England

Recession will fuel racial tensions, Hazel Blears admits

Cabinet minister Hazel Blears has warned the recession could fuel community tensions.

Last Updated: 6:24PM GMT 11 Jan 2009



Communities Minister Hazel Blears has warned the recession could fuel racial tensions. "You either end up as a fragmented society, or you come out of it stronger," she said. Photo: OLI SCARFF

Increasingly hard times can give rise to "myths" about immigrants' entitlements which must be challenged if they are not to take hold, she said.

"It could go either way," the Communities Secretary said.

"You either end up as a fragmented society, or you come out of it stronger."

She also voiced concern about the uphill task facing the Government in getting some people back into work.

"What worries me is that some people are no longer active participants in their own lives," she said.

"We've done a lot of the physical regeneration, estates have changed, and things have improved, but it's the people bit.

"I just worry that that sense of ambition that people had...it's not there."

Ms Blears went on that there was a danger that community resentments could grow as the economic conditions got worse.

"The evidence is that where resources are scarce, then unless you make positive attempts to bring people together, to get information out, for people to understand entitlement and who gets what, then these myths can grow up and become received wisdom," she told the Sunday Times.

"The far right use it to get divisions between people."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... dmits.html