drawn up to tackle ‘well-off’ city’s wealth gap

The York Fairness Commission, an independent body set up by York Council and sponsored by the Archbishop of York to propose ways of tackling deprivation, exclusion and inequality in the city, has recommended 10 principles to help guide decision making both in terms of overall budget setting and in making choices on future spending priorities.

The council’s cabinet will now meet next Tuesday to discuss incorporating the principles into its forthcoming budget for 2012 to 2014, which was announced last week and has been described as the most difficult in a generation.

Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing, deputy Labour leader of York Council, said: “I’d like to thank the members of the independent Fairness Commission for their thought-provoking and often challenging views.

“The commission’s report presents a compelling summary and has provided a direct insight, through the voice of the people of York, into the real deprivation that exists in parts of the city.

“The report has heavily influenced the budget process this year and we’ll be looking at how we can adopt these principles in future recommendations.”

York Council chiefs have claimed the commission’s work is more important than ever to protect residents from the current financial storm and Government cuts which it is feared will hit the poor the hardest in a city which contains eight areas among the 20 per cent most deprived areas in the UK.

The independent Fairness Commission was set up last July, to advise the council how to tackle poverty and injustice in all their forms.

Its initial recommendations were unveiled to senior councillors and city partners at a launch event on November 28.

The commission will begin a second round of public consultation and engagement in early 2012 before producing a final report in June 2012 looking at how the city as a whole can become a fairer place and share the burden of the financial storm by protecting the most vulnerable while asking a little more of its better off residents.