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Something quite remarkable happened in London in the first decade of the new
millennium. The number of white British people in the capital fell by 620,000 -
equivalent to the entire population of Glasgow moving out.
The consequence, as revealed by the latest census, is that white Brits are now
in a minority in London, making up just 45% of its residents.
So where have they gone to - and why did they leave?
I've been analysing and mapping the census data, and what emerges is a much
more positive story than some headlines would make you think.
The movement of the white British is often characterised as white flight - the
indigenous population forced out of their neighbourhoods by foreign migrants.
That may be part of the story, but I think the evidence suggests it is also
about working class aspiration and economic success.
Trying to track internal migrants is never easy. Just because the population of
one place has fallen and another has risen does not mean residents moved
between them. But there are some clues as to where London's white British
migrated to between the censuses of 2001 and 2011.
While the capital's white British population fell by 620,000, the white British
population in the rest of England and Wales increased by 220,000. (The overall
fall of 400,000 is explained by a low birth rate and emigration.)
These maps show the change to the white British population in local authorities
in England and Wales between 2001 and 2011. (Click between the three headings
to see how the white British population is seemingly shifting around the
country.)
Biggest decreases
Outside London
Biggest increases
Ten largest decreases in white British population. Newham 37.5%,Ealing 23.8%,
Waltham Forest 23.6%, Barking and Dagenham 30.6%, Slough 30.3%, Redbridge
29.8%, Harrow 28.5%, Brent 27.3%, Enfield 24.5%, Luton 24.4%
London's dramatic loss of white British residents is represented by a splash of
yellow and orange. Outside the capital, the dominant blues tell a story of an
increasing white British population. In some places the rise is quite marked.
Areas with biggest increase
South Derbyshire
13.7%
North Kesteven, Lincolnshire
13%
Uttlesford, Essex
11.8%
East Northamptonshire
10.9%
West Lindsey, Lincolnshire
10.7%
East Cambridgeshire
9.7%
Mid Suffolk
9.7%
South Norfolk
9.7%
Mid Devon
9.5%
Forest Heath, Suffolk
8.8%
St Edmundsbury, Suffolk
8.7%
Kettering, Northamptonshire
8.7%
The dozen authorities with the highest percentage increase in the white British
population are almost all found in eastern England. Only mid-Devon falls
outside a horseshoe of largely rural authorities extending south and east from
the Fens.
It would appear that, in the first decade of the 21st Century, the dream of
escaping to the country became a reality for tens of thousands of urban white
Britons. But did they leave willingly or were they forced to move?
To find out, I have been to Barking and Dagenham, a London borough which has
seen a phenomenal change in its cultural make-up over the past decade or so. In
2001, the census records that more than 80% of residents were white British. By
2011, it was statistically in the minority - just 49% of people in the area
described themselves as white and British.
The story of Barking and Dagenham is the story of the white working class
EastEnders. In the 1920s and 30s, tens of thousands of families were moved out
of the inner city slums and into the huge council estates which had been built
in the borough.
The 27,000 houses on the Becontree estate were described as homes for heroes,
often allocated to the families of World War I servicemen. Another wave of
Cockney sparrows built their nests in the area, having been bombed out of the
East End during the Blitz in WWII.
Becontree estate The Becontree estate in 1950
This was a real step up for many families. Their new homes had indoor toilets
and often a small garden. When Ford opened its giant plant at Dagenham in 1931,
tens of thousands of jobs provided income security in the midst of profound
economic depression.
Although Barking and Dagenham's population declined slightly in the 1960s and
70s, the last years of the 20th Century saw it rise again. Many families took
advantage of the right to buy their council house at 30% of its market value -
at least two-thirds of the Becontree estate was sold to the private sector.
In 2000, the borough was among the very few places in Greater London where you
could still buy a three-bedroom house for under 100,000. The capital's buoyant
property market meant that anyone who got on the housing ladder would see their
home become a valuable investment during the first 10 years of the new
millennium.
The decade also saw the Ford plant contract and ultimately the company
announced it was closing down. The economic engine of the borough was being
switched off, leading many of the local people to think about their future. In
the first 10 years of the new century, the number of full-time jobs in Barking
and Dagenham fell by a quarter.
For many white British households, the 2000s had left them without a job but
with a sizeable chunk of capital in their home. Some had also benefited from
redundancy pay-outs and pension deals offered by Ford. It was a cue for the
families who had left London's East End in the middle of the 20th Century to
move on again at the start of the 21st.
Water towers near Ford plant in Dagenham The Ford factory will close this year
A closer look at London reveals how many neighbourhoods in the outer boroughs
have seen significant falls in the white British population - Newham, Brent,
Haringey, Enfield, Ealing, Hounslow, Merton and Lewisham almost form a ring
around the capital. Only the affluent boroughs of Richmond and Kingston along
the river to the west prevent the completion of the orange doughnut.
Start Quote
Tea rooms and restaurants have been replaced by takeaway chicken shops and
halal supermarkets serving the new arrivals
Inner London saw some places losing the white British population, but quite a
number bucked the trend and recorded an increase. Even central boroughs that
experienced a decline in white British may have seen an increase in the number
of white residents. Kensington and Chelsea recorded 17,300 fewer white British
residents but the category "white other" now makes up 28% of the local
population. The immigrants here are rich white Europeans and Russians.
It is a different story in Barking and Dagenham.
The people moving into the borough tend to be of black African heritage. I was
introduced to Victor and Victoria, whose parents came to Britain from Ghana in
the 50s. He works for London Transport and she is a nurse in the NHS - typical
of the professional black families who've arrived from inner London to take
advantage of available housing as the borough's white residents leave.
With a time-lapse camera, it would appear that London is pulsing as generations
and ethnic groups move up and move out.
On Dagenham's main shopping street, I met a number of white locals who were
planning to leave the borough. One male pensioner was hoping to relocate to
Clacton - a seaside town on the Essex coast now nicknamed Little Dagenham. A
local councillor told me how his parents had sold up and bought a large cottage
with a quarter-acre of garden in Lincolnshire. Another woman says she had her
eyes set on a little cottage in Leigh-on-Sea near Southend.
Leigh is a particular favourite. Many residents from Barking and Dagenham will
have taken the train along the Thames Estuary towards Southend on a work
excursion - the old beano to the seaside. Some still do, looking out of the
window as the industrial landscape gives way to green fields and open wetlands
teeming with birds.
Over the past decade or so, towns along the railway line between Fenchurch St
and Shoeburyness have seen significant increases to the white British
population. In Westcliff, part of Southend, I met a family who recently cashed
in their three-bedroom house in Barking for a six-bedroom home by the sea. They
keep bumping into old school friends, realising that they were joining a
sizeable population of migrants from the borough.
Pub in Crewe with Polish sign Polish is the second most common language spoken
in England
The years between the last two censuses have witnessed significant cultural
change in London, particularly in the outer boroughs. Some white British may
have moved because their neighbourhood has been culturally transformed, the tea
rooms and restaurants replaced by takeaway chicken shops and halal supermarkets
serving the new arrivals.
But there is also a story here of white working class families that escaped
from the slums and bombed-out East End in the middle of the last century, found
new opportunities in London's outer boroughs and then, in the past decade -
often having prospered from the housing boom and the capital's economic growth
- cashed in their assets and bought themselves that little cottage in the
countryside or by the sea.
It is a story of aspiration. It is a story of success.