{"id":665361,"date":"2025-12-31T20:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T20:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/665361\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T20:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T20:12:14","slug":"the-bleak-and-shameful-problem-facing-oldham-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/665361\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘bleak and shameful’ problem facing Oldham in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Deprivation levels are higher than ever in the Greater Manchester borough.Oldham Town Centre (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Oldham Council has been slammed over \u2018bleak and shameful\u2019 deprivation statistics that show conditions in the borough are worsening. A recent analysis published by the local authority shows the Greater Manchester district has moved from the 19th to the 11th most deprived among the 296 measured council areas.<\/p>\n

A local councillor has called for all members to \u2018work together and reverse this shameful slide into further deprivation\u2019 in the new year.<\/p>\n

Councillor Sykes said: \u201cThese figures are pretty bleak for Oldham<\/a> Council and its Labour<\/a> Indy coalition and this is not good news for our Borough. In the New Year we need to see a focus on jobs, training and skills because these are the areas that the data shows Oldham is declining in.<\/p>\n

\u201cResidents really do deserve better than this. It is the result of decades of under investment and under achievement in employment and education.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Oldham Council is looking for a new year\u2019s resolution, I think I\u2019ve found it. It should be to work together and reverse this shameful slide into further deprivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CounCoun Howard Sykes said the figures for Oldham are ‘pretty bleak’.(Image: Oldham Council)<\/p>\n

Government data revealed that almost 40 percent of Oldham\u2019s neighbourhoods are among the ten most deprived areas in the borough \u2013 up from 30 pc in 2019. And seven neighbourhoods are among the one pc most deprived areas nationally. These include the area along the Ashton<\/a> Road and the Eldon Street Estate, parts of Hathershaw, St. Mary\u2019s, Coldhurst, Holts, and Glodwick.<\/p>\n

Even the affluent areas of Saddleworth<\/a> have seen a decline in ranking, albeit starting from a position of low deprivation.<\/p>\n

The fall is in part due to a change in the criteria used to measure deprivation across the country. Oldham was found to score particularly low in the \u2018Income\u2019 and \u2018Employment\u2019 categories.<\/p>\n

The statistics are partly the result of the historic decline of job opportunities and stagnating wages in the town. The borough was recently named as the second hardest place to find a job in Greater Manchester, and the fifth hardest in the North West, according to research by Virtual HQ.<\/p>\n

\"OldhamOldham Council leader Arooj Shah said the council is already ‘delivering real action’. (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Council leader coun Arooj Shah said the council is \u2018delivering real action\u2019 to reverse the deprivation in Oldham, which she attributes to \u2018years of austerity and cuts\u2019.<\/p>\n

Coun Arooj Shah said: \u201cCllr Sykes\u2019 statement is nothing more than petty political grandstanding. He talks about \u2018shameful\u2019 figures as if they appeared overnight, ignoring the fact that his party helped create this mess through years of austerity and cuts that hit towns like Oldham hardest.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he points fingers, we\u2019re delivering real action: thousands supported into work through Get Oldham Working, a Jobs Fair attracting over 2,000 residents, and a bold Employment and Skills Plan to tackle barriers head-on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re also driving forward the regeneration of Oldham town centre \u2013 creating jobs, boosting local businesses, and building opportunities for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Deprivation levels are higher than ever in the Greater Manchester borough.Oldham Town Centre (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,104524,1700,3374,393,203060,4884,2465,1286,14984,285,49364,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-665361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-coldhurst","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-employment","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-glodwick","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-manchester","16":"tag-oldham","17":"tag-oldham-council","18":"tag-politics","19":"tag-saddleworth-and-lees","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115816009179288439","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}