Levels of deprivation today are worse in a number of vital areas – from basic housing to key social activities – than at any point in the past 30 years, according to a report published today by Poverty and Social Exclusion in the United Kingdom, a major research project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). 

The key findings are:

• About one third of people in the UK suffer significant difficulties and about a quarter have an unacceptably low standard of living.
• Levels of deprivation today are worse in a number of vital areas, from basic housing to key social activities, than at any point in the past 30 years.
• The number of households unable to heat the living areas of their homes has risen from 5% in the 1980s to 11% now.
• Overall, around 13 million people aged 16 and over in Britain cannot afford adequate housing conditions, up from 9.5 million in 1999.
• In households that can’t afford an adequate diet for their children, 93% of adults in the household ‘skimp` on their own food to protect their children.

ITV’s ‘Tonight’ programme broadcasts ‘Breadline Britain’ on ITV1 at 7.30pm tonight (28 March). The programme features some of the first results from the PSE: UK 2012 study.

PSE:UK is a major collaboration between the University of Bristol, Heriot-Watt University, The Open University, Queen’s University Belfast, University of Glasgow and the University of York working with the National Centre for Social Research and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency.