Saffron Estate
Statistical Information
Please click here to see a map of the Saffron Area.
The Saffron Estate is located 3 miles south of Leicester City Centre, and covers part of the new (2003) Freemen and Eyres Monsell wards. When last counted in the census of 2001, there was a population of 5653 living in 2107 households, 62% of which are rented from the local authority.
Super Output Areas (SOAs) are small geographical areas developed by the government to improve on small area statistical reporting. In the Indices of Deprivation 2004 these SOAs were used to identify where the most deprived areas in the country are located and therefore are referred to as Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs). Each LSOA has a similar population of approximately 1500 people, which makes them helpful to compare against each other. There are 187 LSOAs in Leicester and 34,378 LSOAs across England and Wales. The four LSOAs within the Saffron Neighbourhood Management area have been identified as priorities because they are amongst the 5% most deprived nationally.
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23% of Saffron families is led by a lone parent.
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33% of children have Special Educational Needs, compared to the Leicester average of 19%.
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56% of people in Saffron aged 16 - 74 have no qualifications.
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25.4% of 16 - 18 year olds are not in education, employment or training (NEET).
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21% of the population of Saffron are on benefits, as compared with 8% of the population of Leicester as a whole. Of those, 49% have been on benefits for over 5 years.
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The smoking rate across the whole area is estimated at 43% compared with 30% in the city as a whole.
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GP surgeries report a high incidence of poor mental health, coronary heart disease, cancers, diabetes and respiratory conditions in the area.
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In both Eyres Monsell and Freemen the under-18 conception rate is almost double the Leicester average.
The Saffron voluntary sector is now one of the largest local employers following local authority cuts that saw the withdrawal of funding for a variety of core services on the Estate that included the Social Work team, the Family Centre, the Adult Basic Education team, the Economic Development and Employment team and the local authority funded Benefits Advice team.
Four schools serving the Estate have been closed; the full-time heads of the four Saffron Community Education Centres were removed, as were the large trained teams of locally recruited sessional workers. The major library for south Leicester, situated on the Estate, has been closed for much of the week for some years, and the youth centre is no longer open seven days a week either.
However, voluntary youth and community workers tell a story of twenty five years of quality and innovative youth work and adult learning opportunity, of well informed and robust tenant and community action, and of careful and effective service coordination.
Far from failing to engage in community politics, Saffron residents have always been prominent in street protests and Estate meetings, particularly against cuts to community services. Saffron community associations have been strong and active; for example, in the ten-year struggle to rebuild 1000 crumbling Saffron houses, the anti poll tax action, and in fighting for local authority adult basic education.
Surveys show that the large majority of residents are very or fairly satisfied with their neighbourhood. Saffron tenants tend to stay longer than in other neighbourhoods, and there are many good examples of extended family community support, with second and third generations choosing to stay in the locality.