ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a set of data, drawn largely from official sources, about three contrasted urban environments in contemporary England. They have been selected to illustrate the extreme differences that exist between the ‘best’ and the ‘worst’ local authority areas in terms of a number of quantifiable variables. It makes some comparisons between the three areas by using information collected and published by various ministries and public statistical services, including the 1991 Census and publications of the Chartered Institute of Public Finance Accountants (CIPFA). Local authority rents, because of the ‘pooled historic cost’ principle of public housing finance which still to some extent applies in public rent-setting, are much lower than private-sector rents. It is very difficult to make meaningful comparisons between the standard of educational provision in different areas. The chapter presents a range of evidence to describe disparities in living standards between two of the poorest and one of the richest local authority areas in Britain.
