Bringing up children in Wapping and Tower Hamlets: Provisional findings

I’ve had a reasonable number of responses and the survey is still open, but I thought I'd summarise some of the findings so far. A big thank you to all who have completed the survey.

If you have the time please complete the survey here and ask your friends to do likewise.

Where did respondents grow up?

Only one of the respondents grew up in Tower Hamlets, and another two grew up in outer London, suggesting my survey has only reached ‘incomers’ (both British and foreign).

Is having children a big factor of leaving?

Yes - definitely.

Two-thirds of respondents who have or plan to have children have either, or plan to leave the area as a direct result of having children.

Four fifths of respondents knew people who had left as a result of having children.

When would parents and prospective parents think about leaving?

Almost all respondents said they would choose to move before their child reached primary school age. From other questions, the concerns were more around secondary schools but it was seen to be less disruptive to education and friendship groups to move as early as possible.

What factors make people think about leaving?

I asked people to score a number of factors. The most important factor, which scored 4.5 out of 5 on average, was the lack of property with outdoor space followed by the size of properties, the cost of properties and education.

I also asked what they thought the motivations of people they knew who had left the area. The results were similar to what people wanted for themselves. The most important factor was again, a lack of outside space.

When asked for other comments, there was a  wide range of interesting comments.

"... the huge cost of trading up to more (tiny) bedrooms, and the obvious lack of back gardens for flat-dwellers. Parks are fine but ...”

“Have heard a very few racist and xenophobic reasons for moving to a 'whiter' or even 'fewer foreigners' areas. Suspect this may be a factor for some too polite to mention it”

  

“We brought two children up in Wapping from babies. One is now at Uni and the other a college. Great place for raising a family.”

“I love Wapping and have stayed for personal reasons - but I had planned to leave.”

“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the main reason folk leave is education, although lack of suitable property (e.g. larger property with more bedrooms and outside space) is a close runner up.”

“Wapping is a very child-unfriendly area, often listen to snotty remarks from yuppies who loudly resent sharing cafes, public (!) transport, any facilities with children, and often try to push them physically aside. I mean, we don't even take them into the best restaurants in Wapping (no parent I know does). I wouldn't recommend Wapping as a suitable area to raise family because of this.”

"East London is not a nice place for children, too many flats blocking out the light”

  

One comment, from someone who had left the area both saddened and encouraged me:

“We made the wrong decision, and always wish we had stayed.

One response made the valid point that the survey should be multilingual – I agree, it should, but unfortunately I don’t know anyone who speaks community languages. This is perhaps an indictment of how narrow my interaction is with certain parts of the community I live in.

Another response asked “Wouldn't it be nice if there were areas of London where it was the norm not to have children?  They're over populating the planet and so shouldn't be encouraged, let alone subsidised.” As a childless person, I sympathise - my interest in this is mainly intellectual but I do have some personal motivations. I want to understand why some areas are so different to others but as my friends have left the area for the home counties, I do wonder whether I will start to feel a little a little left behind.

As for parents feeling unwelcome, I think this is unacceptable. I can't stand screaming children, but I know I was one at some point.

What are perceptions on education?

The comments were quite diverse but suggested to me that it is secondary education that has been a problem. One thing that had never occurred to me was the lack of private schools. I am a supporter of Church schools (for transparency I know the head of education for the Church of England personally), but not where faith based criteria means that parents that want a secular education are discriminated against (I note that St Paul's is a C of E school with a large majority of Asian pupils).

I quote a few illustrative examples below:

• “Low performance; lack of diversity; unruly elements; crime; hate crime; abilities of other pupils.”
•  “there are good schools but lack of secondary school here was a factor”.
• “St Peter's is a decent primary school”
• “Secondary schools are a greater concern”
• “No private schools nearby”
• “Low performance, high concentration of certain ethnic groups, abilities of other pupils, economic and social deprivation”
• “No problem with schools here, apart from not enough and too difficult to get to, traffic and parking.” 
• “Only thing wrong with suburbs is too white, will miss the mix of people which is good for all children.”
• “Extremely difficult (if not impossible) to find schools with a good performance record.”
• “The only well performing schools in/around Wapping are faith schools which are extremely oversubscribed and pretty much impossible to get into unless you attend church regularly and have done so for at least 2 years prior to submitting an application.”
• “None of my friends have used local secondary schools for their children”

A few responses said they didn’t perceive there to be a problem, other than perhaps some overcrowding.

Where do people move to?

Not all of the respondents who planned to move had a specific location, but knew what sort of thing they would want. Some wanted to return to their home nation, others greener parts of the UK some just wanted ‘better schools and a property with a garden’. Essentially it comes down to the cost of living, lifestyle, schools and pollution.

Broadly speaking, people appear to move out of inner London.

Places named included Suburbs, ‘Green Inner London eg Hampstead’, Basildon, Kent, Essex, Surrey Surbiton, Claygate, Thames Ditton, Outer London, London Borders, West and North London, the Home Counties and countryside outside London. Some responses mentioned moving abroad for work and one response said areas with excellent state schools.