Austerity and welfare cuts exacerbate and reinforce entrenched inequalities in Coalfield Areas

A new report on the impact of Austerity on Coalfield Areas, has called for an end to Austerity, and for new social and economic plans that include trade unions, workers and communities.

A new report titled, Still Digging Deeper: The Impact of Austerity on Inequalities and Deprivation in the Coalfield Areas, has been published following research conducted by David Etherington, Professor of Local and Regional Economic Development, University of Staffordshire, Mia Gray, Professor of Economic Geography, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, and Lisa Buckner, Professor of Social Statistics, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Leeds.

The report argues that the large-scale pit closures, and the attack on the welfare state and trade unions by the Thatcher Government from 1984 onwards has left a 40-year legacy of extensive inequality and deprivation. Overall, public expenditure cuts since 1984 have had a disproportionate impact on coalfield and deindustrialised areas of the UK. However, since 2010, Austerity policies have resulted in welfare reforms and benefit cuts amounting to £32.6 billion over the period (2010-2021). Coalfield area local authorities have a combined funding gap in 2025/26 of £447 million.

The research focuses on a number of case study areas; Fife and South Lanarkshire (Scotland), Barnsley and Stoke on Trent (England), and Neath/Port Talbot and Merthyr Tydfil (Wales) revealing the devastating consequences of Austerity policies including poor health, lower than average life expectancy, lack of sustainable employment opportunities and insufficient incomes to make ends meet.  The authors argue that the current Labour Government's commitment to Austerity and welfare cuts is only going to exacerbate and reinforce entrenched inequalities. The report calls for economic and social policies based on a ‘just transition’: an end to Austerity, revitalised public services and an economic plan that involves trade unions, workers and communities.

Professor Lisa Buckner, from the School of Sociology and Social Policy, the University of Leeds, has said:

My motive for becoming involved in this project is due to my interest in place-based research and economic regeneration, alongside my family heritage. At least four generations of my family were miners, so I am interested in not just the economic damage caused by the pit closures and the subsequent Austerity policies, but also how these have decimated and disrupted mining communities.

Read the full report Still Digging Deeper: The Impact of Austerity on Inequalities and Deprivation in the Coalfield Areas for all information relating to the research.

Read the University of Staffordshire Press release. 

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