More Luton people are 'happy' and child poverty has dropped - according to new report

Almost two-thirds of Luton residents consider themselves happy compared to just over half in 2021, while child poverty in the town has dropped from 45 per cent to just under 40 per cent, according to a borough council report.

A progress update towards Luton 2040 “our shared, town-wide vision for a healthy, fair and sustainable town where everyone can thrive and nobody has to live in poverty” was presented to LBC’s overview and scrutiny board.

“There are five priorities,” the report explained:

• supporting a strong community built on fairness, local pride and a powerful voice for all our residents;
• building an inclusive economy which delivers investment to support the growth of businesses, jobs and incomes;
• improving population wellbeing and tackling health inequalities to enable everyone to have a good quality of life and reach their full potential;
• becoming a child friendly town, where our children grow up happy, healthy and secure;
• and tackling the climate emergency and becoming a net zero town, with sustainable growth and a healthier environment.

“This vision was developed with leaders, organisations, residents and partners across Luton based on their aspirations for the 225,300 people who live here and for the town’s future.”

The report lists “successes to celebrate include 64 per cent of residents consider themselves happy compared to 53 per cent the previous year”, while child poverty in Luton has dropped from 45 per cent to 39.5 per cent.

“The town has seen a significant drop in the percentage of the working age population without qualifications from 18 per cent in 2011 to 9.8 per cent in 2021, and 89.5 per cent of pupils are attending ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ schools.

“Just 3.7 per cent of 16- to 17-year-olds in the town are reported as not in education, employment or training (NEET) or unknown, which compares very favourably to both regional (4.2 per cent) and national (5.2 per cent) averages.

“And the latest reporting period saw emissions per capita in Luton at just 65 per cent of the national average.”

The report acknowledges there are some areas which still require more work. “Luton households living in destitution totals 10.5 per cent and a further 9.1 per cent of households are struggling to pay for some basic essentials,” it said.

“The most recent survey indicates 59 per cent of respondents said they were satisfied with Luton as a place to live, compared to 73 per cent last year.

“Headline wellbeing measures, such as life expectancy, healthy life expectancy and mortality, remain significantly worse than national and regional averages.

“Only 59 per cent of the town’s population walk or cycle at least once a week, compared to the national average of 71 per cent.

“Luton has high levels of homelessness with particular challenges noted for the rate of households in temporary accommodation, which is significantly higher than national and regional figures.

“The town’s employment rate is 69.4 per cent compared with 75.5 per cent nationally,” it added.

“And 23 per cent (nearly one in four) of primary schoolchildren taking part in a public health survey didn’t have anything to eat before they started lessons on the day they were asked.”

Councillors agreed to recommend publication of the report to the executive.