The need for CSR

Over the last 20 years the gap between the poorest 10% of neighbourhoods and the rest of the UK has continued to widen.

In these neighbourhoods:

• Two in five people are on state benefits
• 75% of young people fail to get five GCSEs
• 43% of housing is not up to an adequate standard
• Life expectancy is ten years shorter
• 39% unemployment is common with a large pool of long-term unemployed and disaffected youth
• Ethnic minorities are twice as likely to be unemployed

Source: 'Community Impact,' Business in the Community 2003 

This sort of multiple deprivation can create a vicious circle of decline. This not only hurts communities but can affect the competitiveness of businesses locally through difficulties in recruiting and training staff with the right skills, spiralling costs of crime and vandalism and can impact on sales through a poor environment. 

It is exactly these communities that Primary Plus, through its local LIFTCo, is directly involved in and in a unique position to make a significant and positive impact upon.