Question
Does the Leader of this Council acknowledge that poverty exists within the Borough?
Minutes:
Question
Does the Leader of this Council acknowledge that poverty exists within the Borough?
Answer
The Department for Work and Pensions estimate that around 7% of Wokingham Borough children, approximately 2,400 aged 16 years and under, live in low income households compared to 15% in Great Britain, 8% in Bracknell Forest, and 7% in Windsor and Maidenhead.
We have a clear understanding of our demographic profile for the Borough and of where our more vulnerable communities reside; including those who may be most affected by poverty. Nevertheless, we realise there is always more that we can do, and moreover we want to do more to get a greater level of granular detail around the key poverty metrics to aid our understanding. The impact of Covid 19, for example, has seen that almost 18% of our workforce in Wokingham has been furloughed up to 31 May 2020, compared to 24% over the UK as a whole. Naturally, some of these workers on the furlough scheme may experience subsequent issues which we need to understand, track and monitor.
We aim to target our services to support these communities most in need; for areas such as Norreys, Finchampstead South, and some areas within Winnersh ward. Since Wokingham Borough is one of the most affluent areas in the country, there is a significant gap between residents on low income compared to those on higher incomes. Much of the work done by Wokingham Borough Council, and its partners, aims to bridge this gap, enable self-sustaining lifestyles for our vulnerable communities and offer targeted support.
Wokingham Borough Council is a member of the Berkshire Recovery Group which is focussing on four priority themes; one of which relates to individual hardship. Hence from a County perspective, there is a spotlight on this area, and moreover an agreed partnership approach to providing and supporting those communities facing hardship at this challenging time.
It is also important to recognise that the Council itself is, too, suffering unprecedented financial challenges with declining balances. Therefore, we must be judicious in our approach to poverty ensuring that we are truly focusing on and supporting those most in need. Despite this, we are taking a compassionate approach with our Council Tax collections by contacting those residents who may be having difficulty with their payments, engaging with them to understand their individual circumstances and to proactively support them going forward.
Supplementary Question
Thank you very much for your detailed answer and I appreciate that you have acknowledged that there is a problem. The difficulty with statistics obviously is that it depends on what you are actually using as the unit of measurement. As an example the End to Child Poverty Charity measure poverty in possibly a different way because they have actually got, and the last time they took statistics May 2019, 18.4% of our children in this Borough actually live in relative poverty when you take housing costs into consideration. Which is a huge number actually.
I think we have the issue that a lot of people assume that we do not have that much of an issue because we are an affluent area but that obviously makes the gap bigger as you say.
We have had a problem for a long time; it is not just a Covid thing although obviously Covid is going to make it worse and the figures of poverty have been going up and up and up and the fact that we have food banks and the food banks are increasing the number of people that they are dealing with.
The point is that it has been increasing for a long time and it is set to increase further because of Covid but it has been a problem for a long time. So what I am struggling to understand, and would like to know, is whatever we have been doing as a Council in the past has not been working because we have been increasing our levels of poverty not decreasing.
So what I would like to know is what are we going to be doing now that is different to actually tackle this issue? Not just in relation to Covid but in relation to the fact that we have had increasing poverty levels for years and years and years.
Supplementary Answer
What are we going to be doing now that is different? I do not know that what we have been doing in the past has not worked. I will get back to you on that because you are saying something which I do not know.
My understanding is that we have looked after the people that we need to look after in our Borough and it is our intention to do so. We are a very compassionate Council and trying to find the people who need the help. But as I said in my answer we can only do so if we have the resources to do so. So we, as in Councillors, are going to face some very challenging conversations in ensuring those resources continue to exist.