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Asians still reluctant to leave 'ghetto' areas

1/12/2002

THE 'ghettoisation' of Oldham's Asian communities has got worse despite calls for more integration in the Ritchie report into the race riots.

Figures released by the town's new housing board show that 80 per cent of tenancies offered to Bangladeshi families were for houses within the Coldhurst and Werneth areas where the community already lives. This compared with only 67 per cent in an earlier period.

The same trend is recorded in the Pakistani community with 75 per cent of home offers within their 'ghetto' area compared with 69 per cent during an earlier period.

A report on the figures admits: "The obvious effect of this is an increasing concentration of Bangladeshis and Pakistanis in particular areas." Over half the Asian families offered new tenancies in fact refused them or allowed the application to lapse. The report identified fear of racial harassment as the main underlying factor in this poor take-up rate.

These statistics will make depressing reading for members of the Ritchie inquiry. In their report into the May 2001 riots they said: "The segregated nature of society in Oldham is at the heart of the town's problems, and that begins with housing."

The report called for a wide range of measures to create more racially mixed estates. At the centre of the anti-segregation police was a call for the demolition of over 9,000 slum terraces with a view to moving Asian families who occupy them onto new estates to live alongside whites.

Ritchie commented that demolition of old homes: "..offers an excellent opportunity to create some mixed communities, and our proposals to achieve this are some of the most important in this report." He called on the Government to increase housing funding to Oldham but the council claim this plea for extra cash has so far been ignored.

One chink of light is that council tenancy offers to Bangladeshi families have increased from 3.3per cent of the total to 5.4 per cent though offers to Pakistani families have decreased slightly.

The Chief Executive of the town's new housing body Hugh Broadbent said overall lettings to black and ethnic minority families had increased from four per cent to eight per cent of the total. He said there were long term measures being implemented to overcome Asian fears of moving into white areas.

"Examples of the measures we are taking include appointing tenancy support officers to provide extra help for people moving to non-traditional areas, expanding the neighbourhood rangers scheme into new areas and our race equality officers providing advice and information at weekly surgeries."

He added more housing staff had been hired who spoke Urdu and Bengali and staff were getting race and cultural awareness training.