Science1 publisherNot yet confirmed elsewhere2 min readPublished
York's Rowntree follow-up puts 18.2% of the city's children in poverty after housing costs
University of York researchers report 18.2% of York's children lived in relative poverty after housing costs in 2025, 125 years after Rowntree's study. Because York ranks as the UK's most affluent city by its count of well-off neighbourhoods, the report argues that poverty there is hidden and has to be sought out.
The Scientist · Science desk
What happened
- The report, "Poverty and Progress? 125 years on from Rowntree's study of life in York", was launched on 5 October at The Priory Centre in York.
- According to the report, in 2024/25 a low-income household in York ran a higher risk of dropping below the poverty line than an equivalent household in London.
- The authors found York's policy systems fragmented and often siloed, a problem they say is made worse by funding stretched after years of austerity.
- Its recommendations centre on investment in local infrastructure and services, better targeting of existing support, and collaboration across sectors and tiers.
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Why it matters
- decision Better targeting of existing support means York's agencies have to find eligible households inside areas that national rankings class as well-off.
- contradiction The release calls York 16th least affordable of 63 cities and, in the same sentence, the least affordable of all, so its affordability ranking cannot be quoted until the full report says which is meant.
- precedent The One City, One Strategy event is meant to produce a single citywide plan, so the report will be judged on whether that plan joins up the siloed services its authors describe.
The two figures count different units. The Centre for Cities gave York its "most affluent city" title because more of its neighbourhoods fall into the UK's least deprived 20% than those of any other major city [8]. That ranking counts places. The 18.2% counts children across the City of York local authority area, after housing costs [9], and comes to a little under one child in five [16]. A neighbourhood can rank as well-off and still contain poor households, so both numbers hold at once. The authors put the number of residents struggling to make ends meet in the thousands [3].
Housing costs connect the two. York's average house prices are 17th highest of 63 major cities, and its average wage is not comparably high [11]. Because the poverty measure is taken after housing costs [9], those prices feed straight into the count. Dr. Kit Colliver of the university's Cost of Living Research Group, one of the report's authors, said: "While York is widely celebrated as the most affluent city in the North, the findings demonstrate that thousands of local families are quietly struggling against soaring housing and energy costs, fragmented support services and a tourist-centric city center that leaves many low-income residents feeling isolated and priced out of civic life." [1]
The design is descriptive. The report sets York today against the era of Seebohm Rowntree's 1901 study, "Poverty: A Study of Town Life" [5]. It also reviews the policies aimed at poverty and records the experiences of residents who grew up poor in the city [7]. That combination can show who is struggling and what they report. It cannot say which of the pressures Colliver lists does the most harm, because housing costs, energy bills and fragmented services land on the same households at the same time. The release does not give a national child poverty rate to set the 18.2% against, or explain how York and London households were matched as "equivalent" [10].
In my view the York figures establish that the affluence title hides household poverty, though they do not yet show York doing worse than comparable cities. The authors argue that Rowntree, working today, would likely be as concerned with inequality as with poverty [4]. Colliver said: "The tension between affluence and deprivation is a central theme within the report, with the city's outward wealth masking deep pockets of deprivation and exacerbating the experience of inequality for those struggling to get by." [2] The report also credits the city with examples of strong leadership and innovative policy [15].
What to watch
- The citywide strategy that comes out of the One City, One Strategy process, and whether it changes how existing support is targeted.
- Whether the full report clarifies York's housing affordability rank and how the York and London households were matched.
- The next after-housing-costs child poverty figure for the City of York local authority, set against the 18.2% recorded for 2025.