ABSTRACT
The United Kingdom has experienced a more rapid increase in social inequality and poverty than most other EU member states, both as a result of exclusion from employment and growing differentials in income from paid employment. The growth of poverty and exclusion is now widely recognised to be damaging to both social cohesion and economic competitiveness. The geographical concentration of poverty has also increased in recent years, confirming the need for spatially targeted, multidimensional and multi-agency responses. The recent establishment of a new Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) by the Labour government elected in 1997, with a focus on well-publicised aspects of social exclusion such as school truancy and problem public housing estates, reflects both a new recognition of the discourse of social exclusion and the need for government to be seen to be addressing it.
