Harriet Harman to force public bodies to discriminate against Middle Britain

By Ian Drury
Last updated at 5:40 PM on 09th September 2009

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Harriet Harman will vow to press ahead with plans to make every authority legally bound to close the gap between rich and poor

Proposals which would effectively force public bodies to discriminate against Middle Britain will be a top government priority, Harriet Harman will say later today.

Labour's deputy leader will vow to press ahead with plans to make every authority legally bound to close the gap between rich and poor.

Privately-educated Miss Harman - the niece of a baroness - will say schools, hospitals, town halls, and the police would have a 'socio-economic duty' to boost services in deprived areas.

She will renew her pledge at an event on how to implement the proposals, which have been nicknamed 'socialism in one clause'.

Under the Equality Bill, which brings together nine major laws, policies that currently consider race, age, gender, disability and sexuality are to be extended to include social background.

Miss Harman, the minister for women and equality, will say: 'We have put in as clause one in the Equality Bill a duty to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

'Evidence underlines that whether it's educational attainment, income, or housing, those from the most deprived backgrounds tend to do worse.

'This is what the socio-economic duty is designed to challenge.
'So the new duty will attack one of the most fundamental and stubborn of all the determinants of inequality and ensure public bodies take the action they can to tackle it.'

Under the plan, NHS trusts will be required to focus services, such as anti-smoking clinics, at those in run-down areas where smoking rates tend to be higher.

Education authorities will be expected to draft policies which stop children from poorer backgrounds missing out on the best schools.

Police patrols would be targeted at deprived estates instead of the suburbs.

Transport bosses would be ordered to provide free shuttle buses between hospitals and deprived neighbourhoods where there are few buses and low car ownership rates.

But critics warn the better-off would see a squeeze on their access to everything from healthcare to school places.

They warn it could further entrench class differences and lead to an explosion in discrimination claims.

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