This evening at CCEA Scrutiny Panel we discussed the Council's anti-poverty strategy and the Thriving Neighbourhood Programme - a really important attempt by the Council to improve the quality of life for residents in some of Reading's most deprived communities.
12 years of a Labour government and even longer of a Labour council here in Reading has failed to tackle poverty.
Need evidence?
- 15% of employed people in Reading earn less than £7 per hour
- 10,960 people (11% working age adults) are currently claiming unemployment benefit
- 18.2% of children live in these families (an issue I have been pursuing through the children's health scrutiny review)
And there's more. For anyone who thinks Reading is a wealthy place throughout...some facts we heard tonight:
- Reading has 11,871 live housing benefit claims
- There are currently 4,600 unemployed people in Reading
- 10.6% of working age adults have no qualifications
- 9.6% of young people (16-18) are NEETs and youth unemployment is a big problem
I spent a lot of time this year calling for local action to tackle these problems.
My LIb Dem colleagues and I have actively supported this programme from the word go as it has community development at it's heart: it's not just about spending money but helping the community get the skills they need to prosper and helping them access to good quality public services locally.
This programme is working well but faces big challenges: funding for the frontline community development workers who are helping deliver this programme on the ground is under threat and the recession is making problems of worklessness worse not better.
These community development workers employed by regeneration company Groundwork have done an amazing job in the areas of North Whitley that I know, including Hexham Road.
We cannot afford to lose them.
The other problem we face is a repeated failure by local health partners - notably the Primary Care Trust to invest energy and resources into improving health outcomes in the most deprived areas of Town.
As I said in the meeting - tackling the problems associated with poverty is not a council responsibility it should be the responsibility of all public bodies - including the PCT and the Police.
I thought it was important to offer more than just warm words to officers who are engaged in this work so I tabled the following recommendations which got unanimous support from all parties.
The Panel:
- Notes the positive contribution made by frontline community development workers to the delivery of the Thriving Neighbourhoods Programme;
- Notes however that as set out in the report (at paragraph 5.1) continued funding of these workers will continue to be challenging for the authority and recommends Cabinet to give due consideration to this as part of the budget planning process;
- Notes that gaps in support for the Programme have been identified in the area of health and, in this respect:
- Refers the matter to the Housing, Health and Community Care Scrutiny Panel for further investigation
in 2009 we must not accept inequality but challenge it wherever we find it in Reading. We know that unequal societies are less happy places. And we should care about the quality of life of all residents in the town.
Labour may have broken their promises on poverty and let down some of the poorest and most vulnerable people here in Reading.
But we in the Lib Dems still think fairness matters - as Nick Clegg and Vince Cablet explained - outlining Lib Dem tax policies earlier this week.
And this means supporting communities and supporting those hard-working, committed people who's job is to support them.
Comments