Hello
I’m Peter Cluff, Chairman of Guildford Philanthropy and this is the second instalment of my blog, a place to keep you up to date on everything we are doing and will be doing to help and transform the lives of those in need in our special borough.
I have often said that because Guildford has many affluent residents, the gap between those who can live comfortably and very comfortably compared to those who can’t is probably one the largest in the country. The disadvantaged communities in our borough are suffering not just incredible poverty but also relative poverty compared with those living relatively close by.
It gives me no pleasure to say that my fears appear to have been proven correct by An English Atlas of Inequality, a report funded by the Nuffield Foundation and carried out by the University of Sheffield. It shows that not all financially poor people live in run down, financially poor places, and that inequality in largely affluent areas has been under-reported.
This helps to explain why the fact that child poverty in some parts of Guildford is nearly 40% – and yet does not receive much coverage or acknowledgement.
Inequality exists in education, health and life expectancy; all of which are related to an inequality of income, which affects not just personal wealth but the wealth of the local economy and ultimately the whole country.
Instead of using artificial political or historic boundaries, The English Atlas of Inequality measures inequality through Travel to Work Areas (TTWA), which highlight economic connections through local labour markets. Data on tax and benefits were also included to identify the relative position of each TTWA.
The Guildford and Aldershot TTWA is ranked the fifth most unequal in the country. This means that the resources within this area are spread particularly unevenly.
The report also looked at the differences between the top and bottom 20% within each TTWA to measure income deprivation. On this, Guildford and Aldershot rank second in England.
This should shock local residents, and will hopefully encourage more people to support us in our work to Give Opportunity and Tackle Need in our local community.
Last year we launched our Corporate Ambassador programme to encourage local businesses to help us to help those in need. The response was overwhelming, with 25 local organisations stepping forward to give not only a small donation but also pro bono support, including volunteer days, networking and advocacy.
17 of these 25 companies have already renewed their association for a second year. The importance of this cannot be over emphasised, in allowing us to support charities like Foodwise, who have cooked and distributed over 32,000 meals for over 300 vulnerable families since Coronavirus (Covid-19) struck.
We have also recently approved two new grants to help local organisations help those suffering redundancy and mental stress as a result of the pandemic. Our grant to Oakleaf will allow them to recruit a new business manager, whilst the Surrey Lifelong Learning Partnership are creating a learning hub to help people back to work through mentoring, support and teaching.
Click for information on how to become a Corporate Ambassador.
Find our full list of Corporate Ambassadors here.
We are committed to raising awareness and encouraging local giving to tackle local need and we are always looking for people to join us. If you would like to get involved or just find out more, please drop me a line – I’d love to hear from you.
