For a profoundly depressing picture of life for someone who bought a cheap property in inner-city Salford, look no further than an article in today’s Guardian G2 supplement.

Writer Ed Jones bought a bargain terrace a couple of years ago in a part of the city which is currently “benefiting” from millions of pounds of Housing Market Renewal cash. It may – or may not be – Langworthy which from the description appears to fit the bill.
When Jones found a Slovakian lodger and a Polish girlfriend his problems with the local youths – and adults – took a sinister turn, with threats, break-ins, insults and attacks on his car.
Then the local hard man pays him a visit, while wearing a balaclava.

“He takes it off and makes a speech about how I ‘don’t come from round here’…He kicks me and bellows: ‘This is it, right? You’ve got two weeks to get them fucking Polish out the house or I’m gonna burn it down! Get it?’
As I stand there bleeding, he points at me and says, ‘You’re not bleeding’ and launches into a tirade about how ‘these Polish’ are ‘coming here and taking over’. Turning to go, he points back at me and says, ‘I’m serious about them Polish – get them out!'”

Jones does what many in his desperate situation would do. He contacts his MP. (*I am trying not to chuckle, for it is she who never misses a photo opportunity but – according to many of her constituents – rarely answers their complaints.*)

“It is around this time that I hear from a disillusioned police officer that Hazel Blears, MP for the area, has recently been at the top of our street with a police inspector having her photograph taken, claiming that the fight against antisocial behaviour in the area has been a success story. It all adds to the profound sense of dereliction.
“When I ask Blears to comment for this article, she says she’s very busy but will get back to me. I’ve heard nothing more from her.”

Don’t get me wrong, it is a good thing that public money is being put into urban wastelands like the one that Jones moved into – and has now moved out of. But I think the moral of his story is that it takes more than some new flats, fences and guttering to sort out an area that has been neglected for so long.
The youngsters in his story don’t appear to have been in school during the day – they stand around in the street, drinking, smoking weed and generally getting up to no good. Almost every household contains someone who lives with mental illness. Unemployment and poverty are rife.

While Hazel Blears poses for self-congratulatory photographs and boasts about the drop in anti-social behaviour, the residents who put up with the daily vandalism and abuse have all but given up reporting it to the police – partly because they are too hard-pressed to respond, and partly out of fear of the yobs.
It is of course possible that Blears, her pet police inspector and perhaps even the city council genuinely don’t appreciate the seriousness of the problem. How could they, if they aren’t the ones putting up with this kind of shit day in, day out.

It will be interesting to see how all this pans out when the BBC’s Media City opens just a mile away at Salford Quays in a couple of years’ time.
How will all the well-paid staff who the city’s trying to entice to landmark developments like Urban Splash’s upside down houses cope with the kind of thing Jones faced?
I can’t see how educated, wealthy media types are going to get a more positive reaction from the bored, bitter lost youths from marginal areas like Langworthy (using that as an example).

I am in no way writing off people from Salford as narrow-minded or mean-spirited: the vast majority of people I’ve come across in my work there have been salt-of-the earth working class people. But there, like in many other deprived areas of Greater Manchester and beyond, there is also a young underclass who have no education, no aspiration, a bad attitude and serious victim mentality.
Until this can be tackled, no amount of tinkering is going to entice outsiders to stay and a sustainable community to take root.

UPDATE 18/1/08
I just found out that Ed Jones actually moved to Broughton. My apologies to Langworthy.