Still Digging Deeper: The Impact of Austerity on Inequalities and Deprivation in the Coalfield Areas

The report argues that the large-scale pit closures, the attack on trade unions and the welfare state by the Thatcher Government in 1984 onwards leave a 40-year legacy of extensive inequality and deprivation. Overall, public expenditure cuts since 1984 have disproportionately impacted on coalfield and deindustrialised areas of the UK. However, since 2010, Austerity has been stepped up with welfare reforms and benefit cuts amounting to £32.6 billion over the period (2010-2021). Coalfield Local authorities have a combined funding gap in 2025/26 of £447 million.
The report 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 ‘violent’ consequences of austerity policies.
Findings for Stoke on Trent: local authority budget gap £24.6m, local NHS spending deficit £90.9m, estimated benefit loss £880 per working age adult (England average £640) Childcare places per 100 children 7years and under 20.2 (England average 25.0,) long term sickness percentage of inactivity 25.9% (England average 18.8%) Mortality 369.0 per 100,000 (England average 253.0) Indicator of Multiple Deprivation (IMD) ranking number 1 in most deprived category (the most deprived local authority).
The report argues that the current Labour Government 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.