ABSTRACT
The problems of poverty and deprivation experienced by people and places marginal to the capitalist development process have intensified over recent decades. In the UK, during the 1980s poverty increased faster than in any other member state of the European Community so that by the end of the decade one in four of all poor families in the Community lived in Britain.1 Since 1979 the gap between rich and poor has widened, and by the mid-1990s over 90 per cent of the nation's wealth was owned by the richest half of the population. One in three of the poorest group were unemployed, 70 per cent of the income of poor households came from social-security payments and nearly one in five were single parents.2 One in three of the child population and 75 per cent of all children in single-parent households were living in poverty.3 By 2001 the wealthiest 1 per cent of the UK population owned 23 per cent of all wealth (compared with 21 per cent in 1976), while the poorest 50 per cent of the population owned 5 per cent of the nation's wealth (compared with 8 per cent in 1976).
