Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation – Comparison Glasgow and Edinburgh – Look closely at the gerrymandered boundary of Glasgow, snipping all the rich suburbs out while keeping the poorer areas within.

9 comments

1. Very interesting [article on this subject](https://www.glasgowbell.co.uk/should-glasgow-suburbs-pay-tax/).

   Some interesting excerpts:

   >Glasgow’s population had already been affected by mid-20th-century policy decisions: the decanting of skilled workers out to the New Towns and tens of thousands of those who remained into peripheral “overspill” estates, like Pollok and Drumchapel, which quickly became synonyms for deprivation. 

   >The drawing up of the 1994 boundaries was gerrymandered to make sure Glasgow held on to all those estates, while more affluent, and prospectively Conservative areas, were hived off to form the likes of East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire. 

   >The city is impacted by other anomalies. It has several galleries and a library of national standing which, like Edinburgh’s, are free to enter but unlike Edinburgh’s (and V&A Dundee), receive no Scottish Government money. It also owns the Clyde Tunnel, the only piece of national road infrastructure which is not centrally funded. 

   >Of its 237,668 chargeable dwellings, more than half (130,750) are in band A or B, and only 7,076 (2.9%) are in band G and H. This means Glasgow has fewer G and H Band properties than East Renfrewshire, though East Renfrewshire only has 40,000 chargeable dwellings. Moreover, 29% of chargeable dwellings in Glasgow are eligible for council tax reduction compared with a Scottish average of 18%.

   [SMID Map](https://simd.scot/#/simd2020/BTTTFTT/12.281199417910864/-3.2508/55.9079/)

2. The real take-home from this is that Glasgow is extremely deprived. Even if the various suburbs were included, it’d still be shockingly poor.

3. East Dunbartonshire (also didn’t want the poor settlements of West Dunbartonshire, who Helensburgh also ditched to go to Argyll) and East Renfrewshire (also ditched Renfrewshire and Inverclyde) are the predator councils.

   Scotland’s shame

4. And what do you think would change if East Dunbartonshire were absorbed into Glasgow? By the time that ‘extra’ council tax was shared across the whole extremely deprived city what would it achieve? It’s a drop in the bucket and national taxes pay for everything important.

   The problem isn’t a handful of pockets of relative affluence it’s an economy not producing opportunities.

5. The only parts of the old Glasgow District Council not to be included in Glasgow City Council were Rutherglen and Cambuslang which were ceded to South Lanarkshire.

6. They should never have been separated from the city in the first place.

   However neither should Cambuslang, Rutherglen, Stepps etc..

   But because they’re poorer nobody really mentions that.

   East Dun/Ren seem to get a lot of shit from ‘benefiting’ from the city and not contributing.

   But I can guarantee more people from North/South Lan/Renfrewshire and Ayrshire work and socialise in the city then East Dun/Ren.

   Don’t really have much of an opinion on whether they should be brought in or not but I don’t think the amount of council tax raised would really make a big difference, especially as you’d be bringing in a larger population with huge schools to run.

   I did read the article in question, thought it was hilarious that this journalist only had an attack of conscience after all her kids had left East Ren schools, she was happy enough when she got the benefit out of them.

7. Anyone have any theories/reasoning why Edinburgh’s poorest communities follow that strip that narrows into the city centre?

   The A71 areas have a reputation but it looks weirdly deliberate looking at that map

8. And this sort of drill-down and gerrymandering is precisely why I have little truck with the idea that the economic performance of “Scotland” is up there with London and SE England.

   Let’s try subdividing “Scotland” the same as England has been, shall we? Or perhaps that will reveal truths people would rather you didn’t see, i.e. Edinburgh and its environs bossing it while everywhere else is just plodding on.

9. I don’t agree with the premise that Glasgow was gerrymandered to be poor. The current councils exist out of districts within regions and those districts were created to more easily administrate ancient counties.

   However, I do agree that local government is in dire need of reform, not least when it comes to sharing resources and facilities such as waste disposal, transport, social care, housing, and education, none of which need to be as fragmented as they are.

   The regions existed for 21 years between 1975 and 1996 (created by legislation in 1973, abolished by legislation in 1994).

   We’ve had unitary authorities for 28 years, since 1996, which is longer than we’ve had devolution.

   Lots of people remember the regions, but they were the shortest lived of all the local authority arrangements.

   They aren’t necessarily working and reform is needed.

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