Oxford's great divide: richest and poorest are farther apart

According to Public Health England, 5,000 children in the city live in poverty and the difference in life expectancy between men in different areas is as large as nine years.

Places such as the Leys, Littlemore, Rose Hill and Barton were among those that experience “multiple levels of deprivation” according to a report on Oxford City Council’s leisure and wellbeing strategy for the next five years, presented to the city executive board last week.

Andrew Smith, Labour MP for Oxford East, said: “There is a real and present danger of a widening chasm opening up between the haves and have-nots in our city.”

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The report revealed there were low skills, low incomes and relatively high levels of crime compared to places such as Summertown and North Oxford, and nearly one in four under-16s were living in low income households.

There are warnings this gap between rich and poor could worsen as those struggling face changes to welfare and tax credits, as well as the rising cost of housing.

Mr Smith added: “This is wrong, unfair, and desperately damaging both to those shut out of opportunity and to the fabric of our society.

"Urgent action is needed to build more affordable and social housing, and to secure the living wage.”

 Oxford East MP Andrew Smith

Mr Smith said he was pressing for a meeting with Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and added: “The Government needs to take action to pull our community together, not split it into a tale of two cities.”

His concern was echoed by the Archdeacon of Oxford, the Rev Martin Gorick, who said people on low incomes were already being “driven to despair” by cuts in working tax credits.

The Conservative Government on Tuesday pushed through its new Welfare Reform and Work Bill, which tightens rules on who can claim tax credits and introduces a new ‘national living wage’ next year.

The archdeacon pointed to shrinking council budgets for social care and an acceleration of schemes to sell council housing, which he said was causing “huge concern” among senior church figures.

Mr Gorick added: “Cuts in working tax credits will leave poorer people worse off, despite their efforts to work hard for their families.

“These first few months of a new Government have not been an encouragement for me and have not made me more proud to be British.

“We have a long way to go. From a church perspective, four of the 10 most deprived parishes in the Diocese are in Oxford, alongside areas in Slough, Reading, Milton Keynes.”

Food banks also said they were bracing themselves for the welfare and tax credit changes.

Community Emergency Foodbank founder Jane Benyon said: “In previous years we have tended to see a surge in users when welfare changes come through.”

Schools and community associations in deprived areas also said they were seeing the divide deepening.

Sue Vermes, headteacher at Rose Hill Primary School, said: “For many families who have low incomes and have to work hard to make ends meet, the situation is made more difficult by the erosion of services.

“The school is struggling to make up for all the additional need for support that those conditions create.”

Sarah Pepys, a trustee at Cutteslowe Community Association, said many people in Cutteslowe – recognised by the city council as an area of major deprivation – remained unemployed.

She said: “Children grow up in families where their parents and grandparents don’t work and that impacts how they see their own future. We’re helping families who want to change the patterns.”

A Treasury spokeswoman[sept18] said: “At the Budget, the Chancellor announced a new settlement for Britain that moves us to a higher wage, lower tax and lower welfare economy.

“The Office for Budget Responsibility expects the National Living Wage to give a direct boost in wages for 2.7 million low-wage workers and we are helping children and families by introducing 30 hours of free childcare for working parents, worth thousands of pounds a year, to support them into work.‎”

A tax cut would also be given to millions by increasing the personal allowance to £11,000, she added.